9-29-05,9:48am
Fidel Castro Meets North Korean Parliament Leader
Havana, Sep 28 -Cuban President Fidel Castro met with Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea´s Parliament, in a fraternal and friendly atmosphere, Granma newspaper reports Wednesday. In the meeting held Tuesday afternoon, Fidel Castro and the Asian delegation exchanged information on each nation´s current situation, as well as tackled important international issues. The parties reasserted, after 45 years since establishment of diplomatic relations, ties of friendship and solidarity between the two governments, parties and peoples. The North Korean visitor passed on his country´s interest of strengthening links between the two parties and governments, as well as boosting trade on the basis of mutual benefit.
North-South Meet to Reject the Foreign Debt
Havana, Sep 28 -Twenty years after Cuban President Fidel Castro drew attention to the impossibility for Third World countries to pay the foreign debt, the North-South Resistance and Alternatives to the Foreign Debt Conference began meeting Wednesday.
More than 300 delegates from Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa are meeting in Havana to take up the battle of the foreign debt that, far from lessening, has augmented, and they will likewise confront the challenges to humanity that are greater given the North's intention to dominate the future of Third World peoples. Nobel Peace Prizewinner Adolfo Perez Esquivel told Prensa Latina that this is the moment to denounce these problems and strengthen global actions, and that the forum is the place to demand that governments suit their practice to their words, including leftwing governments, because the foreign debt payments sit on the backs of the people.
South African FM Holds Official Talks in Cuba
Havana, Sep 28 - South Africa´s Foreign Minister Nkosazana C. Dlamini Zuma started Wednesday in this capital official talks with Cuban top-level leaders, with the aim to strengthen fraternal ties and review bilateral political and cooperation relations. She is visiting the island on an invitation of Cuba´s Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who was the first Cuban top official to meet her. Dlamini Zuma leads a high-ranking delegation to the 4th Session of the Cuba-South Africa Joint Intergovernmental Commission, which will discuss expanding cooperation on several fields, including health and education.
Ricardo Alarcon Attends Parliamentary Forum in Spain
Madrid, Sep 28 -President of the Cuban National Assembly of People's Power, Ricardo Alarcon, arrived in Madrid Wednesday to attend the First Ibero-American Parliamentary Forum, which seeks to revitalize the Ibero-American Summits. Alarcon was welcomed at the airport by Cuban Ambassador to Madrid Alberto Velazco and will go to Bilbao where the prince and princess of Asturias will inaugurate the event tomorrow. The host legislator, Spanish Senate President Javier Rojo, announced that Parliament presidents would discussed Ibero-America's role in the world, strengthening institutions, cooperation in development, and economic growth.
Cuba Slams US Decision to Harbor Terrorist Posada
Havana, Sep 28 -The decision of an immigration judge in Texas to grant shelter in the US to Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, mastermind of a mid-air bombing of a commercial plane that killed 73 people, is an infamous judicial call, Cuba says. Under the headline 'Infamous Judicial Decision: Posada under the Impire´s Protection,' Granma daily recalls Wednesday that immigration judge William Abbott chose Tuesday not to deport Posada Carriles neither to Venezuela nor Cuba. Abbott ruled that the notorious criminal remained in custody of the Immigration Customs Enforcement, and granted 90 days for the US to find a country willing to shelter Posada Carriles. He also gave the attorney one month to appeal.
Cuban Choir Walks Away with Argentine Festival Awards
Buenos Aires, Sep 28- Cuban Schola Cantorum Coralina choir conquered the audience and the jury, and garnered all the awards in the 7th International Trelew Choir Competition in Argentina´s southern Chubut Province. The prestigious choral group, conducted by Alina Orraca, won First Prize in Category A of the competition (mixed choirs) as well as the Audience Award. La Nacion daily, one of the country´s major newspapers, remarked that the ovation received was 'the most irrefutable verdict for the apotheosis of the Cuban Schola Cantorum Coralina´s singing, led by that musical genius called Alina Orraca.' Not only did they win those awards, but also the top prize for Best Interpretation of Imposed Work, with Ire a Santiago, and the Award by Edigio Feruglio Paleontological Museum, which consists of a replica of the head of a 225-million-year-old dinosaur from the Triassic Era found in that province.
NEWS --LATIN AMERICA-- NEWS
Nicaraguan President Objects to Immunity Withdrawals
Managua, Sep 28 (Prensa Latina) Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños regarded a Congressional decision of notifying the Judicial Power that two high officials of his government will lose their immunity, as a 'coup détat'. 'There is no state of law in Nicaragua,' the Nicaraguan President told a press conference announcing the formation of a special committee, made up of the seven officials threatened with loss of immunity, to present the case before the Inter American Human Rights Commission and the Organization of American States. Bolaños claimed that withdrawing immunity from the two officials, Interior Minister Julio Vega and Agriculture Minister Mario Salvo, constituted a first step to 'consolidate a coup.'
Massive School Dropouts in DR
Santo Domingo, Sep 28 (Prensa Latina) The Dominican Republic´s latest statistics show an ailing education system with more than 100,000 dropouts and 117,000 repeaters during the 2004 education year. The latest official statistics considers 7th the largest dropout grade with more than 10 out of every 100 students; 9.5 per cent in 6th grade and 1.8 per cent in 8th grade. The rate of withdrawals grew this year by 3.1 per cent, rising from 4.3 per cent in the 2003-2004 period to 6.4 per cent last July, for a total of 102,784 students.
Venezuelans Reject Decision on Posada Carriles
Caracas, Sep 28 - The Venezuelan movement of solidarity with Cuba rejected Wednesday the US court decision of sheltering Posada Carriles, and announced mass mobilizations to condemn what has been called an infamous judicial decision. Coordinator of the committee for freeing five Cuban anti-terrorists jailed in the United States, Orlando Rincones, said Venezuelans will commemorate in the streets on October 6 a new anniversary of the crime in Barbados. That day will be the 29th anniversary of the blowing-up of a civil airplane, killing 73 people. That was planned by Posada Carriles, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison to avoid a trial for that terrorist action.
US Properties and Assets of Pinochet Confiscated
Santiago, Chile, Sep 28 - In one of his last actions before leaving the case, Chilean Judge Sergio Muñoz froze for an indefinite period, all funds of Augusto Pinochet, his family, and related entities, in Florida, US. La Nacion daily cited judicial sources as saying the measure, which also affects Pinochet´s closest collaborators, is related to receiving kick-backs for sale and smuggling of weapons through the Chilean Armed Forces. The decision follows Penal Procedure Code demanding protection for those harmed by consigning evidence of crime that could disappear. According to the regulation, the funds must be transferred to Chile and put at the court's disposal indefinitely, or until the case concludes, in the framework of the ex president's trial for his secret accounts in Riggs Bank. The judge, who may become a Supreme Court justice next week if the Senate confirms his designation, appointed two administrators to collect the money and protect it until the trial is over.
Angola, Largest Trading Partner of Brazil Luanda, Sep 28 Angola is the most important trading partner of Brazil in Africa, said Jose Augusto Alves, special envoy of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to the African continent. Following a meeting with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Augusto Alves said both parties have signed very important cooperation agreements. Brazil will assign 50 million US to modernize the Angolan fishing fleet and construct docks and shipyards.
Uruguayan Government Designs a Disappeared Son for Commission
Montevideo, Sep 28 - Uruguayan government assigned Javier Miranda, son of detained-disappeared Fernando Miranda, to represent this country at the special commission Argentina organized to investigate the issue on disappeared Uruguayans. Miranda, lawyer and also member of Mothers and Families of Detained and Disappeared Uruguayans, will participate in the special commission at the Secretariat of Human Rights of the Argentine Justice Ministry. The organization will especially scrutinize situations where there was coordination between the two countries oppressive forces, as part of Operation Condor, used by dictatorships.
Media Role in Integration Discussed
Brasilia, Sep 28 - The role of the media in integration was widely analysed before the First South American Community of Nations Summit, starting this Thursday. Chief Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazil Luiz Dulci said that South American countries receive information from large US and European networks, but they don´t know their neighbors television production. Telesur director-general Aram Aharonian noted that 'we discuss integration, but our countries don´t even know each other,' and added that 'we have to learn about who we are and integrate later.' The director of Telesur, boosted by Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina and Uruguay, said the media was a tool for mutual knowledge. Content director of Argentina state channel Gustavo Souto said 'we know more about the most remote countries than our neighbors.'
Fidel Castro Meets North Korean Parliament Leader
Havana, Sep 28 - Cuban President Fidel Castro met with Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea´s Parliament, in a fraternal and friendly atmosphere, Granma newspaper reports Wednesday. In the meeting held Tuesday afternoon, Fidel Castro and the Asian delegation exchanged information on each nation´s current situation, as well as tackled important international issues. The parties reasserted, after 45 years since establishment of diplomatic relations, ties of friendship and solidarity between the two governments, parties and peoples. The North Korean visitor passed on his country´s interest of strengthening links between the two parties and governments, as well as boosting trade on the basis of mutual benefit.
South African FM Holds Official Talks in Cuba
Havana, Sep 28 - South Africa´s Foreign Minister Nkosazana C. Dlamini Zuma started Wednesday in this capital official talks with Cuban top-level leaders, with the aim to strengthen fraternal ties and review bilateral political and cooperation relations. She is visiting the island on an invitation of Cuba´s Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who was the first Cuban top official to meet her. Dlamini Zuma leads a high-ranking delegation to the 4th Session of the Cuba-South Africa Joint Intergovernmental Commission, which will discuss expanding cooperation on several fields, including health and education.
Cuba Slams US Decision to Harbor Terrorist Posada
Havana, Sep 28 (Prensa Latina) The decision of an immigration judge in Texas to grant shelter in the US to Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, mastermind of a mid-air bombing of a commercial plane that killed 73 people, is an infamous judicial call, Cuba says. Under the headline 'Infamous Judicial Decision: Posada under the Impire´s Protection,' Granma daily recalls Wednesday that immigration judge William Abbott chose Tuesday not to deport Posada Carriles neither to Venezuela nor Cuba. Abbott ruled that the notorious criminal remained in custody of the Immigration Customs Enforcement, and granted 90 days for the US to find a country willing to shelter Posada Carriles. He also gave the attorney one month to appeal.
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