From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 05:17:12 -0400
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Subject: Radio Havana Cuba-21 October 2001
Radio Havana Cuba-21 October 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 21 October 2001
.
*PRESIDENT CASTRO MEETS WITH VISITING PRIME MINISTER OF DOMINICA
*SINGER/SONGWRITER SARA GONZALEZ AWARDED FELIX VARELA ORDER
*MOZAMBICAN DEFENSE MINISTER BEGINS OFFICIAL VISIT TO CUBA
*THOUSANDS OF NEW JOBS CREATED FOR WOMEN ACROSS THE ISLAND
*SCHOOL THAT SERVED AS CHE'S OUTPOST IN SIERRA MAESTRA REOPENED
*SYDNEY MORNING HERALD COVERS BLACKOUT OF COVERAGE ON FLORIDA VOTE COUNT
*LA TIMES Op-Ed HIGHLIGHTS AL JAZEERA NETWORK'S COVERAGE ON AFGHANISTAN
*ANOTHER 13,000 AFGHAN REFUGEES CROSS BORDER INTO PAKISTAN
*STRUGGLE AGAINST ISRAELI OCCUPATION IS LEGITIMATE - PFLP
*IN SHANGHAI, BUSH AND PUTIN CONTINUE VOCAL DISAGREEMENT OVER STAR WARS
*BIOTERRORISM: HEALTH EXPERTS SAY ANTIBIOTICS MORE RISKY THAN HELPFUL
RESPONSE
*US WARPLANES ACCIDENTALLY BOMBARD POSITION OF NORTHERN ALLIANCE
.
*PRESIDENT CASTRO MEETS WITH VISITING PRIME MINISTER OF DOMINICA
Havana, October 22 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro met with the
Prime Minister of Dominica Pierre Charles for official talks Monday
morning in Havana. The visiting Caribbean leader arrived late
Saturday night in the Cuban capital, along with a high-level
delegation that includes the minister of health and deputy minister
of foreign relations.
Speaking to journalists upon his arrival, the prime minister of
Dominica said he and his accompanying delegation plan to analyze
areas of bilateral cooperation -- including health, education,
sports, and agriculture.
Cuba and the Commonwealth of Dominica established diplomatic
relations in May 1996.
Prime Minister Pierre Charles will visit Cuba until Wednesday, the
24th.
*SINGER/SONGWRITER SARA GONZALEZ AWARDED FELIX VARELA ORDER
Havana, October 22 (RHC)-- Well-known singer and songwriter Sara
Gonzalez was awarded the Felix Varela Order Saturday evening during a
special performance to commemorate National Culture Day. Cuban
President Fidel Castro pinned the medallion on a surprised singer who
had just finished a concert at the National Museum of Fine Arts.
In a statement read by the First Deputy Minister of Culture, Rafael
Bernal, Sara Gonzalez was praised for her extraordinary merits as a
founder of the Cuban New Song Movement in the 1960's. It was noted
that she was one of the principal members of this cultural movement,
which also included Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes.
Following the ceremony, the Cuban president viewed a music video
along with Sara and other musicians and special guests. Entitled "Por
que Cantamos," ("Why We Sing"), the video images show artwork and
murals, combined with music by the popular singer/songwriter.
Speaking with reporters covering the event, Sara Gonzalez said that
while she believes her music has progressed and matured over the
years, she still feels the same enthusiasm toward the Cuban
Revolution and its principles.
*MOZAMBICAN DEFENSE MINISTER BEGINS OFFICIAL VISIT TO CUBA
Havana, October 22 (RHC)-- Mozambique's Defense Minister, Tobaia
Dhai, is in Cuba on an official visit. Arriving in Havana over the
weekend, the Mozambican official was welcomed at Jose Marti
International Airport by the Deputy Minister of Cuba's Revolutionary
Armed Forces, Army General Alvaro Lopez Miera, and other high-ranking
military officers.
During his stay on the island -- which runs through Wednesday -- the
Mozambican defense minister and his accompanying military delegation
will visit places of economic and historic interest.
*THOUSANDS OF NEW JOBS CREATED FOR WOMEN ACROSS THE ISLAND
Havana, October 22 (RHC)-- More than 110,000 new jobs have been
created so far this year, many of the jobs going to women. According
to Nestor Iglesias, Director of Labor Resources of the Ministry of
Labor and Social Security, women make up 43 percent of the island's
workforce.
Speaking at the National Meeting of Women Workers -- sponsored by the
Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC) -- Iglesias said that 66 percent
of Cuban technicians are women. He noted that 33 percent of
administrators and directors are women, the majority of them in
biotechnology, health and education.
Another speaker at the meeting, Mordi Victoria James from the Center
for the Study of World Economics, raised the question of what would
happen to women workers under the so-called Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA). She emphasized that the U.S.-proposed economic trade
zone constitutes a danger for all workers, particularly women. The
Cuban economist said that the FTAA would turn the entire region into
a huge maquiladora, with poor wages and the lack of labor rights.
*SCHOOL THAT SERVED AS CHE'S OUTPOST IN SIERRA MAESTRA REOPENED
Buey Arriba, October 22 (RHC)-- A grade school that served as an
outpost for Ernesto Che Guevara in the Sierra Maestra Mountains
during the war against the Batista dictatorship has been refurbished
and reopened.
The Angel Guevara Silva Grade School was a center of cultural study
for guerrilla forces under Che's command during the latter part of
the rebel offensive. Located in a remote mountain region, the school
had been in disrepair for a number of years.
Due to the area's historical interest, other nearby facilities have
been turned into a cultural center and museum.
*SYDNEY MORNING HERALD COVERS BLACKOUT OF COVERAGE ON FLORIDA VOTE COUNT
Washington, October 22 (RHC) -- The Australian news daily "Sydney
Morning Herald" has reported that the most detailed analysis yet of
the contested Florida votes from last year's presidential election is
being withheld by the US news organizations that commissioned it.
Sydney Morning Herald Washington correspondent Charles Laurence filed
a report Monday affirming that the results of the inspection of more
than 170,000 votes rejected as unreadable in last November's vote
count were ready at the end of August.
The study was commissioned early this year by a consortium including
"The Wall Street Journal", the "Washington Post", "The New York
Times" and CNN at a cost of more than 2 million dollars. But
according to the article, spokespersons for the consortium say that
they decided to postpone the story of the analysis by the National
Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago for lack of
resources and lack of interest in the face of the September 11
attacks.
It's rumored that the analysis places former Vice President Al Gore
as the indisputable winner, with a victory margin big enough to
create major trouble for the George W. Bush presidency. An October
1st article in the Canadian news daily "Toronto Globe and Mail"
asserted that a comprehensive audit on who won the presidential
election would have been the biggest story in the land just weeks
ago.
The article quoted media ethics specialist at the University of
Minnesota, Jane Kirtley, who said she found it truly extraordinary
that the media consortium made this decision and that she is chilled
by what's going on.
*LA TIMES Op-Ed HIGHLIGHTS AL JAZEERA NETWORK'S COVERAGE ON AFGHANISTAN
Los Angeles, October 22 (RHC) -- An op-ed piece in the Monday
edition of the "Los Angeles Times" has highlighted the Saudi Arabian
TV network Al Jazeera's war coverage, while condemning the wrath it
has sparked in Arab governments, in Washington and among US
mainstream media outlets. Entitled "The CNN of the Arab World
Deserves Our Respect", the article affirmed that the US may control
Afghan air space, but in this war the airwaves belong to Al Jazeera.
Noting that because of its reporting and free-wheeling call-in talk
shows Al Jazeera has evoked the wrath of almost every Arab
government, the article asserted that US officials have now joined
what it called the "love-hate club," actively trying to alter the
network's content and condemning its coverage while demanding to be
interviewed on its programs.
The authors of the op-ed, Al Jazeera communications director Hussein
Ibish and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee member Ali
Abunimah, asserted that even more intense has been the shameless Al
Jazeera-bashing in the Western press, which is, at the same time,
heavily relying on news and footage gathered by the network from the
war zone. US officials, write the authors, are upset that Al Jazeera
has shed daily and gruesome light on the civilian death toll wrought
by the current bombing, which the Western press has studiously
downplayed.
Western television, affirms the op-ed, has been mostly forced to make
do with videophone reports from journalists in the Northern
Alliance's desolate no-man's land, describing the night sky and
reading the latest Pentagon press release.
*ANOTHER 13,000 AFGHAN REFUGEES CROSS BORDER INTO PAKISTAN
Islamabad, October 22 (RHC) -- As many as 13,000 Afghan refugees
crossed the border into Pakistan over the weekend, according to
United Nations agencies. On Sunday, between 10 and 15,000 arrived at
one border crossing, of which between 5 and 6,000 were able to enter
Pakistan by traveling through the mountains to avoid border police.
Close to a thousand crossed the border on Monday after another
confrontation with Pakistani border police at two crossings. Police
were reportedly overwhelmed by the rock-throwing refugees and had to
let them pass. It's estimated that some 40 thousand Afghans have
entered the neighboring country since last September 11, and 180
thousand internally displaced Afghans joined over a million that were
already in that situation.
*STRUGGLE AGAINST ISRAELI OCCUPATION IS LEGITIMATE - PFLP
Damascus, October 22 (RHC) -- The Palestine Popular Liberation
Front, which claimed responsibility for the assassination of ultra
right-wing Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, has asserted that
its struggle to put an end to Israeli occupation is legitimate.
Reacting to the Palestine National Authority's decision to outlaw the
organization's armed wing, the PPLF said that the right to resistance
and self-defense in the face of Israeli terrorism is recognized by
the United Nations.
Speaking in the Syrian capital, Damascus, PPLF spokesman Maher Taher
condemned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policy of selectively
assassinating Palestinian activists. In reference to Sharon's demand
that the tourism minister's suspected assassins be turned over to
Israeli authorities, the organization said the Palestine National
Authority should demand that Israel turn over the assassins of its
leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, and another approximately 70 Palestinian
activists selectively assassinated over the past several months.
Since the tourism minister's assassination last week, Israeli troops
have surrounded a number of cities in the West Bank, launching
military strikes that have claimed the lives of 25 Palestinians.
*IN SHANGHAI, BUSH AND PUTIN CONTINUE VOCAL DISAGREEMENT OVER STAR WARS
Shanghai, October 22 (RHC) -- Though US President George W. Bush
Sunday won a strong condemnation of the September 11 attack from
Pacific Rim leaders meeting in Shanghai, China, he and Russian
President Vladimir Putin continued their vocal disagreement over the
1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. Bush called the treaty
"dangerous," while Putin said it is "an important element of
stability" in the post-Cold War era.
The two leaders reportedly failed to achieve any breakthrough
regarding the ABM treaty, with Putin stating that it would be very
difficult for him to agree that some terrorists will be able to
capture and use intercontinental missiles. And though both presidents
spoke of the growing goodwill and trust between them, media outlets
are reporting that Russia is suspicious of Washington's strategic
intentions in Central Asia.
Moscow reportedly summoned an Afghan anti-Taliban commander to a
meeting in neighboring Tajikistan over the weekend seeking
reassurement that the defeat of the Taliban will not be dangerous for
Russia and that the United States will not control Afghanistan.
Anti-Taliban General Mohammed Fahim met with Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov and the head of Russia's Federal Security Service,
Nikolai Patrushev.
The US and Russia already disagree on what form any post-Taliban
government should take, with Washington wanting moderate Taliban
leaders to be included while Moscow - along with Iran and other
longtime allies of the Northern Alliance such as Tajikistan and India
- has rejected any role for the Taliban.
*BIOTERRORISM: HEALTH EXPERTS SAY ANTIBIOTICS MORE RISKY THAN HELPFUL
RESPONSE
New York, October 22 (RHC) -- Health experts in the United States
are warning that the current response to bioterrorism could be more
risky than beneficial. Since the first case of anthrax was announced
last month in Florida, doctors have been prescribing Cipro, the most
powerful antibiotic, as a preventive measure, while many others have
acquired and stored up the medication on their own.
But according to Lucy Shapiro, microbiologist at Stanford
University's Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of Molecular and Genetic
Medicine, a massive consumption of antibiotics in general, and of
powerful antibiotics in particular, could lead to a resistance to the
medication of the simplest bacteria - preventing cures for numerous
illnesses that today are under control.
Doctor Shapiro told "The New York Times" that the use of a vaccine
against smallpox could also produce serious collateral effects. With
experts saying that smallpox can be used as a biological weapon, the
US government is reportedly planning to inoculate the country's
entire population. Jonathan Tucker, bioterrorism expert at
Washington's Monterrey Institute of International Studies, told the
news daily that the vaccine is a small portion of the virus that in
some cases could produce infections and cerebral damage.
Tucker said that, moreover, a recently vaccinated person can pass the
virus on to another person, which is why the Pentagon stopped
vaccinating its soldiers. The soldiers would have to be quarantined
so that they wouldn't infect their families.
*US WARPLANES ACCIDENTALLY BOMBARD POSITION OF NORTHERN ALLIANCE
Ashkarga, Afghanistan, October 22 (RHC) -- As the Taliban regime
accuses Washington of bombing civilian objectives like a hospital,
the accidental bombardment of the opposition Northern Alliance has
been independently confirmed. Four photographers told the AFP news
agency Monday that they were in one of the opposition's fronts when
what looked like an F-16 jet dropped two bombs near their position in
the north of the country.
US photographer Ron Haviv, who works for a Paris-based news agency,
said the anti-Taliban combatants asked him if he had a phone to call
Washington and tell them about the error. The other photographers who
witnessed the attack were Peter Blakely, with the SABA news agency,
Tyler Hicks, with the "New York Times", and Spanish Moises Saman,
with "Newsday". The Pentagon has refused to comment, saying that it
does not discuss military operations in course.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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