Cuban doctors sent to work in Bahrain

A contingent of Cuban health professionals has arrived in Bahrain to begin work in the tiny Gulf kingdom under a deal forged last year, the government said Monday.

"The first group of medical professionals has arrived... in Manama, the capital of the kingdom of Bahrain," Cuba's Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its website.

"The agreement forms the basis for cooperation in the areas of medical services and biotechnology, as well as medical research and other areas of mutual interest," the ministry said.

A photo accompanying the statement showed about 15 people in this first group of medical experts, who have been assigned to work at a hospital in Muharraq, Bahrain's third largest city.

Cuba earns about 11 billion dollars each year by exporting the services of its medical professionals, the communist island's top revenue producer.

Some 50,000 health workers have been hired out to roughly 70 countries.