From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:14:44 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-01 Oct 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 01 Octoberber 2001
.
*FIDEL CASTRO BIDS FAREWELL TO CUBAN MEDICAL TEAM BOUND FOR MALI
*CUBA TO COMMEMORATE 1976 TERRORIST DOWNING OF JET ON SATURDAY
*HAVANA'S THEATRE FESTIVAL ENDS AFTER HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL WEEK
*WASHINGTON WARNS OF NEW ATTACKS, SPARKS PANIC PURCHASE OF SURVIVAL GEAR
*REBEL-GOVERNMENT PEACE PROCESS IN COLOMBIA AGAIN HANGING BY A THREAD
*ARAB LEADERS: NO SOLUTION TO TERRORISM WHILE US SUPPORTS ISRAEL TOTALLY
*BUSH ADMINISTRATION TERRORISM MEASURES FLOUNDER IN CONGRESS
Viewpoint:
*CENTRAL AMERICAN HUNGER CONTINUES AS US CONTINUES WAR PREPARATIONS
.
*FIDEL CASTRO BIDS FAREWELL TO CUBAN MEDICAL TEAM BOUND FOR MALI
Havana, October 1 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro was on hand at
Havana's airport to bid farewell to 101 Cuban health professionals
who returned Sunday to the African nation of Mali after they had
spent their vacation back at home with their families.
The doctors, nurses and technicians are part of the Cuban medical
brigade offering its services to Mali as part of Havana's ongoing
help to Third World nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the
Caribbean. Most of the work is performed in isolated rural
communities where no doctors exist or where local medical personnel
are so thin on the ground that they are overwhelmed and unable to
cater to the population.
The Mali brigade comprises 87 doctors, 11 nurses and health
technicians, 2 dentists and one engineer. To date they have served
117,571 people including 31,847 children and performed 2,822 surgical
operations.
*CUBA TO COMMEMORATE 1976 TERRORIST DOWNING OF JET ON SATURDAY
Havana, October 1 (RHC)--This coming Saturday the 6th October will
be the 25th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the Cuban airliner
on take off from the island of Barbados. All 73 lives on board were
lost - among them the entire Cuban youth fencing team, returning from
a tournament abroad - when a bomb exploded on board.
Radio Havana Cuba will later in the week be presenting a program in
memory of those who died on the 6th October 1976 at a time that is
especially poignant in view of the terrorist attack on the United
States on the 11th September.
The man who admitted to planning and carrying out the bombing,
Cuban-American Orlando Bosch, is considered a hero among the
right-wing members of the Miami community. Former Attorney General
Dick Thornburgh described Bosch as an "unreformed terrorist."
Nonetheless, against the recommendations of the district director of
the INS and the Department of Justice, he was freed by Governor Jeb
Bush of Florida after a total of 30 countries had refused to grant
his applications of asylum due his long record of terrorist acts.
Orlando Bosch now walks the streets of Miami a free man. The Cuban
government has frequently protested that Washington houses terrorists
such as Bosch, while the US government maintains Cuba on its list of
terrorist nations for granting political asylum to a number of
African American and Puerto Rican activists from the 1970s and 80s.
A commemoration event will be held on Saturday at the Plaza de la
Revolucion in Havana. It is expected to be attended by many
thousands, including the family and friends of those who died.
*HAVANA'S THEATRE FESTIVAL ENDS AFTER HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL WEEK
Havana, October 1 (RHC)--The 10th Havana Theatre Festival ended a
week of theatre-going for residents of Havana, more than 40,000 of
whom attended performances in 14 different theatres and stages across
the city.
A total of 42 Cuban and 16 foreign stage companies presented 28
different pieces that ranged from Chekov to experimental fringe
theatre.
One of the final performances was "Antagon" by a German company
called Equinox Terminal. It was a spectacular outdoors show which
received great applause and critiques for its staging and costumes.
Another company that received great acclaim was the Cuban Hubert de
Blank with its "Neruda's Postman" and "The Dance."
Children's theatre was also an important aspect of this particular
festival and received widespread coverage and participation..
*WASHINGTON WARNS OF NEW ATTACKS, SPARKS PANIC PURCHASE OF SURVIVAL GEAR
Washington, October 1 (RHC)--The sale in the United States of water
purifiers, survival manuals and gas masks has been steadily on the
rise, amid warnings from Washington that more terrorist attacks could
well occur. Speaking Sunday on the CBS TV program "Face The Nation,"
Attorney General John Ashcroft asserted that authorities believe
there are other persons in the country with terrorist plans and that
organizations with ties to Saudi millionaire Osama Bin Laden are
active in dozens of nations around the world.
White House spokesman Andrew Card asserted Sunday that terrorist
organizations have probably found ways to use biological and chemical
weapons. The magazine "Newsweek" reported over the weekend that
terrorists unsuccessfully tried to obtain the poisonous biological
agent Antrax in the Czech Republic, according to an anonymous source
from the FBI.
The CNN TV network is reportedly interrupting its news program to
provide information on the use of gas masks, while local radio
stations across the US are doing the same. Following Sunday's
announcements in Washington, drug stores throughout the country began
to run out of antibiotics in what is being called astronomic sales of
these products.
*REBEL-GOVERNMENT PEACE PROCESS IN COLOMBIA AGAIN HANGING BY A THREAD
Bogot�, October 1 (RHC)--The rebel-government peace process in
Colombia is once again hanging by a thread following the death of a
former government minister recently kidnapped by leftist guerrillas.
While President Andres Pastrana announced that he will re-evaluate
every aspect of the peace process, High Commissioner for Peace Camilo
Gomez affirmed that the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces has
endangered the process.
Other political leaders and presidential candidates are calling on
the government to suspend peace talks that began nearly 3 years ago
and that have brought few results. The rebels have blamed the
Colombian army for the shooting death of former Culture Minister
Consuelo Araujonoguera, calling the military's attempt to free her
irresponsible and senseless.
Next week, Pastrana is to decide whether he will extend for another 6
months the vast demilitarized zone in southern Colombia established
in November, 1998 to facilitate rebel-government peace talks. The
Colombian army has placed on maximum alert all its units operating
near the demilitarized zone.
*ARAB LEADERS: NO SOLUTION TO TERRORISM WHILE US SUPPORTS ISRAEL TOTALLY
Riyadh, Amman, Cairo, October 1 (RHC)--Saudi Arabia has asserted
that there will be no solution to terrorism as long as Washington
maintains its unconditional support of Israel. Saudi Interior
Minister Nayef Ben Abdel Aziz stated Sunday that US interests will
continue to be threatened by terrorist attacks as long as Washington
does not seriously and equitably seek a solution to the Palestinian
question.
A similar position was voiced over the weekend in Syria, where the
ruling party news paper "Al Baas" wrote that Washington's
anti-terrorism measures will only have a passing effect if the causes
of terrorism are not attacked. Upon receiving Sunday visiting
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Jordanian King Abdala II
highlighted the urgency of a solution to the conflict in
Israeli-occupied territories.
In El Cairo, visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi insisted
that Washington cannot lead an international campaign against
terrorism while supporting what he called Israeli terrorism.
*BUSH ADMINISTRATION TERRORISM MEASURES FLOUNDER IN CONGRESS
Washington, October 1 (RHC)--Observers on capital hill are
predicting that Washington's controversial anti-terrorism measures
will not be approved, as has occurred with other similar initiatives.
On Sunday, Patrick Leahy, Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, refrained from offering any timetable for approval of the
package, while at the same time reiterating concern over the
restriction of civil liberties implied in many of the measures.
Differences between the Senate and House aborted anti-terrorism
measures presented to Congress after the 1995 terrorist bomb in
Oklahoma City and the bomb attack during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic
Games. In a CBS interview, Leahy said the US government does not want
to be like other countries that Washington constantly criticizes,
that he doesn't believe that US citizens should be detained without
even having to tell them why.
Attorney General John Ashcroft continued insisting over the weekend
on rapid approval of the measures. The calendars of the Senate and
House Judiciary Committees indicate that at the earliest the two
chambers of Congress will begin debates on the measures in
mid-October.
Viewpoint:
*CENTRAL AMERICAN HUNGER CONTINUES AS US CONTINUES WAR PREPARATIONS
They know little about international terrorism and even less about
international affairs. In fact it is possible that many are unaware
of the events that shook the world on Tuesday, September 11 in
Washington and New York, since many are illiterate and nearly all
lack electricity in their homes and therefore access to news. Their
struggle is simple. It is one of survival.
Some million and a half Central Americans, most of them in Honduras
with the rest in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, have for
months been surviving on plants, roots and some fruits because their
harvests have been destroyed by this year's drought and they have no
way of pulling up stakes and moving on to another region.
The United Nations World Food Program has offered help to a little
more than 300,000 people, less than a fifth of those affected. Now
they have announced that their food reserves are insufficient and
will soon run out even as the numbers in urgent need of food ,
especially children, grows by the minute.
As the masters of war keep the world's attention riveted on an
imminent invasion of Afghanistan; while confusion and fear reign
right here on our doorstop, tens of thousands of people's lives are
danger from a different threat: that of starvation.
And the tragedy will touch more than those who die: those who manage
to survive will be marked for life. According to physician Hector
Cespedes one of the 15 Cuban doctors currently working in the town
Jocotan in eastern Guatemala, hunger in the area has become so
endemic that the harm done to the children is already irreversible -
with stunted growth and limited intellectual ability having become
the norm.
In Honduras, where there are 800,000 people on the verge of
starvation, half will not survive until the next harvest without
urgent assistance. The World Food Program and the International Red
Cross have issued emergency calls to the developed nations to make
extra donations if they are to save lives.
Keeping this situation in mind, the words of Cuban President Fidel
Castro take on even more importance, when last Saturday he affirmed
that none of the world's most critical problems can be solved by
force.
To maintain peace with dignity, independence and without war, is the
cornerstone, noted President Castro, of the struggle for a truly just
world of free peoples.
Maintaining peace also means eliminating hunger, giving children an
opportunity to have a future, giving humanity a feeling of decency
and solidarity which is so needed now. It is only in this way that we
can avoid tragedies like that which is happening at this moment in
Central America.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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