In brief: U.S. likely to open new embassy in Cuba soon

HAVANA – The opening of a U.S. embassy in Cuba for the first in 54 years is “imminent,” a U.S. senator said Saturday as he and two other Republicans finished a short visit to Cuba said.

Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona was in Havana with fellow senators Susan Collins of Maine and Pat Roberts of Kansas on a fact-finding mission and to gauge progress on talks to restore normal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

After meeting with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and North American Affairs Director Josefina Vidal, Flake predicted the opening of both a Cuban embassy in Washington and a U.S. embassy in Havana will occur in the very near future.

“Nothing has been set, but it’s imminent,” he said.

Flake and his delegation also met with Cuban First Vice President Miguel Diaz Canel, who is widely seen as President Raul Castro’s successor when the Cuban president retires in 2018.

Work wrapping on Suez Canal upgrade

ISMAILIA, Egypt – Work on a parallel waterway to allow two-way traffic on Egypt’s Suez Canal will be finished in time to allow ships to transit for a gala inauguration ceremony at the key trade route on Aug. 6, officials said Saturday.

Work has been 85 percent completed, with 43 dredging machines working round the clock to finish their excavation by July 15, canal authority chief Mohab Mameesh said. Electronic navigation systems have been installed and pilots are training on simulators equipped with maps of the new canal.

“People haven’t slept … it’s like a battle,” he told reporters in the canal city of Ismailia, 75 miles east of Cairo. “It is boosting our self-confidence and we are hoping this project will return Egypt to the path for investment.”

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has ordered the new waterway to be dug in a single year, saying that the urgency of Egypt’s economic situation meant the project could not wait for an originally planned three-year timetable.

The government aims to more than double annual canal revenues to some $13 billion in less than a decade, although that ambitious goal depends largely on rapid growth in world trade. The canal drew in $5.5 billion in revenues last year, its most lucrative since it was first opened in 1869.