In brief: Guayabera named official garment

Havana – When Fidel Castro suddenly decided to shed his trademark olive green military fatigues and don street clothes in public for the first time in 35 years, a white guayabera shirt over blue slacks is what he put on.

A resolution from the Foreign Relations Ministry published into law Wednesday makes the guayabera Cuba’s official formal dress garment and mandates that government officials wear them at state functions. That’s welcome news in a country known for its steamy summer weather.

According to the law, male officials are to wear white, long-sleeved guayaberas at state events; women can vary color and style.

The guayabera also is a fashion fixture in Mexico, parts of Florida and even as far away as the Philippines. It is said to have originated in this country, though no one is sure exactly where or when.

Peace talks future remains uncertain

Ramallah, West Bank – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been sounding out key Cabinet members on extending a freeze on new construction in West Bank settlements in hopes of keeping peace talks with the Palestinians alive, but he is encountering stiff resistance, Israeli officials said Wednesday.

In Ramallah, key members of the Palestinian leadership – in an increasingly tense waiting mode – expressed optimism that an extension nonetheless was imminent.

The future of President Barack Obama’s ambitious Mideast peace effort remained uncertain Wednesday as the U.S. pressed ahead with efforts to broker a compromise over the settlement issue.

The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks if Israel refuses to reinstate it – and another deadline of sorts has emerged with Friday’s planned summit of the 22-nation Arab League, where the Palestinians expect support for whatever they decide.

London – The New Statesman says it’s publishing a previously unseen poem by Ted Hughes that details the night his estranged wife, Sylvia Plath, killed herself.

Hughes, a Briton, and Plath, an American, are considered among the 20th century’s greatest poets. Their stormy relationship has been the focus of decades of critical attention.

Plath earned a cult following through the novel “The Bell Jar,” whose descriptions of a suicidal young woman foreshadowed her own death, which followed only a month after its publication in 1963.

Plath’s death shadowed Hughes for the rest of his life and he made only fleeting references to it in his own published work. The poem was read out on Britain’s Channel 4 Wednesday.