LATEST NEWS OF OCTOBER 2009

COLOMBIA, US SIGN MILITARY BASE AGREEMENT

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--The governments of Colombia and the United States initialed on Friday in Bogotá a military agreement authorizing US troops access to seven bases in the neighboring country, the Colombian Foreign Ministry reported. The pact has been rejected by several governments in the region, including that of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

     The document was signed by Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermúdez and US ambassador in Bogotá William Brownfield, in a quick and private ceremony that was held behind closed doors at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at 12H00 GMT.

      The agreement authorizes the presence in Colombia of up to 800 US military personnel and 600 civil contractors of the United States government, who will conduct operations against drug trafficking and terrorism, according to the two governments. The text of the agreement has not been released.

VENEZUELA'S ENTRY INTO MERCOSUR "SHELVED" in the PARAGUAYan congress

       ASUNCION, PARAGUAY--The accession of Venezuela as full member of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) will continue to be "shelved" in the Paraguayan Congress, at least until early next year, two senators of ruling party Alianza Patriótica para el Cambio (APC).  Sixto Pereira, Vice President of the Paraguayan Senate and leader of the Tekojojá party said that the Congress is unlikely to address the issue this year because "there are not political conditions and the correlation of forces" is not favorable.

     He said that the decision of the Brazilian Senate Committee "may influence" the will of the Paraguayan opposition, which so far has refused to accept the entry of Venezuela due to several economic, political and ideological reasons. "Members of the traditional parties have continuously expressed their views against (Venezuela's entry)," Pereira complained. However, he added that "Brazil's stance can be an element of pressure."

    Meanwhile, Senator Luis Alberto Wagner, who is a member of the liberal party (Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico, PLRA), agreed with Pereira and said that "for now" Venezuela's entry into the economic bloc will not be included in the Congress' agenda.  "Most of the legislators do not want to," Wagner said in reference to the opposition block which includes the Colorado Party, the National Union of Ethical Citizens (Unace), led by Lino Oviedo, and the Dear Fatherhood (Patria Querida) party and "some liberal lawmakers."

COLOMBIA FILES WTO COMPLAINT AGAINST VENEZUELA OVER TRADE POLICIES

         BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--Colombia filed on Monday a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Venezuela measures affecting exports of agricultural products, which represents 17 percent of sales of the South American country. The complaint will worsen the fragile relations between the two countries.

     Venezuela's leftist ruler Hugo Chávez ordered to "reduce to zero" binational trade, which in 2008 reached a record high of USD 7 billion, to protest against the military agreement signed between Bogotá and Washington allowing access of US military troops to Colombian bases.

      Colombia argued that sanitary and phytosanitary measures affecting the sales of meat, eggs, chicken, coffee, cattle on the hoof, fruits and vegetables were neither reported timely through official channels nor notified to the WTO.

PRESIDENT OBAMA HONORS SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

      DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, DELAWARE --In a midnight dash to this Delaware base, where U.S. forces killed overseas come home, Obama honored the return of 18 fallen Americans Thursday. All were killed this week in Afghanistan, a brutal stretch that turned October into the most deadly month for U.S. troops since the war began. The dramatic image of Obama on the tarmac was a portrait not witnessed in years. Former President George W. Bush spent lots of time with grieving military families but never went to Dover to greet the remains coming off the cargo plane.  The lifting of the 18-year ban on media coverage of bodies returning to Dover was done to keep the human cost of war from being shielded from the public.

    Obama visited the base carrying the weight of knowing he may soon send more troops off to war. For all the talk of his potential troop increase -- maybe 40,000, maybe some other large figure -- Obama got a grim reminder of the number that counts: one. His name was Dale R. Griffin, an Army sergeant from Terre Haute, Ind. He was the last fallen soldier to come before Obama. And his remains were the only ones to be honored in full view of the media with the permission of his family. A ban on such coverage was lifted this year under Obama's watch. The president led a team of officials onto the gray C-17 cargo plane carrying Griffin, and then back off, where they stood for several minutes in a line of honor.

     It was not quite 4 a.m. The sky was black and a yellowish light came from poles flanking the flight. The only sounds were a whirring power unit on the plane and the clicking of cameras. A blue vehicle carrying members of Griffin's family pulled up. The president saluted as six soldiers in camouflage and black berets carried Griffin's remains into a waiting white van. The military calls the process a dignified transfer, not a ceremony, because there is nothing to celebrate. The cases are not labeled coffins, although they come off looking that way, enveloped in flags. On a clear fall night, the president zipped to Dover in about 40 minutes. He immediately spoke privately in a chapel with all the family members. The president apparently wanted to go to Dover now given the enormous blow to U.S. forces just this week.

HONDURAN PRESIDENT, ROBERT MICHELETTI, LODGES PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BRAZIL AT THE HAGUE'S INTERNATIONAL COURT 

       THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS--Honduras has lodged legal proceedings against Brazil at the U.N. court in The Hague seeking an end to Brazil allowing ousted President Manuel Zelaya to take refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.  Zelaya has been holed up at the heavily guarded Brazilian embassy since he snuck back into the country last month. The leftist leader was toppled in a military coup after he angered business leaders, the military and political rivals by moving Honduras closer to Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez.

    In its filing at the ICJ, or world court, Honduras says Zelaya and others are using the embassy as a platform for political propaganda, "threatening the peace and internal public order of Honduras." Honduras requested the court declare that Brazil does not have the right to allow its embassy to be used to promote "manifestly illegal activities" by Honduran citizens. It wants the court to order Brazil to stop providing refuge.

    In its filing, lodged with the court on Wednesday but made public on Thursday, Honduras said it reserves the right to claim reparation for any damage resulting from the actions of Brazil, its embassy and the Honduran persons taking refuge there. Honduras said it might also file a request for the "indication of provisional measures" if Brazil does not immediately end the disturbance. Typically cases before the ICJ take years to settle but if a party requests an "indication of provisional measures," the court's judges can make a swift provisional order.

BRAZILIAN SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES VENEZUELA'S ENTRY IN MERCOSUR

         BRAZILIA, BRAZIL--The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Brazilian Senate approved on Thursday Venezuela's Protocol of Accession to the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and will submit it to the plenary session of the Senate for a final vote, which could be held next week.

    The entry of Venezuela to South America's biggest trade bloc, which has already been endorsed by the parliaments of Argentina and Uruguay and is awaiting debate in the Paraguayan Congress, was approved, after a heated argument, by 11 out of the 19 members of the Committee, most of them Congressmen of the ruling party group.

    Opposition Senator Tasso Jereissati, the rapporteur of the group, had recommended keeping Venezuela out of the trade bloc, in a report that harshly criticized the alleged "authoritarian character" of President Hugo Chávez. During the debate, the opposition reiterated its rejection of Venezuela's entry into Mercosur, due to the alleged "lack of freedom" in the South American country, which they described as "violations of the democratic clause" that is in force in the bloc.

COLOMBIA'S PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE ASKS VENEZUELAN LEFTIST RULER HUGO CHAVEZ TO SAFEGUARD LIVES ON THE BORDER

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--Colombia's President Álvaro Uribe requested on Monday his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez to coordinate measures to safeguard the lives of border residents and prevent further events such as the slaughter of 10 people by an illicit armed group.

    Uribe made the appeal even though the two countries are going through a diplomatic crisis that has started to hit the bilateral trade of more than USD 7 billion a year, Reuters reported.  "I urge the government of Venezuela, its president, to go beyond any disagreement and look for some coordination of activities to protect the right to life of Colombian and Venezuelan citizens," Uribe said.

    "A crime here or there also hurts us," said the Colombian president during a government event in the southwest department of Valle del Cauca.  Eight out of the 10 people found dead last weekend in Táchira state, western Venezuela, were Colombians.  Victims were members of a soccer amateur team kidnapped in October.

ENTRY OF PARAMILITARIES IN VENEZUELA IS A DECLARATION OF WAR, SAYS LAWMAKER

       CARACAS, VENEZUELA--The entry of paramilitaries into our country is part of a silent declaration of war against Venezuela, said Wednesday National Assembly Deputy Mario Isea. Isea said on the TV show Despertó Venezuela, broadcast by the state-run TV station Venezolana de Televisión, that Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez is aware of this situation. The lawmaker added that this action is related to "conspiracy plans" that according the ruling party were organized by the former mayor of Maracaibo, Manuel Rosales, who is currently living in Peru.

    The lawmaker explained that Táchira state governor César Pérez Vivas, who is also involved in the destabilization plan, "has ties to Colombian paramilitaries," the state-run news agency Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN) reported. "We must fight strongly against paramilitaries, as President Hugo Chávez Frías has said. (...) We are promoting the coordination of all the government agencies," Isea added.

    The lawmaker also said that the presence of Colombian agents of the Security Administrative Department (DAS) in Venezuela is also related to the plot. Pro-government lawmaker Nellyver Lugo noted that crime has increased dramatically in the state of Táchira because of the link that César Pérez Vivas, the governor of the western Venezuelan state, has with Colombian paramilitaries.

COLOMBIAN CONSUL INVESTIGATES CLAIMS OF ANOTHER MASSACRE IN VENEZUELA

         BARINAS, VENEZUELA--Jairo Martínez, the Colombian consul in the Venezuelan state of Barinas, said Tuesday that he is investigating allegations of a massacre of five Colombians in August this year.

    "Relatives of the victims said that these people were apparently suffocated. This happened approximately in August," Martínez said by telephone from western Barinas state to RCN, a private radio station in Bogotá. In the slaughter, a Venezuelan would have been killed, bringing the total of people murdered to six, the Colombian consul said. He added that the massacre would have occurred in the town of Socopó, at the Antonio José de Sucre municipality.

    The Colombian consul said that the authorities of the state of Barinas have not provided any information. Therefore, he is conducting investigations about the complaints from relatives of the victims, AFP reported.

US LAWMAKERS PROPOSE INCLUDING VENEZUELA IN LIST OF STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- US Republican lawmakers Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Connie Mack Friday submitted a draft resolution to the House of Representatives urging the US government to include Venezuela in its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

    "For more than 40 years, the FARC waged a brutal destabilizing war against Colombians," reminded Cuban-US lawmaker Ros-Lehtinen when presenting the motion together with one of the representatives who has criticized President Hugo Chávez most fiercely over the last few years. "The evidence that the Venezuelan government could have given help and shelter to violent extremists is reprehensible and should not be disregarded," said Ros-Lehtinen, who is the co-chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

     The two Florida representatives based their petition on documents found in the personal computer belonging to Raúl Reyes, the late second highest-ranking member of the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). Such files allegedly show that Chávez has links with the guerrilla group, AFP reported.

colombian ambassador warns of "dangerousness" in the border with venezuela

       CARACAS,, VENEZUELA--María Luisa Chiappe, Colombia's ambassador in Venezuela, said Tuesday that beyond the complaints of the Venezuelan government against Bogotá, after the murder of 10 people, mostly Colombians, in the border, the event was "unprecedented" and showed that the border region is "highly dangerous."

     Chiappe said in an interview with Caracol, a Colombian radio station, she had no reports about the suspected presence of Colombian state security agents, members of the Security Administrative Department (DAS) in Venezuela and therefore, she could not confirm it. On Monday, the Venezuelan government submitted a notice of protest accusing Colombia of using its state security agents to spy. "I have no personal knowledge of the fact that DAS members are undertaking such activities in Venezuela. I am not going to speculate and I will not fall into provocations. I think that the massacre is the most important fact, where 10 people were the victims," eight of them from Colombia, one Venezuelan and one Peruvian, the Colombian ambassador said.

     "Whatever the author (of the massacre) is, it is an extremely serious matter, because these are unprecedented events that show us that the border (between Colombia and Venezuela) has become a highly dangerous place. The two countries need to address this issue," she said. "I do not know (if the eight Colombians) were illegally in Venezuela, but at this moment it does not matter," the top diplomat said.

VENEZUELA ANNOUNCES ARREST OF COLOMBIAN SPIES

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA-- Francisco Arias Cárdenas, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean, announced the arrest of several agents from the Colombian Security Administrative Department (DAS) in Venezuela.

    "In the next few hours, they will be presented to the press by the Ministry of the Interior and by security forces" and they will be prosecuted by "Venezuelan courts," Arias said.  He added that the Venezuelan security forces found destabilization plans against "the government, our people, and our democracy."

    Cárdenas reported the case a day after the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry filed a notice of protest against these activities. He also clarified that the note submitted on Monday had nothing to do with recent events in the state of Táchira. "The note has nothing to do with what happened last weekend in Táchira. We deeply regret the death of these people, but a topic cannot be linked with another. The notice is related to what has been happening with members of the Colombian state security agency," the Vice Minister said.

NEPHEW OF HONDURAS PRESIDENT ROBERTO MICHELETTI AND AN ARMY COLONEL SHOT TO DEATH EXECUTION-STYLE

         TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--The nephew of interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti has been shot to death execution-style, police said Monday.There is no indication that Enzo Micheletti's killing was related to the June 28 coup that brought his uncle to power, police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said.

    Enzo Micheletti, 24, was not known to be involved in politics. The young man's body was found Sunday in the woods in the northern city of Choloma, police said. He had bullet wounds to his head and chest and his hands were tied behind his back. The body of another, unidentified man was found nearby.  Lawmakers voted Micheletti, the former head of Congress, into the presidency after soldiers ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

      In an apparently unrelated attack, gunmen killed army Col. Concepcion Jimenez on Sunday night outside his home in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Military spokesman Ramiro Archaga said investigators had not established a motive. Jimenez managed the Military Industry of Honduras, an agency that makes uniforms for Honduran troops. Honduras has the highest homicide rate in Central America, much of it related to drugs. Some 7,235 people in the country of 7.7 million were killed in 2008, a 25 percent surge from 2007.

JUANITA CASTRO, SISTER OF RAUL AND  FIDEL, REVEALS HOW SHE COLLABORATED WITH THE CIA IN THE 1960S

      MIAMI, FLORIDA--Juanita Castro, sister of Cuban rulers Fidel and Raúl Castro, cooperated with the CIA in the 1960s -- a time when the U.S. agency was plotting to assassinate Fidel and overthrow his revolution -- according to an exclusive Univisión-Noticias 23 report on her newly published book. The report also revealed that Juanita, who broke with her brothers' revolution in 1964, hid government opponents in her home; that Fidel refused to visit her because the house was ``surrounded by worms;'' and that their mother often intervened with Raúl to help Castro critics, jailed or fugitive.

     Described as the Castro family's best-kept secret in the weeks that preceded the release of her book Monday, Juanita's revelation of her link with the CIA came as a short teaser at the end of a Univisión-Noticias 23 report on the book broadcast at 11 p.m. Sunday.  Juanita told the program that a person close to her and Fidel told her that ``The CIA wanted to talk with me . . . because they had interesting things to tell me and interesting things to ask of me. . . . I was left half-shocked, but in any case I told them yes.''   Maria Antonieta Collins, who co-authored the book and reported the television story, then added: ``Tomorrow: For the first time, a CIA agent who became the lifetime protector of a collaborator . . . and who dared propose to the sister of Fidel that she cooperate with the CIA, archenemy of the Castro brothers?'

     Throughout the early 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in dozens of plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, overthrow his government and sabotage the island's economy. Castro has often put the total number of plots to kill him at more than 600. While Juanita and Collins gave no other details on the CIA connection, officials at the television station said Juanita acknowledges in her book, Fidel and Raúl, My Brothers. The Secret History, that she collaborated with the CIA both inside Cuba and after she went into exile in 1964.  Now 76, she owned a Miami pharmacy for many years and is the fifth offspring of Angel Castro and Lina Cruz -- preceded by Angelita, Ramón, Fidel and Raúl and followed by Emma and Agustina.

EX-GUERRILLA, EX-PRESIDENT IN URUGUAY PRESIDENTIAL RUNOFF 

       MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY--Jose "Pepe" Mujica got about 48 percent of the votes compared to 30 percent for former president Luis Alberto LaCalle, a free-marketeer who wants to cut government and taxes and reduce alliances with Latin American leftists. Mujica and his vice-presidential candidate, Danilo Astori, conceded that a runoff would be necessary but expressed optimism. They noted that even if Lacalle picks up all the votes of right-wing third-place finisher Pedro Bordaberry, Sunday's margin would still give the ruling Broad Front the edge in the second round of voting on Nov. 29.

    "We're going to fight for the whole nation," Mujica said, "so that the economy works, and also provides for the people who have the least." Talking later, Lacalle predicted that he and his vice-presidential candidate Jorge Washington Larranaga "will manage the Executive Branch. It's not vanity - it's that we believe that we are the better option for the security, the certainty, the peace and the dialogue that the country needs."

    In many ways, Uruguayans were voting for their visions of the past as well as the future. And while Mujica's life story - from armed revolutionary to someone trying to change the system from within - clearly resonated with some voters, it has repelled others. Mujica was a leader of the Tupamaru guerrillas, who were inspired by the Cuban revolution to organize kidnappings, bombings, robberies and other attacks on the conservative but democratically elected governments of the 1960s. Convicted of killing a policeman in 1971, he endured torture and solitary confinement during nearly 15 years in prison. In the quarter-century since he was freed, Mujica helped transform the guerrillas into a legitimate political movement and the driving force within the leftist Broad Front coalition. He eventually became the top vote-getter in Congress and served as Vazquez's agriculture minister, developing a reputation for populist policies and impolitic commentary.

DEATH TOLL FROM TWIN CAR BOMBINGS IN BAGHDAD CLIMBED TO 160 

         BAGHDAD, IRAQ, --The death toll from twin car bombings in Baghdad climbed to 160, with hundreds more wounded in the deadliest attack in the capital in more than two years, the Interior Ministry said Monday.  At least 540 people were wounded in Sunday's attacks.  One of the bombs exploded outside Baghdad's governorate building, the other outside the justice ministry. The bombs detonated in quick succession about 10:30 a.m., officials said. Among the wounded were three American security contractors, the U.S. Embassy said, declining to provide further details. The area struck is close to the heavily guarded "green zone," which houses the embassy.

    The blasts sparked questions about Iraq's security and national elections planned for January. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who visited the scene shortly after the explosions, said holding the elections as scheduled would send a strong message to the attackers. "The cowardly attack ... should not affect the determination of the Iraqi people from continuing their battle against the deposed regime and the gangs of criminal Baath party, and the terrorist al Qaeda organization,'" al-Maliki said in a statement.

    U.S. President Barack Obama called the attacks an attempt to derail progress in Iraq, and pledged to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections. Obama spoke with the prime minister and President Jalal Talabani to express his condolences and reiterate U.S. support. In August, more than 100 people were killed in a series of bombings that led to tightened security in Baghdad. Blast walls were installed across the city and checkpoints added. Two years earlier, three truck bombings had killed hundreds in Qahtaniya, in northern Iraq. Sunday's attacks were the deadliest on Iraqi civilians since the blasts in August 2007.  A day before the explosions Sunday, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, visited Iraq for the first time. During her trip, she made a condolence stop at the Foreign Ministry, one of six sites attacked this August.

president obama asked SPAIN to deliver A  message to cuban dictator raul castro: NOW IT IS YOUR TIME TO TAKE A STEP...

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-U.S. President Barack Obama asked Spain to send Cuban dictator Raul Castro a message about reform when he met Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier this month, the newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday. Six days after their meeting on October 13 at the White House, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited the Caribbean island and met President Raul Castro.

     "Have (Moratinos) tell the Cuban authorities we understand that change can't happen overnight, but down the road, when we look back at this time, it should be clear that now is when those changes began," Obama told Zapatero, according to diplomatic sources. "We're taking steps, but if they don't take steps too, it's going to be very hard for us to continue," Obama said. Obama has pledged a "new beginning" in ties with Cuba as part of a new era of U.S. partnership and engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean.

    No one from the Spanish government was immediately available to comment on the report. Moratinos met Castro on October 19 and said the communist leader had affirmed his commitment to economic reform and expressed his desire to continue improving relations with the United States.Spain, one of Cuba's biggest trading partners, has highlighted improved relations between the European Union and the island as one of its priorities when it takes over the rotating EU presidency in January.

VENEZUELAN EMBASSY TO LA PAZ REPORTEDLY PAID USD 300,000 FOR SPYING 

      LIMA, PERU--The Venezuelan Embassy to La Paz, Bolivia, allegedly paid USD 300,000 to the Peruvian company Business Track (BTR), for wiretapping services, reported a Peruvian lawmaker.  Congressman Oswaldo Luizar, who chairs the legislative committee investigating this case, said in an interview to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, that BTR was allegedly contracted by other foreign clients, such as the US firm Non-Lethal Solutions International, which produces pepper-spray pellets. "One can speculate that these payments are related to money laundering or wiretapping. We have not clarified it yet," Luizar said.

    BTR is a company owned by retired Peruvian military officer Elías Ponce Feijóo, which was theoretically dedicated to provide electronic security services. However, authorities showed this year that the firm was responsible for a large network dedicated to spying and wiretapping telephones and computers.

     The company wiretapped telephone conversations which, after being disclosed last year, uncovered an oil corruption case that unleashed the fall of the Peruvian Cabinet.  Luizar, a member of the Bloque Popular, said that local authorities found in the BTR files receipts signed by many clients, including powerful companies or renowned institutions.

PERUVIAN NEWSPAPER REVEALS VENEZUELA'S PURCHASE OF WEAPONS FOR THE BOLIVIAN POLICE 

         LIMA, PERU-Venezuela bought weapons and riot gear in 2008 to be used by the Bolivian police, according to documents submitted to the Peruvian judiciary, and disclosed on October 23 by the Lima newspaper La República.

    Venezuela, through its embassy in La Paz, paid retired Commander Carlos Tomasio, USD 280,000 for riot gear and the training of Bolivian police. Tomasio was then representative in Latin America of the US firm Non Lethal Solutions (NLS), which is specialized in riot gear, DPA reported.

     "The equipment consisted of 30 rifles and TAC-700 machine guns, 80 semi-automatic pistols, ammunition, air compressors, and training equipment," said the newspaper, based on e-mails, videos and invoices that were seized from Tomasio.  The papers show that Julio Montes Prado, the then ambassador of Venezuela in La Paz, was directly involved in the operation.

'SHOCKING REVELATIONS' ABOUT FIDEL AND RAUL CASTRO WILL BE TOLD TONIGHT IN MIAMI BY THEIRS SISTER JUANITA 

      MIAMI, FLORIDA--Juanita Castro Ruz will air the dirty linen of her brothers Fidel  and Raúl in a book that will be released next Monday, Oct. 26, but will be previewed on South Florida's Univisión-Noticias 23 today  Sunday, Oct. 25. The program, at 11 p.m., will be the first of eight episodes about "Fidel and Raúl, my brothers; The secret history," a 432-page book published by Miami-based Santillana USA. The book will be released simultaneously in the U.S., Spain, Colombia, and Mexico. It was edited and printed in total secrecy because (the publishers say) it contains "shocking revelations."

    Juanita, 76, who did not see eye to eye with the Revolution, came to the U.S. in 1964. In Miami, she owned and operated a pharmacy from 1973 to 2007. “This is a testimonial told in the first person by someone who was there since birth, next to two influential political figures of Latin American politics -- her brothers,'' an ad for the book promises. ``This is the story Juanita Castro owed us all, but has never told. Now here it is.'' The fourth of the seven children of Angel and Lina Castro, Juanita, 76, should offer some insight into her brothers' psyches. Fidel, 83, is an older sibling; Raúl, 78, is the youngest brother. In the early days of the Cuban Revolution, she helped both with their political ambitious, even coming to Miami in 1958 to collect money for their efforts to overthrow strongman Fulgencio Batista. But she grew disenchanted with Fidel's turn toward communism and Cuba in 1964.

    The more than 400-page book titled: “My Brothers Fidel and Raul. The Secret Story,”  is co-written by Spanish-language journalist Maria Antoineta Collins and will be published by Santillana USA. Juanita , a longtime Miami resident, has kept a low profile and for years could be found behind the counter of the small pharmacy she owned. She retired in 2007. According to a Santillana news release, Castro dictated the story to Collins a decade ago but refused to publish until now.

A FORMER LEFT-WING GUERRILLA FIGHTER AND A FORMER PRESIDENT  HOPING TO GET ELECTED IN URUGUAY'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

      MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY-Opinion polls indicate that the left-wing coalition's candidate, former guerrilla fighter José Mujica, will not take the 50 percent plus one vote needed on Sunday to avoid a second round.  His main rival, former president Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-1995) of the National Party, is staking all his bets on a runoff, in which he would hope to draw the votes of the supporters of the Colorados and two minor parties, to put him over the top. 

    It is highly like that Mujica won't win on Sunday, but it "shouldn't have any problem" winning in the second round, on Nov. 29, said Daniel Bouquet, research coordinator at the Political Science Institute of the public University of the Republic.  "The opinion poll averages over the last few months show that around 45 percent of respondents support the left, while backing for the National Party has declined," to about 30 percent, he told IPS.  "If the left garners at least 47 percent of the vote on Sunday – the most pessimistic scenario according to the polls - Mujica basically can't lose in the second round," said Bouquet.  The Colorado Party, which ruled for most of the country's history as an independent nation, laid the foundations of modern-day Uruguay under statesman and two time president José Batlle y Ordóñez (1856-1929). But it has still not recovered from the debacle it suffered in the 2004 elections. 

    The 74-year-old candidate Vázquez, who now grows flowers on his farm, is a far cry from the young guerrilla fighter of the 1960s, who spent more than 12 years in prison in the extreme conditions reserved for the eight insurgent leaders held as "hostages" to prevent the MLN-T from taking up arms again after the group was defeated by the military in 1972.  His rival, the 68-year-old Lacalle, who has campaigned on a tough anti-crime platform, promises more of the neoliberal policies that he implemented as president in the first half of the 1990s, at a time when the Washington Consensus package of liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation policies was in vogue in Latin America.

COLOMBIAN MINISTER IS CERTAIN OF DRUG-TRAFFIC FLIGHTS FROM VENEZUELA

         BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--Most of illicit flights at the service of drug traffic in direction to Central America and the United States come from Venezuela, reported Colombia's Defense Minister Gabriel Silva, causing renewed controversy.

    The remarks made by the Colombian official could reactivate the discussion on the subject between the governments of Bogotá and Caracas, which are undergoing a diplomatic crisis that has started to harm bilateral trade, Reuters reported.

    "The number of flights found going from Colombia is very marginal nowadays. Unfortunately, most of the flights found and ending in the area of Honduras, as confirmed with the aircraft that arrived there, go through Venezuelan territory," Silva told reporters. The official made reference to a complaint from the de factor Honduras government about the landing of a Venezuelan freighter filled with drugs, early this week.

HONDURAS TALKS COLLAPSED AGAIN OVER MANUEL ZELAYA'S RETURN TO THE PRESIDENCY

      TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--Renewed talks to resolve Honduras' deep political crisis collapsed on Friday over whether leftist President Manuel Zelaya could return to power after he was toppled in a June coup. This is the second time envoys of the ousted President -- who returned to Honduras last month to take refuge in the Brazilian embassy -- and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti have tried and failed to reach a negotiated settlement. "As of now we see this phase as finished," Zelaya envoy Mayra Mejia said, referring to the dialogue shortly after midnight.

    Zelaya's camp earlier set an ultimatum for Micheletti's team to present a new offer and pledged to walk away from the table if the proposal did not include Zelaya's return to office. "The fundamental point is the reinstatement of President Zelaya and for this, there was no political will," Mejia told reporters in the lobby of the Tegucigalpa hotel where both sides have been debating for three weeks. Mejia said the team would meet with Zelaya in Brazil's embassy to plot their next move.

    The de facto government is trying to drum up support for a November 29 election as the only way to resolve the crisis even as human rights groups worry recent clampdowns on pro-Zelaya media and protests would make a free and fair election impossible. The campaign is in full swing, with candidates hoping to take office in January avoiding direct questions about Zelaya's return. Micheletti's negotiators insist they are still open to dialogue and will present a new proposal to Zelaya on Friday morning. Zelaya says it is just a play for time and Micheletti has not intention of stepping down.

IRAN WANTS TO BUY NUCLEAR FUEL FOR RESEARCH REACTOR, FAIL TO ACCEPT U.N. PLAN

      TEHRAN, IRAN-- State TV says Iran wants to buy nuclear fuel it needs for a research reactor rather than accept a U.N.-drafted plan to ship much of its uranium to Russia for further enrichment. "Iran is interested in buying fuel for the Tehran research reactor within the framework of a clear proposal ... we are waiting for the other party's constructive and trust-building response," Iranian TV quoted a member of Iran's negotiating team as saying, Reuters reports.

    Iran's response will come as a disappointment to the U.S., Russia and France, which all endorsed the U.N. plan Friday that called for Iran to ship its uranium stockpile to Russia rather than continue what is believed to be an weapons-grade enrichment program. The three countries formulated the draft plan in three days of talks with Iran in Vienna that ended Wednesday.

    A U.S. official says Washington is still waiting for formal Iranian response on the proposed nuclear fuel deal. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington did not regard the Iranian state television report as Tehran's official response to the plan, seen as one way to buy time for broader talks on Iran's nuclear program.

U.S., ISRAEL START AIR-DEFENSE EXERCISE 

         TEL AVIV, ISRAEL--The U.S. and Israeli militaries began a combined air-defense exercise on Thursday involving about 1,000 American soldiers and simulating a scenario in which U.S. forces deploy to Israel to help defend the country against incoming missiles. The three-week drill, the fifth since 2001, is part of a growing partnership between the two militaries that has coincided with rising fears in Israel about Iran's growing arsenal of missiles and nuclear ambitions.

    "In time of need the Israel Defense Forces will protect our country, however, if decided, our defenses will be enhanced by the United States' capabilities," Israeli Air Defense Corps commander Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish told a news conference. Iran and Israel both confirmed Thursday that representatives of their governments attended a conference in Cairo last month focused on global nonproliferation issues, a rare joint appearance by officials from the enemy states.

   A senior Israeli defense official said this year's drill was the largest yet, in part because the threat from Iran keeps growing. But U.S. and Israeli commanders leading the exercise have played down reports that the drill is meant to simulate a war with Iran or a potential nuclear attack. "During the planning, the term nuclear was never brought into any of the discussions. It changes the way we fight," said U.S. Army Col. Tony English, commander of the 357th Air Defense Brigade, which is based in Germany and is one of the lead units in the exercise.  The U.S. and Israeli militaries have strong historic ties. U.S. military aid to Israel in 2009 will total $2.55 billion. Only Iraq receives more. In 1991, during the Gulf War, the U.S. dispatched Patriot missile batteries to Israel in a largely failed attempt to intercept Iraqi Scud missiles targeted at Israel.

hugo chavez linked to an ex-alamos lab physicist in a nuclear espionage case

      ALBURQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO--Federal agents seized computers, papers, books and electronic equipment from the home of a former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear scientist, who last year sought to work on a fusion project with Venezuela but believes the U.S. government is wrongly targeting him as a spy. P. Leonardo Mascheroni told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday from his home that four FBI agents searched his home for 13 hours on Monday. The agents, he said, led him to believe they were investigating him for espionage.

     "I am not a spy," Mascheroni said. "If I were a spy, a long time ago I would have gone away from the United States with all my knowledge. Instead, I stay in my house all the time and am working all the time and presenting all the time to Congress. Is that what a spy does?"  FBI spokesman Darrin Jones confirmed the agency is pursuing an "ongoing investigation" in Los Alamos, but declined further comment Wednesday. No charges have been filed against Mascheroni. Mascheroni, who is from Argentina but became a U.S. citizen in 1972, said he believes the current investigation stems from his longtime criticism of the U.S. government's nuclear program and, more specifically, from a recent meeting he had with a man claiming to be a representative from the Hugo Chavez government.

     He said that in the fall of 2007, he approached the Venezuelan government - along with physics departments at universities in England and France - to see about a job to pursue his work. He was contacted in February 2008 by a man who said he represented the Venezuelan government and wanted to learn about starting a weapons program. The two met twice at a Los Alamos hotel for a total of 90 minutes, Mascheroni said.  "I never passed information which I consider classified to a reporter or to Congress or to anybody," Mascheroni said. "The information I passed is information I got from the Internet." Mascheroni said he provided the man with a CD containing unclassified information widely available on the Internet. He said he hoped the Venezuelan government would hire him to work on his hydrogen-fluoride laser fusion project in New Mexico, which would help him prove his case to Congress. He asked that $400,000 be deposited into his Los Alamos bank account, but he was never paid.

CUBAN PATRIOT SANTIAGO ALVAREZ  RELEASED AFTER NEARLY FOUR YEARS IN FEDERAL CUSTODY

      MIAMI, FLORIDA-- A Cuban Freedom Fighter was released Wednesday after nearly four years in federal custody. He spent the last year in an immigration facility after serving prison sentences for stockpiling weapons and refusing to testify against a fellow Castro foe.

    Santiago Alvarez, a Miami real estate investor, had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Georgia since last November, said one of his attorneys, Kendall Coffey. Alvarez, a legal U.S. resident, fought ICE's bid to deport him. Alvarez and co-defendant Osvaldo Mitat pleaded guilty in September 2006 to conspiring to possess illegal weapons. They acknowledged that the arms were meant to battle Fidel Castro's totalitarian government.

     In late 2007, Alvarez, Mitat and three other associates of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction of justice in an investigation linked to immigration fraud charges against Posada. The defendants refused to testify before the federal grand jury about Posada's entry into the United States in 2005.

MICHAEL MOORE SAYS HE ADVISED HUGO CHAVEZ ON HIS SPEECH AT THE UNITED NATIONS

         WASHINGTON, D.C.--In an interview broadcast on ABC, the documentary filmmaker and producer Michael Moore said he personally advised Hugo Chávez on the speech the Venezuelan leftist ruler delivered at the United Nations (UN).

     In his program, American television host Jimmy Kimmel asked Moore about his experience in the Venice Film Festival and Moore told him that one day at 2 o'clock in the morning he went to a floor at the hotel where Chávez was staying to know what the origin of the noise was. "Then, a man opened the door, a President's bodyguard (referring to Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro). Chávez was right behind him."

      "A bottle and a half of tequila later," Moore said that he advised President Chávez about his upcoming speech at the UN General Assembly. The filmmaker added that it was not appropriate that Chávez has called former US President George W. Bush "the devil." The documentary director told him that he could use more hopeful words. When I saw Chávez's speech a few weeks later, I wondered: "where is my part of the deal? I should ask him for a year of free gasoline."

DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES: US WILL "NEVER ACCEPT" NUCLEAR NORTH KOREA 

      SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today that the US will never accept a North Korea with atomic weapons, saying the communist regime poses threats “even more lethal and destabilising” than before. Mr Gates arrived in South Korean capital Seoul today for a two-day visit for annual defence ministers’ talks after a stop in Tokyo. “There should be no mistaking that we do not today – nor will we ever – accept a North Korea with nuclear weapons,” Mr Gates told a group of American and South Korean troops at the US military headquarters in central Seoul.

    Gates said “the peril posed by the North Korean regime” has become “even more lethal and destabilising”. He said the US is firmly committed to providing South Korea with deterrence against those threats “with the full range of military might, from the nuclear umbrella to conventional strike and missile defence capabilities”. The US keeps about 28,500 troops in South Korea to help defend the Asian ally against the North.

    North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs have long been a key source of security concern in the region. The communist nation conducted nuclear tests twice – first in 2006 and the second in May this year – and is believed to have enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs.  The North has also sought to advance its long-range missile capabilities. Efforts to end the North’s nuclear programs have often stalled because Pyongyang has backtracked on disarmament pacts. Some analysts say Pyongyang has no intention of giving up nuclear programs and could seek recognition as a nuclear state, like India.

SPANISH SENATE ASKS ZAPATERO TO ADVOCATE HUMAN RIGHTS IN VENEZUELA

      MADRID, SPAIN-- The Spanish Senate on Wednesday urged the government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to intercede with the Venezuelan authorities so that the fundamental human rights of the opposition activists facing criminal proceedings in Venezuela are respected.  The motion was filed by the parliamentary group of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), and was approved by this party, the conservative Popular Party (PP), and the Catalan nationalist group Convergencia i Unió (CIU).  

    Basque senator Iñaki Anasagasti said that this motion is intended to advocate human rights wherever they are violated which, in his opinion, is occurring in countries having superb relations with Spain, including Venezuela.  He recalled that legal proceedings against dissenting politicians, social leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, journalists or student leaders "openly violate" the right to defense, Efe reported.  In Anasagasti's view, infringement of the right to defense comes as a result of the "deterioration" of the judicial institutions in Venezuela, where "justice has been turned into a tool to persecute dissenters, whose most basic procedural rights are repeatedly disregarded."

    Anasagasti stressed that the Venezuelan judges and attorneys "are routinely instructed" to file criminal charges against political opponents of the government. He added said that the people targeted are slandered in media and arbitrarily detained while their rights are violated repeatedly.  Spanish opposition Senator Dionisio García Carnero (Popular Party) shared Anasagasti's view, and noted that Venezuela has a real dictatorship, despite the fact that President Hugo Chávez rules his country under a disguise of democracy.  However, Arcadio Díaz Tejera, a Senator for the ruling Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE), said that Spain must be "respectful" of the internal processes in other countries. He underlined that "it is not the task of democracy to replace people's will."

IN CUBA, NEW ORLEANS MAYOR PRAISES THE "SUCCESSES" OF THE CUBAN DICTATOR'S DISASTER-RESPONSE SYSTEM

         HAVANA, CUBA--Under Cuba's communist system, the government calls all the shots all the time - but during monster hurricanes that may not be such a bad thing, New Orleans' mayor says. In an interview during his six-day trip to Cuba's capital to study the island's disaster-response system, Ray Nagin told The Associated Press that "one of the biggest weaknesses we had during Hurricane Katrina is it wasn't clear who was the top authority." "

    The president and the governor were going back and forth. ... in Cuba you don't have that problem," Nagin said Tuesday evening. "The government says, 'This is what we're doing, these are the resources we are going to deploy,' and it pretty much happens."  The mayor and 15 U.S. city and state officials, including from police, fire and port agencies, met with Cuban civil defense authorities and saw presentations on how the island's military mobilizes during disasters. Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans in 2005, killing more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi and causing $41.1 billion in property damage.

     "I think they do a much better job than we do on knowing their citizens at a very, very detailed level, block by block," Nagin said. In Cuba, Revolutionary Defense Committees on nearly every corner watch their neighbors. They help with evacuations and provide social services such as vaccinations, but also are supposed to report any behavior considered subversive. Nagin also met with the head of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce and spoke to authorities at the top tourism monopoly and at the Port of Havana. In the late 1950s, Cuba was the top source of trade for the Port of New Orleans.

SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER MIGUEL MORATINOS PROMISES CUBAN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO TO LOBBY EU ON CUBA POLICY

      HAVANA, CUBA.--Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Monday promised Cuban dictator Raul Castro that he would lobby the European Union to eliminate the “common position” that irritates Havana, because it demands democracy and respect for human rights on the communist-ruled island. Moratinos arrived over the weekend on an official visit during which he has had several meetings with Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez, and shortly before leaving on Monday he was received by Raul Castro.

    Moratinos and Rodriguez said that they were satisfied with the strengthening of bilateral relations, which were normalized in 2007 during the first visit by the Spanish minister, who promised to help improve links between the island and the EU. However, according to Spanish sources, Moratinos told Cubans that the “common position” approved in 1996 on the urging of then-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, was agreed to unanimously and must be withdrawn in the same way, which is not an easy task at the present time.

    Cubans say that it seems to be a contradiction that Havana has normalized its relations with Latin America and is doing so at present with the United States – at least in the areas of immigration and postal service – but the EU is maintaining an obstacle in place such as the “common position.”  Cuba’s outstanding debt to Spain and the situation of Spanish firms on the island, which have been affected by the Havana government’s acute lack of liquidity, according to diplomats who attended the meetings. Spanish aid to Cuba over the past 12 months has included funding to rebuild and repair schools, hospitals and homes battered by three hurricanes in 2008, as well as an initial 36 tons of emergency relief supplies. Around 40 percent of Madrid’s assistance is included as part of multilateral cooperation plans coordinated by U.N. agencies. Another 35 percent is sent via 100 Spanish non-governmental organizations and the remaining 25 percent is channeled through direct government-to-government initiatives.  

nicaraguan court says daniel ortega can seek re-election

     MANAGUA, NICARAGUA--NICARAGUA'S LEFTIST RULER DANIEL ORTEGA appears to have won the right to seek re-election in 2011, though opponents call the decision illegal and are vowing to fight it. The constitutional commission of the Supreme Court on Monday overturned a ban on consecutive re-election and on serving more than two terms, and the head of Nicaragua's electoral commission said the ruling is final. Only members of Ortega's Sandinista party took part in the ruling by the heavily politicized court.  But the president of the Supreme Court, a member of the opposition Liberal Party, refused to recognize the decision on Tuesday. "Ortega is completely disqualified from being a candidate" in the next elections, Justice Manuel Martinez said.

     Opposition leaders said the commission ruling was an underhanded power grab by Ortega, who was first named president after the Sandinista rebels toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Liberal Party judges were not present at Monday's vote and say it must be approved by the full Supreme Court. But they lack the votes to overturn it because the death of a Liberal Party justice tipped the balance of the court to the Sandinistas. Under a power-sharing deal, the Sandinistas and Liberals each appoint eight members of the court and split influence over other agencies as well, freezing out third parties.

    Latin American leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe also have maneuvered to extend their terms in office. In Central America, leaders of the interim government of Honduras have accused ousted President Manuel Zelaya of attempting to undo presidential term limits through a referendum on whether to revise the constitution. Zelaya vehemently denies the accusations.  Ortega has repeatedly sought ways to extend his stay in office, often suggesting that Nicaragua adopt a parliamentary system that would let the dominant party's leader be head of government. Opponents say the president took his campaign for re-election to the courts only after he failed to secure enough votes in congress to amend the constitution.

CHAIR OF PARAGUAYAN CONGRESS ACCUSES HUGO CHAVEZ OF MEDDLING IN INTERNAL AFFAIRS

         ASUNCION, PARAGUAY--Senator Miguel Carrizosa, the chair of the Paraguayan Congress and member of the minority party Partido Patria Querida (PPQ), accused on Monday Venezuelan leftist ruler Hugo Chávez of "meddling in internal affairs." The Venezuelan ruler said in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba that the extreme right is preparing a coup against Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.

     At a press conference, Carrizosa was upset because "the power that denounced the arms race in the region was the Executive Office, not the Congress."  "We believe that the claims that the far right is planning a coup against President (Lugo) are offensive and we reject them. Furthermore, in accordance to the Constitution, there is a democratic instrument to bring charges, if necessary, against the president, namely impeachment," Carrizosa stressed.

     Chávez said during the summit of the Bolivarian Alliances for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) held last weekend in Bolivia that the Paraguayan far right "takes Bolivia as an excuse to attack the government of Lugo. They are preparing a coup," AP reported.

CUBA CONTINUES SENDING SPIES TO THE UNITED STATES

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- In the six months after the 9/11 attacks, up to 20 Cubans walked into U.S. embassies around the world and offered information on terrorism threats. Eventually, all were deemed to be Cuban intelligence agents and collaborators, purveying fabricated information. A White House official complained bitterly and publicly in 2002 that Fidel Castro's agents had tried to send U.S. intelligence on “wild goose'' chases that could cost lives at a time when Washington was reeling from the worst terrorism attacks in history. “Many walk-ins were eventually identified as known/suspected [Cuban agents]. The problem was that U.S. intelligence was so starved for information on Cuba -- and we had so few Cuba experts -- that walk-ins were low risk, high payoff for the Cubans,'' said one former U.S. intelligence community official.

     “The Cubans periodically used walk-ins to continue to test U.S. capabilities and reactions, but . . . later approaches were not as frequent as we saw in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11 attacks,'' added a former top Bush administration official. The year 2001 was certainly important. On Sept. 11, al Qaeda attacked the United States. Ten days later, U.S. authorities arrested the Pentagon's top Cuba analyst, Ana Belen Montes, on charges of spying for Havana. Over the next six months alone, 15 to 20 Cubans walked into U.S. diplomatic missions and offered information heavily laced with references to terrorism threats, one of the Cuba experts said. “All walk-ins in this group were eventually discredited,'' he added. Most of the walk-ins took place in U.S. embassies in Latin America, Europe and Asia, the former Bush administration official said.

The CIA and the FBI's counterintelligence sections suspected many of the walk-ins were sent to penetrate U.S. intelligence in hopes of learning exactly how Montes was uncovered -- to this day one of the closest-held secrets in the case, one of the experts said. “Their intelligence services had been taking a beating -- Montes in 2001, the five spies in Miami a couple of years earlier -- and we believed they were desperate to find out how they were being spotted,'' he added.  But most of the walk-ins over the years appear to have been part of a broader campaign: to make contact with U.S. intelligence agents, identify them, keep them busy and pass on misinformation, the two experts said. Any Cuban who walks into a U.S. embassy offering information is usually first interviewed by a low-ranking State Department official, the experts said. But if the information seems promising the visitor is later debriefed by a CIA or Defense Department official.

SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER SHUNS CUBAN DISSIDENTS DURING HIS VISIT TO HAVANA

     HAVANA, CUBA--Spain's foreign minister met with his Cuban counterpart Monday during an official visit that has caused a stir for who he won't be seeing: top political opposition leaders on the island. Miguel Angel Moratinos has no plans to visit dissidents, political activists, independent Cuban journalists or members of Havana-based human rights organizations, the groups say, a break with the past when Spanish leaders often held such meetings and enraged the Cuban government.

     Indeed, critics back home claim he has stayed away for fear of angering Cuban President Raul Castro - and that he has little to show for the effort in any event.  Moratinos held brief discussions with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, but it was unclear if he would get an audience with President Castro or his brother Fidel. The Spanish diplomat arrived Saturday for a visit that stretched into Monday evening, but included just one day of work activities. "Today, thanks to a new political reality between Cuban and Spain, we have the chance to support and foster efforts at cooperation," he said. In Spain, the ABC newspaper carried a front page photograph of Moratinos in a Cuban museum under the headline, "Not the dissidents, not the Castros," a reference to criticism that the foreign minister has gained no greater access to Cuba's leaders by shunning the country's opposition. That was far more than Cuba's state-controlled newspapers had to say about Moratinos' visit.

      The trip was all but ignored in the official press - highly unusual in a country where the resumes and speeches of even low-level guests from tiny or far away nations are reprinted verbatim. News of his visit wasn't in any of the main newspapers Monday. Economist Martha Beatriz Roque, who was among 75 leading dissidents imprisoned as part of a government crackdown in 2003, said Monday that police have stepped up harassment in recent days to ensure activists stay out of sight during Moratinos' visit. "Let him come here so he can see what real repression is," she said by phone Monday, speaking from the home of another dissident, Vladimiro Roca, a former fighter pilot and son of a legendary communist leader who has become an outspoken critic of the communist system.

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV RAPS RUSSIA'S "MOCKERY OF DEMOCRACY" 

         MOSCOW, RUSSIA--Russia's disputed regional elections have made a mockery of the country's democratic credentials, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said in an interview published on Monday. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party won a landslide victory in the October 11 regional elections, but opposition parties have alleged the votes were rigged and briefly marched out of parliament last week in protest. "In everyone's eyes, the elections turned into a mockery of the people and showed a deep disrespect for their voices," Gorbachev was quoted as saying in the opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which he part-owns. "The party of power gained the result it needed by discrediting political institutions and the very party itself," Gorbachev was quoted as saying.

     Gorbachev, who is reviled by many Russians for presiding over the collapse of the Soviet Union, has previously said the United Russia party is more servile than the Soviet Communist Party which he used to lead. Independent observers criticized the regional elections -- in which about a third of Russia's voters were eligible to take part -- as rigged, and said the entire campaigning process prevented a free and fair vote. United Russia, led by former Kremlin chief Putin, calls itself "the party of power" and has control over most regions.

     "If even such disciplined, cautious people, who are so close to power, decided to issue a demarche, that means confidence in the political institution of elections is completely lost," Gorbachev was quoted as saying. None of Russia's small pro-western parties are represented in the federal parliament, or Duma, where United Russia has 315 out of 450 seats, enough to push through changes to the constitution. "We cannot expect anything from this senseless Duma," Gorbachev said. "The electoral system is completely disfigured. It needs an alternative." Gorbachev, who served as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party from 1985 until 1991, sought to reform the Soviet Union by giving greater freedoms to citizens and allowing public criticism of the Communist party. But he was unable to keep control of the changes he unleashed, and the former superpower broke up into 15 independent states.

FIVE SENIOR REVOLUTIONARY GUARD COMMANDERS KILLED IN IRAN BOMB

      TEHRAN, IRAN--A homicide bomber killed five senior commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and at least 26 others in an area of southeastern Iran that has been the focus of a growing Sunni insurgency. The official IRNA news agency said the dead included the deputy commander of the Guard's ground force, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as a chief provincial Guard commander for the area, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh. The other dead were Guard members or local tribal leaders. More than two dozen others were wounded, state radio reported.

     The headquarters of Iran's armed forces blamed the bombing on "terrorists" backed by "the Great Satan America and its ally Britain," Fars News Agency was quoted by Reuters. "Not in the distant future we will take revenge," Iran's statement read, according to Reuters. Iran's forces claim the country "will clear this region from terrorists and criminals." "The global arrogance, with the provocation of its local mercenaries, targeted the meeting of the Guard with local tribal leaders," said the Guard statement read out on state TV. The United States, however, condemned the attacks on Sunday and denied any involvement.  "We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives. Reports of alleged U.S. involvement are completely false," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a brief statement.

      The Revoutionary Guard commanders were inside a car on their way to a meeting with local tribal leaders in the Pishin district near Iran's border with Pakistan when an attacker with explosives blew himself up, IRNA said. Iran's state-owned English language TV channel, Press TV, said there were two simultaneous explosions: one at the meeting and another targeting an additional convoy of Guards on their way to the gathering. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the region in Iran's southeast has been the focus of violent attacks by a militant group from Iran's Sunni Muslim minority called Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, which has waged a low-level insurgency in recent years. The group accuses Iran's Shiite-dominated government of persecution and has carried out attacks against the Revolutionary Guard and Shiite targets in the southeast. The Guard commanders targeted Sunday were heading to a meeting with local tribal leaders to promote unity between the Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

SPANISH POLICE SEIZE OIL TANKER WITH MORE THAN 512 KILOS OF COCAINE

     MADRID, SPAIN-- More than 512 kilos of cocaine have been found hidden near the engine room of an oil tanker in the Spanish port of Tarragona, Spain's Guardia Civil said in a statement Saturday.

    The boat left Maracaibo in Venezuela for Egypt in mid-September. It was in the port of Tarragona when Spanish police -- as part of routine checks of any boat coming from "hot routes" -- checked the boat, the statement said. Agents entered the boat and spotted several bags in a small boat room that is normally empty. The room is difficult to access from the inside of the vessel, so police entered the tight space from the water and found 510 kilos of cocaine in 14 packages strapped together.

    Authorities believe drug smugglers using boats to transport their products will place stashes in small rooms that are difficult to access from inside the vessels. They will get scuba drivers to access the rooms and retrieve the drugs when the boat is anchored. There was no word on any arrests.

CHANGES IN VENEZUELAN SCHOOL CALENDAR TO "indoctrinate children"

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Leonardo Carvajal, the leader of the non-governmental organization Asamblea de Educación, and Ercilia Vásquez, the director of the School of Education, Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), reported that the educational regions in the states of Miranda and Táchira are circulating among schools teachers and principals a "strategic school calendar," which is allegedly "promoting the government's political ideology blatantly."

    Among the "arbitrary" changes that the government has made to the school calendar, Carvajal highlighted the inclusion of celebrations related to communist and socialist leaders, as well as wars or violent events.  The calendar also features "biased interpretations" of the Venezuelan history. "There are several anniversaries that all Venezuelans share related to the life of Simón Bolívar, Andrés Bello, Francisco de Miranda and Simón Rodríguez. However, we categorically reject the ideological attempts at including (in the school calendar)Ezequiel Zamora, Karl Marx, Fabricio Ojeda and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, because they exalted violence and war," said Carvajal.

    He warned that these changes "were made at the eleventh hour andare self-defeating," for Article 14, Venezuela's education law, clearly sets forth "that the only doctrine that inspires the Venezuelan education system is strictly related to Simón Bolívar and Simón Rodríguez."  Carvajal said that according to the new school calendar, students will commemorate, among others, February 4, 2002 (the day when now President Hugo Chávez headed a coup d'état against the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez), which is now called the Day of the National Dignity, and October 8, both the day of the heroic guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara and the day of the new man.

NEW ORLEANS MAYOR IN HAVANA TO LEARN HOW THE CUBA HAS RECOVERED FROM NATURAL DISASTERS

      HAVANA, CUBA--The mayor of New Orleans flew to Cuba on Friday to study the communist government's disaster response system. It seems that the mayor will  learn a lot after observing first-hand how the Cuban government had "rebuilt" the capital after each hurricane.

    A Cuban official says Mayor Ray Nagin plans to be on the island six days, though details were not available. Nagin's office confirmed the visit, which began a day after President Barack Obama was in New Orleans. Nagin's city was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and many deaths there were blamed on people deciding to ride out the storm. Cuba uses mandatory evacuations to limit casualties from hurricanes, with authorities going door to door to ensure all comply.

     Trips by U.S. mayors to Cuba are not uncommon. Politicians can obtain Treasury Department permission to visit. In the 1950s, Cuba was a top source of trade through the port of New Orleans, but the statement from Nagin's office did not mention trade.

SPANISH PEOPLE'S PARTY LEADER SUPPORTS CARACAS MAYOR BEFORE "HARASSMENT" BY VENEZUELA'S LEFTIST RULER HUGO CHAVEZ

     MADRID, SPAIN--Members of the Spanish People's Party believe that the situation facing Mayor Antonio Ledezma violates the democratic principles established by the Organization of American States .

     Antonio Ledezma, the Metropolitan Mayor of Caracas, met in Madrid on Friday with Mariano Rajoy, the president of the Spanish opposition People's Party (PP), who expressed his solidarity and support vis-à-vis the "harassment" that, according to Rajoy, the Venezuelan mayor is facing under Hugo Chávez's leftist regime.  Jorge Moragas, the coordinator of the PP Presidency and Secretary of International Affairs of the PP, who attended the meeting, said that Ledezma, "has been subject to an intolerable harassment" by the government of Hugo Chávez.

     Moragas added that Ledezma's situation "repeatedly violates" the democratic principles established by the Organization of American States (OAS). The leader of the PP also reported the existence of political prisoners in Venezuela.

pakistani troops move in for "mother of all battles"  against the taliban

         ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN--A Pakistani government official has confirmed to Fox News that the military ground operation has started and the military has also confirmed that mass numbers of Pakistan soldiers have crossed into the South Waziristan agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for Operation Path of Salvation. Air strikes and artillery barrages continue to soften militant targets today.  Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is expected to hold a nationally televised address tonight on the operation.

    The much talked about and much anticipated offensive is designed to take the fight directly to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Pakistan Taliban movement’s HQ in South Waziristan.  Its new leader Haqimullah Mehsud launched a guerrilla campaign of attacks over the last 12 days that have killed over 175 Pakistan civilians, security forces and law enforcement officers.

NORTH KOREA WARNS SOUTH KOREA OF POSSIBLE NAVAL CLASH

      SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--North Korea warned South Korea of a possible naval clash Thursday, accusing Seoul of sending warships into its waters around their disputed western sea border.  The South's "reckless military provocations" have created "such a serious situation that a naval clash may break out between the two sides in these waters," the North's navy said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

    North Korea has often issued similar warnings before, as it does not recognize the western sea border. The communist nation claims that the United Nations unilaterally drew the line at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and that it should be redrawn further south. The dispute led to two bloody naval skirmishes in 1999 and in 2002. But the latest warning came as relations between the two Koreas showed signs of improvement with the North taking a series of conciliatory steps like freeing detained South Koreans and pledging to resume stalled joint projects.

    On Wednesday, the North offered a rare apology to the South for releasing a massive amount of water from a dam that sparked flooding blamed for six South Korean deaths. Ties between the two sides had badly frayed as North Korea cut off reconciliation talks and suspended joint projects in anger over the hard-line policy that the South's conservative President Lee Myung-bak has taken toward the North since taking office last year. The two Koreas fought the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, which means that the sides are still technically at war.

FRANCE WILL NOT SEND ANY MORE TROOPS TO AFGHANISTAN, SAYS FRENCH PRESIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY

     PARIS, FRANCE --French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced he will not send any more troops to Afghanistan. Instead, France wishes to see a build-up of home-grown Afghan troops, Mr Sarkozy said in a newspaper interview released last night. "Is it necessary to stay in Afghanistan? I say 'yes'. And to stay to win," Mr Sarkozy said. "If we leave, it is nuclear power Pakistan that will be threatened. But France will not send one more soldier," he said. His announcement comes as the United States is considering sending up to 45,000 troops to Afghanistan.

    It also came amid a furious row over press reports that Italian secret agents had paid off Taleban locals to keep the peace last year without informing their French counterparts. Weeks after the Italians withdrew from the supposedly "low risk" Sarobi area, east of Kabul, ten French soldiers were killed. Italy's defence minister said his country was planning to sue The Times newspaper over the claims. In France, opposition Socialists – who voted this year against the ongoing presence of the 2,900-strong French contingent in Afghanistan – demanded the defence minister answer questions on the claims.  Mr Sarkozy made no mention of them, but a defence spokesman dismissed the reports as "without foundation".

    When asked whether paying the Taleban to avoid combat engagements was common practice, he said: "It is not French practice in Afghanistan in any case." However an unnamed senior Afghan army officer in Kabul told Agence France-Presse, the French national news agency, that all forces in the Nato operation except the British and Americans paid the insurgents. Mr Sarkozy's statement came on the day Nato's commander in chief in the region, Major General Mart de Kruif, said between 10,000 and 15,000 more troops were "absolutely" needed to maintain security in the restive south of the country.

VENEZUELA DENIES HAVING BEEN ADVISED BY COLOMBIA OF REBEL'S FLIGHT

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA-- The Venezuelan authorities have not been officially informed by their Colombian counterparts about the flight of a guerrilla leader of the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN), who according to Colombian authorities is hiding in Venezuela, Tarek El Aissami, the Venezuelan Interior Minister said.

    "The Colombian government has not formally notified the Venezuelan authorities about the alleged flight of 'Pablito'. They offered a press conference in Colombia and simply said: 'he escaped and he is now in Venezuela,'" an official said to AFP.

    The Colombian authorities were checking the information on the identity of a person allegedly detained in Venezuela, who would resemble Carlos Marín Guarín, aka 'Pablito', a member of the ELN guerrillas, said on Wednesday General Freddy Padilla, the commander of Colombia's Armed Forces.

NIKOLAI PATRUSHEV: RUSSIA RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CONDUCT PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES

      MOSCOW, RUSSIA-- A top Russian security official says Moscow reserves the right to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes to safeguard the country against aggression on both a large and a local scale, according to a newspaper interview published Wednesday.  Presidential Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev also singled out the U.S. and NATO, saying Moscow's Cold War foes still pose potential threats to Russia despite what he called a global trend toward local conflicts.

     The interview appeared in the daily Izvestia during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as U.S. and Russian negotiators try to hammer out a nuclear arms reduction treaty by December. It also came amid grumbling in Moscow over U.S. moves to modify plans for a missile shield near Russia's borders rather than ditch the idea outright.

     Patrushev said a sweeping document on military policy including a passage on preventative nuclear force will be handed to President Dmitry Medvedev by the end of the year, according to Izvestia. Officials are examining "a variety of possibilities for using nuclear force, depending on the situation and the intentions of the possible opponent," Patrushev was quoted as saying. "In situations critical to national security, options including a preventative nuclear strike on the aggressor are not excluded."

RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER VLADIMIR PUTIN: IRAN SANCTIONS TALK PREMATURE

     BEJING, CHINA--Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticized talk of sanctions against Iran on Wednesday, undermining U.S. efforts to present a united front against Tehran's nuclear program at a crucial moment. Putin's comments in China came a day after Russia's foreign minister, at Hillary Rodham Clinton's side in Moscow, said threatening sanctions was "counterproductive."

     Russia's growing hostility to even discussing sanctions comes shortly after President Barack Obama canceled plans to build a missile defense shield in Europe. That was seen by some as a concession to Russia in hopes of persuading it to put more pressure on Iran to open its nuclear program for inspection. The U.S. and a number of other countries contend the program is meant to develop nuclear weapons. "If we speak about some kind of sanctions now, before we take concrete steps, we will fail to create favorable conditions for negotiations," Putin said. "That is why we consider such talk premature."

    Putin's words served as a parting shot at the U.S. Secretary of State, who wound up a two-day visit to Russia as part of an effort to mend relations. She came to Moscow seeking solidarity for a firm warning to Iran of the consequences of refusing to stop enriching uranium and come clean about its nuclear activities. Speaking to reporters shortly returning home from Beijing, Putin sounded less cooperative on Iran than President Dmitry Medvedev, who said after a meeting with Obama in New York last month that sanctions are sometimes inevitable.

CUBA AND VENEZUELA BECOME JOINT OWNERS OF STATE TV NETWORK TELESUR

         HAVANA, CUBA-- Cuba's Institute of Radio and Television is the new joint owner of the multi-state TV network Telesur, according to the shareholders meeting held on August 31, whose minutes were published in the Official Gazette 39,282 dated October 9.

     The Gazette reported the entry as a new shareholder of the institute belonging to the Cuban government, which paid USD 475,000 at the exchange rate of VEB 1.92 per US dollar -the official exchange rate at the time the agreement between the Ministry of Communication and Information of Venezuela and the government of Cuba was signed.

    With the entry of Cuba as joint owner, the majority shareholder is the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with 5,810,256 shares while Cuba owns 903,000 shares, paid at one VEB per share.   The Official Gazette also reported that one of the members of the new board of directors of Telesur is Juan Carlos Ortega, son of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER MIGUEL moratinos won't meet dissidents on cuba

      MADRID, SPAIN--  Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos will not meet with Cuban dissidents during his Oct. 18-19 visit to Havana, ministry sources said Tuesday. Moratinos is going to Cuba to make further progress in Spain’s political dialogue with the communist regime, which will include the state of human rights on the island. He is scheduled to meet with Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez and could perhaps see President Raul Castro, although that has not been confirmed, the sources said.

    This will be Moratinos’ second visit to Havana, following an April 2007 trip that opened a new stage in bilateral relations. On that occasion, Moratinos assigned a senior ministry official to meet with members of Cuba’s internal opposition after he left the island, but most of the dissidents stayed away. The Spanish Foreign Ministry says the absence of talks with dissidents is due to the “institutional” nature of next week’s visit.

    The minister does have the intention of finding out about the status of Cuba’s 210 political prisoners and to continue discussing the state of human rights on the islands, one of the pillars of the new relationship launched in April 2007, according to the sources. Moratinos also plans to meet with Spanish expatriates and businessmen in the Caribbean nation to see how their businesses are faring, the sources said.

MAYOR OF CARACAS ANTONIO LEDEZMA REBUTS "INDIFFERENCE" OF THE sPANISH GOVERNMENT

     STRASBOURG, FRANCE--Metropolitan mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma said on Tuesday in Strasbourg that "there are complaints in Venezuela about the indifference of the Spanish government." Further, Ledezma recalled his status of social democratic leader and supporter of former Spanish President Felipe González.

    In an interview with Efe, Ledezma regretted that "in Spain, negotiating USD 8 billion with Chávez counts more than 27 million people affected by his authoritarian government."  Ledezma said that among these citizens there are many people from Galicia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Basque Country, since the Spanish community is one of the largest in Venezuela, and one of the most "beloved."

     "I am not asking for pity," said the mayor. "I am only asking for solidarity from a society that has matured."  "Sometimes, I see a strange behavior" in the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, "as it washes away the sins of Chávez, thus turning Spain into a sink," Ledezma added.

VENEZUELAN BUSINESS CHAMBER REJECTS MARGARITA HILTON EXPROPRIATION 

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Noel Álvarez, the president of the Venezuelan Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecámaras), rejected as unfair competition the Venezuelan government's decision to expropriate the Margarita Hilton hotel, the marina yacht club and the casino.

    In particular, Alvarez noted that the individual stakeholders of the resort operating in these facilities are seriously concerned.  "We are deeply concerned about the fact that the State, or in this case the government, continues to buy a large number of companies and taking on activities that do not pertain to it," said Alvarez on Wednesday.

    "We do believe that governments have to play a role in the fields of health care, safety and education and must leave in the hands of the private sector other activities that we carry out and that must be competitive in a market economy."  He added that the business organization he chairs is assessing the constitutional and legal nature of the decision.  "We urge the government to abandon the transition to state capitalism once and for all, and leave in the hands of the private sector the activities belonging to this sector," he stressed.

PENTAGON WANTS 'MASSIVE' BOMB SOONER

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete. Call it Plan B for dealing with Iran, which recently revealed a long-suspected nuclear site deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom. The 15-ton behemoth — called the "massive ordnance penetrator," or MOP — will be the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal and will carry 5,300 pounds of explosives. The bomb is about 10 times more powerful than the weapon it is designed to replace.

    The Pentagon has awarded a nearly $52 million contract to speed up placement of the bomb aboard the B-2 Stealth bomber, and officials say the bomb could be fielded as soon as next summer. Pentagon officials acknowledge that the new bomb is intended to blow up fortified sites like those used by Iran and North Korea for their nuclear programs, but they deny there is a specific target in mind.   "I don't think anybody can divine potential targets," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. "This is just a capability that we think is necessary given the world we live in."

    The Obama administration has struggled to counter suspicions lingering from George W. Bush's presidency that the United States is either planning to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities itself or would look the other way if Israel did the same. The administration has been careful not to take military action off the table even as it reaches out to Iran with historic talks this month. Tougher sanctions are the immediate backup if diplomacy fails to stop what the West fears is a drive for a nuclear weapon. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities would probably only buy time. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen has called a strike an option he doesn't want to use.

TOP RUSSIAN GENERAL SAYS COUNTRY WILL DEPLOY MULTIPLE-WARHEAD MISSILES IN DECEMBER

     MOSCOW, RUSSIA-- A top Russian general says Russia will deploy multiple-warhead missiles in December, the same month a nuclear arms control treaty expires.

    His comments are not new but are seen as a challenge because they come just as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Moscow, where efforts to replace the START I treaty are on the agenda. Lt. Gen Andrei Shvaichenko, the chief of the country's Strategic Missile Forces, was quoted by Russian news agencies Monday as saying the country will deploy RS-24 missiles.

     Russia disputes U.S. claims that the missiles would violate the treaty. Shvaichenko also warns the U.S. against refitting long-range missiles with conventional warheads. Clinton arrives Monday, with her first meetings scheduled for Tuesday.

CONVICTED CUBAN SPY'S LIFE SENTENCE REDUCED TO 22 YEARS

         MIAMI, FLORIDA--A convicted Cuban intelligence agent who infiltrated the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West -- but didn't obtain or pass along state secrets to his handlers in Havana -- saw his life sentence reduced to approximately 22 years on Tuesday. Antonio Guerrero, convicted of espionage conspiracy in the highly publicized prosecution of the so-called ``Cuban Five'' spy defendants in 2001, had reached an agreement with the U.S. attorney's office to lower his sentence to 20 years.

    But U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard rejected the proposed agreement as too lenient, sentencing Guerrero to two months shy of 22 years. She noted that although Guerrero did not obtain top secret information from the U.S. government, ``the evidence did indicate that he very much wanted to.''  She said the sentence was “reasonable and just and reflects the seriousness of the offense.'' Last year, Lenard was criticized by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta for imposing the life sentence, which the court considered excessive because of insufficient evidence of harm to national security.

    In court filings, prosecutors had said a 20-year sentence would be ``reasonable'' -- despite contending that Guerrero “agreed to provide information, including United States national defense information, on the military installation to Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence.'' The defendant's attorney, Leonard Weinglass, agreed that the 20-year sentence would be “reasonable,'' but stressed the appeals court's finding that “no top secret information was actually gathered and transmitted.''

HILLARY CLINTON SAYS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE A RECOGNITION OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S WORLD VISION

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she thinks President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because of "his attitude toward America's role in the world. "His willingness to really kind of challenge everyone ... restores a kind of image and appreciation of our country," Clinton said in an interview with NBC television broadcast Monday.

     Clinton said she didn't think winning the award would have any effect on Obama's deliberations over what to do next in Afghanistan, including the question of whether to send large numbers of additional troops into a country where violence has recently surged. "I think that the president makes each decision on the merits," she said in the interview taped during her visit to Zurich, Switzerland. She said the Nobel award is "not going to influence" the tough decisions Obama faces on Afghanistan.

    "Every one of those deaths and all of the injuries of any our men and women in uniform weigh heavily on all us," Clinton said. "I want to guarantee all your listeners that this process will result in a very well thought-out approach." She said she recognizes some are demanding a precipitate withdrawal while others believe there should be a substantial infusion of forces. "Neither extreme is really focused on the situation, as we are," Clinton told interviewer Ann Curry.

LEADING CUBAN DISSIDENTS CHEER PRESIDENT OBAMA'S NOBEL PEACE PRIZE  

     HAVANA, CUBA-- Many of the 75 activists jailed in a 2003 Cuban government crackdown on political dissent are congratulating Barack Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

     In a letter released Monday to international journalists, 29 of those imprisoned six years ago said Obama "has become a global symbol, especially for us who, under difficult conditions, are defending Cubans' right to democracy."

     In another letter, 21 of their wives, mothers and other female relatives also cheered Obama. Fifty-four dissidents remain imprisoned on allegations they conspired with the U.S. to topple Cuba's government. Those freed were granted medical parole or forced into exile in Spain. One was released after completing a six-year sentence.

CUBA EXPANDS PORTS CAPACITY WITH HELP FROM CHINA AND VENEZUELA

         HAVANA, CUBA--Cuba is expanding and streamlining its three major ports with the help of Venezuela and China. The Caribbean island is planning to receive ships of greater tonnage after the projected expansion of the Panama Canal.

    "These works have been carried out in the ports of Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba, which operate 80 percent of Cuban imports, thanks to a loan agreement between China and Cuba," said Miguel González, the Director General of the port company Empresa de Servicios Portuarios de Ciudad de La Habana.  González also said that they are expecting a monetary contribution from the joint company Puertos del ALBA, established to promote the development and modernization of Venezuelan and Cuban ports.

    He recalled that in the eighties, when Cuba and the Soviet Union had an alliance, Cuban ports shipped 12 million tons of merchandises, AFP reported. "This amount has declined to about 3 million. There are plenty of reasons, particularly the global economic crisis that is affecting us today. Therefore, the port capacity that existed at that time is not required nowadays," he said. His Havana company, which can operate 1,200,000 tons per year, is currently operating 600,000 to 700,000 tons."

PRESIDENT OBAMA TO GAY GROUP: 'STILL LAWS TO CHANGE, HEARTS TO OPEN'

      WASHINGTON, D.C.-- President Obama delivered a rousing speech Saturday night to the nation's largest gay rights group, praising the gay community for making strides in equal rights and pledging to deliver on major campaign promises that some say he's left on the back burner.   "For nearly 30 years, you've advocated for those without a voice," Obama said during his address at the dinner for the Human Rights Campaign. "Despite the progress we've made, there are still laws to change and hearts to open."

    Obama's speech came as gay rights activists continued to lose patience over the lack of change to key issues for the gay community -- including the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. It comes on the eve of a major gays-rights rally in Washington. "This fight continues now and I'm here with the simple message: I'm here with you in that fight," Obama told the applauding crowd.

     Obama called for the repeal of the ban on gays in the military -- the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.  "We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country," he said. "I'm working with the Pentagon, its leadership and the members of the House and Senate on ending this policy, legislation that has been introduced in the House to make this happen, I will end 'don't ask, don't tell.' That's my commitment to you." The president said he backed the rights of gay couples, saying they should have the "same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country." He said he has urged Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and to pass the Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act.

THE LEFT-WING RULER OF VENEZUELA, HUGO CHAVEZ, SAYS PRESIDENT OBAMA DID "NOTHING" TO DESERVE THE NOBEL PRIZE

     CARACAS, VENEZUELA-- Venezuela's SOCIALIST ruler  Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama had done nothing beyond wishful thinking to earn the Nobel Peace Prize.  Chavez, who has mixed praise for Obama personally with criticism of his government's "imperialist" policies, said he thought it was a mistake when he read the U.S. leader had won.

    "What has Obama done to deserve this prize? The jury put store on his hope for a nuclear arms-free world, forgetting his role in perpetuating his battalions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his decision to install new military bases in Colombia," Chavez wrote in a column. "For the first time, we are witnessing an award with the nominee having done nothing to deserve it: rewarding someone for a wish that is very far from becoming reality." Chavez said giving Obama the Nobel award was like giving a baseball pitcher a prize simply for saying he was going to win 50 games and strike out 500 batters.

    Although mild compared to some of the virulent rhetoric he often uses against the United States, Chavez's criticism contrasted with the assessment of his mentor, Fidel Castro. The former Cuban leader said it was "a positive measure" that implied criticism of the "genocidal" policies of Obama's predecessors in the White House. Though Caracas and Washington have hostile political relations, the United States remains the main buyer of oil from the OPEC member nation.

PAKISTAN ARMY FREED 39 HOSTAGES FROM TALIBAN TERRORISTS

         ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN--Four militants and three hostages -- two of them civilians -- were killed in the 22-hour standoff, Gen. Athar Abbas said. Two security personnel were killed during the rescue operation, and five others were injured. Abbas said two of the militants -- one wearing a suicide vest -- held 22 of the hostages in one room and threatened to blow up the building. Security forces fatally shot both gunmen before the explosive detonated.

     Two other militants, who were in another part of the facility, blew themselves up, Abbas said. Whether the three hostages died in during those explosions was unclear.  A fifth militant -- who led the attack -- was injured and captured, Abbas said. That militant was identified as Aqil, aka Dr. Usman, one of the suspected masterminds in the March 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan. Police there also have said he was involved in the July 2007 attempt to attack the airplane of former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

     Abbas said security forces communicated throughout the standoff with the militants, who made demands. Though Abbas did not immediately elaborate on the nature of the demands, another military official -- who was not authorized to speak on the record -- said the gunmen wanted the government to release several militants in Pakistani custody. The standoff started after an attack on the army checkpoint, which occurred about noon. The gunmen, wearing camouflage and riding in a minivan, opened fire Saturday at the headquarters checkpoint, Abbas said. Six army guards were killed initially in the gunbattle, Abbas said, and five gunmen were killed. Another military official said the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attack. Rawalpindi, the closely guarded home to the general headquarters of the Pakistani army, has experienced suicide bombings and other attacks before.

IRANIAN COURT SENTENCES 3 TO DEATH FOR INVOLVEMENT IN POST-ELECTION UNREST

      TEHRAN, IRAN--An Iranian official says three people have been sentenced to death for involvement in unrest that developed after Iran's disputed presidential election in June. The ISNA news agency quotes the court official as saying the three people were convicted of ties to an anti-government Iranian monarchist group - the Kingdom Assembly of Iran - and an exiled Iranian opposition group - the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran). The official says the death sentences are not final and can be appealed in a higher court.

    On Friday, an international human rights group expressed concern that more election protesters could be sentenced to death in Iran. Amnesty International relayed that concern after reporting that Iranian opposition activist and convicted anti-government monarchist Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani had been given a death sentence.   It is unclear if Zamani was one of the people sentenced to death on Saturday.

    Massive street protests broke out in Tehran following the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June. Thousands of protesters were arrested during the street demonstrations, and rights groups say many remain in jail. Dozens of people, including many protesters and security forces, were killed in the unrest. Opposition leaders and protesters say the election was rigged, but authorities deny this. The exiled Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, is based in Iraq. The United States lists the group as a terrorist organization, but the European Union has removed that designation.

CUBA REPORTS SWINE FLU DEATHS: 3 PREGNANT WOMEN

     HAVANA, CUBA --Cuba has acknowledged its first deaths from swine flu, saying three pregnant women succumbed to the virus and many more have been treated for symptoms. Deputy Health Minister Jose Angel Portal said a total of 2,100 pregnant women were treated for symptoms of the disease, with 110 of them seriously ill, in comments reported by the official Communist Party newspaper, Granma, on Saturday. He said three pregnant women died of the disease, according to Granma.

    The report does not say how many women remain hospitalized, nor make clear whether all of the 2,100 cases were confirmed to be H1N1. The communist government has said it will use everything at its disposal to fight swine flu - including calling in the armed forces - but it has expressed deep reservations about global plans to use a vaccine, which is currently being rolled. Cuban health officials have said that that program will be costly and could also be ineffective, since the virus could easily mutate and make any vaccine obsolete.

    The article said there are now 621 confirmed cases - including 177 children - in the country of more than 11 million people. Most of the early cases of swine flu were among visitors to the island, but Granma said the number of Cubans coming down with the virus was rising. Swine flu, first identified in April, is a global epidemic. The World Health Organization says there have been more than 375,000 loboratory confirmed cases and over 4,500 deaths linked to the illness. But many countries have stopped counting individual cases.

VENEZUELA'S OMBUDSWOMAN: NOBLE PRIZE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A MOCKERY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA--"The Nobel Peace Prize for Barack Obama, the president of the United States, is a mockery of human rights," said on Friday Gabriela Ramírez, the Venezuelan Ombudswoman.  "It is confusing and difficult to understand the fact that (Barack) Obama, who is the leader of a government that has legitimized torture to obtain information and presides over a country that has no human rights institutions, has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (...) This award is a mockery of human rights," she said.

    Ramírez told TV show Despertó Venezuela (Venezuela awoke), broadcast by state-run TV network Venezolana de Televisión, that the US president should apologize to the countries where it has perpetrated genocides, before being awarded a Nobel Prize, state-owned news agency ABN reported. Ramírez recalled that Obama's administration has reactivated the Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean Sea and is deploying seven military bases in Colombia, near the border with Venezuela, that affect the sovereignty and peace in South America.

     The ombudswoman said: "The Nobel Peace Prize is symbolically awarded to someone who works for peace. The top representative of a military power can not be awarded this Prize."  Early on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Obama was awarded the Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to promote nuclear disarmament and his new willingness to attack growing environmental problems.

CUBANS ALL OVER THE WORLD COMMEMORATE TODAY THE HISTORIC "GRITO DE YARA" (CRY OF YARA) 

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--On October 10, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes and a group of planters from the province of Oriente proclaimed the independence of Cuba in the historic Grito de Yara (Cry of Yara). Initially, there was no mention of the social question of slavery, but as the military campaign went on, it became clear that revolutionary success depended upon uniting all Cubans against Spanish rule.

     Brave men like General Antonio Maceo and General Máximo Gómez, a Dominican exile, contributed to the revolutionary effort. The Cuban masses changed the character of the revolution into a democratic one that sponsored abolition. After a few military victories, the nationalist forces controlled half the island of Cuba. However, the Spanish government was not about to lose its prize possession in the Caribbean. Royalist forces launched a "total war" of destruction, inflicting terrible losses throughout the island.

    Even though the Spanish armies were being supplied by the United States, the Cubans remained confident that people in the United States supported them morally and would eventually influence their government to render the Cubans much needed assistance. After ten years of bloodshed and the loss of an estimated 50,000 Cuban and 208,000 Spanish lives, the war was over. Under the 1878 Pact of Zanjon the crown agreed to enact reforms. However, the end of the war represented only the beginning of a truce between Spain and the Cuban revolutionaries. Men like Maceo and Gómez had become experts in guerrilla fighting and led the Cuban nationalists during the following years of the independence movement.

IRAN TO "BLOW UP THE HEART OF ISRAEL" IF ATTACKED

     TEHRAN, IRAN --Iran would ‘blow up the heart’ of Israel if it was attacked by the Jewish state or the United States, a Revolutionary Guards official was quoted on Friday as saying. ‘Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel,’ Mojtaba Zolnour said, according to IRNA news agency. Zolnour is a deputy representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the elite Guards force. Iranian officials have previously said Tehran would retaliate in event of an Israeli or US attack.

    Earlier this year, a senior commander said Iranian missiles could reach Israeli nuclear sites. Israel is believed to be the only nuclear-armed Middle East state. Israel has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to end a dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, echoing US policy, although Washington is engaged in a drive to resolve the issue through direct talks with Tehran. The west suspects the Islamic state is covertly seeking to develop nuclear weapons, which Iran denies.

    ‘The Zionist regime and the United States cannot risk attacking Iran,’ Zolnour said in the holy Shia city of Qom on Thursday, citing Iranian military and technological advances, IRNA reported. Iran refers to Israel as the ‘Zionist regime.’ At talks in Geneva on October 1, Iran agreed with six world powers — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — to give UN experts access to a newly-disclosed uranium enrichment plant south of Tehran.

OPPOSITION TO DENOUNCE THE VENEZUELAN LEFTIST RULER FOR DENYING JUSTICE

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Representatives of the Committee on Human Rights and Justice, opposition Unified Panel, will file a complaint with the United Nations (UN) about the "denial and obstruction of justice" by Venezuelan authorities and representatives of the Judiciary.

    Members of the committee said that in the last 10 years, sectors related to the government, who are responsible for administering law in the Venezuelan judicial system, have not given an appropriate answer to some cases that have been described, among others, as political persecution.  Rodrigo Pérez Bravo, legal adviser of the opposition Unified Panel, said that "in the last decade, 350 union leaders have been charged, 167 students have been judicially prosecuted, and there is a large number of political prisoners waiting for final judgment."

    Pérez Bravo considers that these statistics are an indication that "the Venezuelan government obstructs justice and that the Venezuelan judicial system only responds to cases bearing an electoral and political interest."  The lawyer added that the document to be submitted to the UN is a compilation of 10 years of judicial abuses. "We will appear before the Human Rights Commission of the UN, in exercise of a constitutional right, to make public the system of barriers and procedural delays in relevant cases of national and political interest."

US SAID THAT CHAVEZ SHOULD PLAY A MORE CONSTRUCTIVE ROLE IN THE REGION; BUT CHAVEZ SAID IT IS "RIDICULOUS"

      WASHINGTON, D.C.--Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez should play a more constructive role in the region, said on Thursday US State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly, one day after another US official asked the Venezuelan ruler to travel less and concentrate on his people.  The Venezuelan government needs "to open up their own democracy. They need to stop intimidation of media. They need to encourage more debate, more political debate within Venezuela, and play a more productive role in the region," said Kelly. On Wednesday, another US State Department Spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, Assistant  Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs, said that Chávez "travels to Tehran, travels to Moscow. He should stay home more and build a constructive government that concentrates on his own people."

    Venezuela's leftist ruler Hugo Chávez responded on Wednesday night to the statements made by Crowley and described them as another "Yankee ridicule."  Chávez read during a TV broadcast the news published by an international news agency according to which Crowley advised the Venezuelan President to travel less, focus on the problems of the country, and preside over a more constructive government.

    "This is ridiculous, isn't it?"… Well, that's the way the Yankees act … This is Obama's administration. Who travels more, Obama or Chávez? Which government should be required to implement a more constructive administration, the government of Venezuela or Obama's administration?" wondered President Chávez.  Chávez added: "What about the (US military) bases in Colombia? Are they constructive?" Are the aggressions against Venezuela constructive? What about the aggressions against Cuba?"

FLORIDA LAWMAKERS PUSH FOR HONDURAN ELECTIONS

     MIAMI, FLORIDA --Three South Florida GOP lawmakers just back from Honduras say all the country's major presidential candidates are hoping the U.S. will change its tune and sanction next month's elections.

    Obama and many world leaders don't recognize the interim government, which took power following a June coup. They say the election will be illegitimate unless ousted President Manuel Zelaya is restored to power. The three lawmakers said Tuesday those from Zelaya's own party want the elections to go on.

     U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart view Zelaya's ouster as a legitimate response to his calls for a referendum on the constitution that could have enabled him to follow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and remain president indefinitely.

17 DEAD AS SUICIDE BLAST TARGETS KABUL'S INDIAN EMBASSY

         KABUL, AFGHANISTAN--A massive suicide car bomb struck outside the Indian embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing 17 people and injuring 63 more, most of them civilians, in an attack claimed by Taliban militants. In a statement on their website, the Islamist insurgent group said that one of their "martyrs" had carried out the attack in the heavily fortified central diplomatic area, and said the Indian embassy "was the main target". The attack took place just after 8.30 am (0400 GMT) on busy Interior Ministry Street, sending a huge plume of smoke and dust into the air and causing carnage and chaos during the morning rush hour.

     Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP the toll had risen to 17 from an initial 12, including two police officers and 15 civilians. Fifty civilians were among the wounded, with 13 police officers also injured. The Taliban statement, as is usual when it claims responsibility for suicide attacks, exaggerated the extent of the damage and the death toll. The dead, it said, "included a few high-ranking officials of the embassy (and) 35 soldiers of foreign and Afghan nationality."

    "The explosion caused damage to the walls of the Indian embassy, which was the main target," it added. It identified the suicide bomber as "Khalid" from the Paghman district of Kabul province. Indian officials -- in New Delhi and at the Kabul embassy -- said no one at the embassy was killed, though some guards had sustained injuries as the blast blew out glass windows and doors. No foreign troops were reported killed. A similar suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008 killed 60 people and was blamed on Taliban militants linked to Pakistan's intelligence agencies, sending tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad soaring. Deadliest attacks in Afghanistan

VENEZUELA'S LEFT-WING RULER, HUGO CHAVEZ, ENTRUSTED FORMER CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO WITH PURCHASE OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA--VENEZUELAN LEFTIST RULER, HUGO CHAVEZ, delegated duties established in the Venezuelan Constitution and laws, and assigned Cuba the responsibility of purchasing medical equipment for Venezuela's public health network.  The bidding process based on technical requirements established by a team of experts with the Ministry of Health was abruptly halted in 2006 by Chávez, who gave entrusted then Cuban dictator Fidel Castro with such responsibility.

     Evidence of such move is found in two editorials written by the Cuban leader, dated July 14, 2007 and September 7, 2009. In both editorials, Castro claimed that Dutch company Philips breached an agreement with Cuba to supply medical equipment and spare parts to Cuba and Venezuela.  "President Hugo Chavez, who was pleased with the work carried out by the first contingents that traveled to Venezuela to work in the 'Barrio Adentro' program (designed to take medical assistance to the poor urban and agricultural regions in the country), asked us to create a program that could benefit all sectors of the Venezuelan people. Thus, the High-Tech Diagnostic Centers were founded," said Castro in his editorial.

     The High-Tech Diagnostic Centers "were intended to supplement the 600 Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers that, as polyclinics providing a broad range of services, with their laboratories and equipment, were supporting the work of the 'Barrio Adentro' doctors' offices," said Castro in his column Reflections by Comrade Fidel published in the Granma newspaper.  In the editorial, the Cuban leader adds that he personally participated in the purchase for Cuba and Venezuela of 3,553 medical equipments manufactured by Philips and Siemens, for a total of USD 72,762,694. The funds were provided by Caracas.

HUGO chavez asks PRESIDENT OBAMA to hand over luis posada carriles

     CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --Venezuela's LEFT-WING RULER Hugo Chávez asked again his US counterpart Barack Obama to hand over Venezuela Luis Posada Carriles, who has been accused of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban airliner with 73 people. This terrorist action was carried out 33 years ago.

     "Well, Obama, send us the terrorist. You should observe the law and international agreements," Chávez said during a Cabinet meeting broadcasted by state-run TV network Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).

     Meanwhile, confidential official documents that were declassified and released on Tuesday revealed that Posada Carriles volunteered and worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to spy on radical Cuban exiles in Miami, AFP reported.

CUBA SLASHES TOBACCO CROP BY 30 PERCENT DUE TO THE ISLAND'S GRAVE ECONOMIC CRISIS

         HAVANA, CUBA-- Cuba has reduced the area of its 2009 tobacco crop by almost 30 percent and the harvest forecast by 16 percent, to 22,500 tons, as a consequence of the global recession, officials said Tuesday.

      The cutbacks are due to “the economic troubles that have generated a crisis” on the island, as well as the “financial restrictions that made it impossible to obtain the necessary resources,” according to a statement on the Web page of the National Statistics Office, or ONE. The amount of land planted with tobacco was reduced from 28,200 hectares (69,629 acres) to 19,800 hectares (48,888 acres), while average yield is expected to rise from 0.95 tons to 1.10 tons per hectare (0.38 tons to 0.45 tons per acre), the ONE said.

    Cuba is going through one of its worst economic crises in decades due to the drop in exports, the rising cost of imports, three devastating hurricanes in 2008, the trade and financial embargo of the United States, and the deficiencies of its own system. Cuba produces some of the best tobacco in the world and is famous for brands of cigars like Montecristo, Cohiba, Partagas and Hoyo de Monterrey, whose sales have fallen in 2008 and 2009 because of the international crisis.

CUBAN GOVERNMENT BLASTS MANAGEMENT OF FARMERS MARKETS

       HAVANA, CUBA--The Cuban government has accused the managers of Havana’s farmers markets of irregularities, shortages, laziness, health code violations and inefficiency, state media said Monday. Officials participating in a meeting Sunday at the Agriculture Ministry noted “deficiencies at different levels in the production, warehousing and distribution chain that have led to shortages at some units,” the Communist Party daily Granma reported. 

    Deficiencies were found in a number of areas, including compliance with health regulations and decision making, the newspaper said in a report that was picked up by other state media outlets. Havana Mayor Juan Cotino criticized the “laziness, lack of discipline and deficiences” that harm state efforts to “put food on every table amid the global economic difficulties.”

    Cuba is experiencing one of its worst economic downturns in decades due to falling exports, rising import costs, the damage caused by hurricanes in 2008, the U.S. economic and financial embargo, and the deficiencies of the island’s communist system. The island’s state-controlled press frequently publishes articles that blame mid-level bureaucrats for a variety of problems.

LULA DA SILVA INSISTS ROBERTO MICHELETTI SHOULD STEP DOWN IMMEDIATELY IN RETURN FOR AN AMNESTY 

       STOCKHOLM,  -- Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insists onduras coup leader Roberto Micheletti should step down immediately in return for an amnesty

     ''For us, the solution will be easy if those that participated in the coup leave power and allow the legitimately elected president to take power,'' Lula told journalists at a summit with European Union leaders in Stockholm.  If Micheletti ''leaves and allows (ousted President Manuel) Zelaya to call elections, there will be an amnesty, because we want Honduras to live well,'' he said.

    Zelaya is currently in hiding in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, while Micheletti's regime is coming under increasing international pressure with the impending arrival of a high-level mission from the Organization of American States. But Lula stressed that Honduras could solve the problem instantly if the coup leaders returned Zelaya to power. ''There is only one thing wrong in Honduras, there's someone in the presidency that shouldn''t be there,'' he said

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC TRIP TO CUBA IS OFF

         WASHINGTON, D.C.-The New York Philharmonic scratched its trip to Cuba at the end of October because the United States Treasury Department said it would deny permission for a group of patrons to go along. Without them and their donations, the orchestra said on Thursday, it cannot afford to go. About 150 board members and other donors had promised to pay $10,000 each to spend Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 in Havana, where the orchestra was to play two concerts, said Zarin Mehta, its president. The money was to have covered the cost of the proposed trip, which came at the Cuban government’s invitation.

    Supporters, both individuals and executives of donor companies, usually tag along with major orchestras when they travel around the world. The travel amounts to high-class tourism along with a chance to make business connections in foreign capitals. “The patrons were excited about giving us the money with the opportunity of going to see Havana and be a witness and support their orchestra,” said Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic’s president. “This is what’s important to them.” Mr. Mehta said he would not consider taking the patrons’ money while leaving them behind.

    “I wouldn’t want to insult them,” he said. “I think it’s most likely they would say, ‘Go another time.’” That’s what the orchestra will try to do, Mr. Mehta said. He said he had hoped that pressure applied by New York elected officials, including Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representatives Steve Israel and Charles B. Rangel — who have supported the trip — would help to have the decision overturned.  “They haven’t been successful,” he said. “They’re befuddled.”

HONDURAS'S PRESIDENT, ROBERTO MICHELETTI, ANNOUNCES LIFTING OF EMERGENCY DECREE 

       TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--Honduras' PRESIDENT, Roberto Micheletti, said on Monday he would ask ministers to lift a decree that suspended some civil liberties and shut two media outlets loyal to ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Micheletti has come under pressure to end the emergency measures as the Organisation of American States tries to negotiate an end to a crisis triggered when Zelaya was toppled in a June coup. Zelaya slipped back into the country two weeks ago and has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

    "I am going to respectfully ask, that just as we took the decision to impose it, that we lift it," Micheletti told local television in an interview. Both leaders say they are ready for talks, but their key demands remain unchanged. Micheletti says Zelaya must face the courts and is resisting pressure to restore him to power, while Zelaya insists he be reinstated unconditionally.

    The emergency decree triggered a wave of international condemnation, and Zelaya supporters had demanded it be lifted before talks.  Troops exiled Zelaya after he riled powerful conservatives by allying himself with Socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and fuelling fears he wanted to amend the constitution to extend his hold on power.

FIVE UNITED NATIONS FOOD AID WORKERS KILLED IN PAKISTAN BY A SUICIDE BOMB BLAST

       ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN--A suicide bomb blast inside the fortified offices of the United Nations World Food Program in Islamabad has killed five UN workers. It was unlear last night why the bomber had targeted the food program, which feeds millions of poor Pakistanis, including those displaced by fighting in the country's troubled north-west.

    Islamabad was on high alert last night and officials have warned that more attacks are possible. A World Food Program official who survived the attack, Khan Tariq, said the whole building was shaken by the bomb.  "It was a severe blast," he told the Herald outside the building. "I ran out and found people lying on the ground so we rushed them outside for help. We never expected this. Our building has very tight security."

    Police believe the bomber detonated about eight kilograms of explosives strapped to his body in the foyer of the building. Bani Amin, deputy inspector general of police operations, said the legs and skull of the suicide bomber had been found. "We are investigating how he managed to enter inside the building," Mr Amin said. "There are scanners, cameras and strict security arrangements."  Police said the bomber was dressed in the uniform of the Frontier Corps, and security personnel at the building have been included in the investigation.  The Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, said the city had been put on a heightened security alert. "Terrorists want to defame Pakistan," he said.

VENEZUELA'S LEFTIST RULER, HUGO CHAVEZ, REJECTS AS "SHAMEFUL" STUDENT'S HUNGER STRIKE

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA-- On Sunday, President Hugo Chávez ordered a mandatory broadcast on all free-to-air TV and radio channels which lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes, to air the 341st edition of his weekly radio and TV show Aló, Presidente. During the show, he relaunched the Barrio Adentro mission, a Bolivarian social welfare program.

    President Chávez promised that extreme poverty would be eradicated by 2019, demanded his supporters to obtain an absolute majority in the upcoming National Assembly's elections and criticized the actions made by the student movement.  The official broadcast, which began at 11:19 a.m. (local time) and ended at 5:12 p.m., was made after the Venezuelan president "scolded" the supporters of his ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) on Saturday for requesting a mandatory nationwide TV and radio broadcast of a party meeting. Chávez, visibly upset, said that the mandatory official broadcasts were part "of a strategy." He added that he knows "when to use them without being asked to."

    "Now (students) take off their pants and show their back. It is unbelievable. Whom are they offending with these actions? They are offending themselves!" Chávez said at the end of the broadcast. "A hunger strike is a serious action. You risk your life for important things. They (students) term "political prisoners" a gang of thieves who are in jail on murder charges."

AT LEAST 30 LEFTIST GUERRILLAS OF THE FAR WERE KILLED BY COLOMBIAN MARINE IN AN AIRSTRIKE

       BOGOTA, COLOMBIA-- Between 30 and 40 leftist guerrillas were killed in the central-western province of Tolima in a Colombian military airstrike, Gov. Oscar Barreto confirmed earlier Friday. Barreto told Caracol Radio that the aerial bombardment occurred Thursday morning in an area known as Planadas, in southern Tolima, and was the product of a joint army-police operation carried out over several weeks.

    Colombian air force and targeted camps in Tolima and Valle del Cauca. The governor said he believed that between 30 and 40 FARC guerrillas were killed, although he said Defense Minister Gabriel Silva will offer more information and confirm the precise death toll on Friday. The bombing targeted a “historical corridor” of the FARC in a vast area of Tolima bordering Valle del Cauca, the governor said. He said that authorities presume that among the rebels killed was a man known by the alias “Jeronimo,” a mid-level commander very close to the FARC’s top leader, Alfonso Cano.

    President Alvaro Uribe said Thursday during an appearance in Ibague, Tolima’s capital, that the operation was “extremely important,” adding that it “would help bring peace and calm” to the area without giving details on the military mission or confirming the radio station’s report. Caracol Radio said Thursday that authorities had launched a large-scale operation against the joint central command of the FARC, which has battled a succession of governments. The guerrillas who survived the attack and managed to flee apparently hid the bodies of their fallen comrades, Caracol said. The FARC’s ranks have been reportedly cut in half to under 10,000 due to pressure from Colombia’s U.S.-backed military, but hostages released in recent months by the guerrillas say they are still far from being defeated.

VENEZUELA ISSUES INTERNATIONAL ARREST WARRANT FOR EX-PRESIDENT CARLOS ANDRES PEREZ

       CARACAS, VENEZUELA--  Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz said late in Tuesday that the Attorney General Office filed with Interpol an international arrest warrant for former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, as part of the investigations on the deaths and tortures occurred in Venezuela during the so-called Caracazo, a wave of protests, riots and looting that occurred on late February 1989.

    Ortega added that the arrest warrant for Carlos Andrés Pérez should be rated as "code red" under Interpol's protocol. She acknowledged that it does not imply that Pérez will be arrested and surrendered to Venezuelan authorities.

    The Caracazo occurred during the second presidential term of Carlos Andrés Pérez. Therefore, the former ruler is being investigated for allegedly ordering a crackdown on the people that led to the death and torture of hundreds of citizens in the last days of February 1989.

AGAIN, BRAZILIAN SENATE POSTPONES DECISION ON VENEZUELA'S ENTRY TO MERCOSUR

         BRAZILIA, BRAZIL-- The Committee on Foreign Affairs, Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, postponed on October 1 until October 29 a decision on the accession of Venezuela into the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), amid a controversy over the report filed by the rapporteur, who suggested rejecting Venezuela's accession.

    In his report, Senator Tasso Jereissatti, a member of the opposition Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), said that, despite the economic benefits that the presence of Venezuela in the bloc would involve for the member countries of the bloc, he would rather propose to refuse the entry, as a result of the "virtually dictatorial" political regime led by President Hugo Chávez.

    The vote of Jereissatti drew criticism from pro-government Senator Romero Jucá, of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), who requested time to review the paper and promised to present an alternative proposal in favor of Venezuela's entry to Mercosur in the meeting to be held on October 29.

U.S. CONGRESS READY TO PENALIZE IRAN IF DIPLOMACY FAILS

       WASHINGTON, D.C.- U.S. Congress is poised to act swiftly on new penalties against Iran if international talks on Tehran's nuclear program show signs of faltering. And this time lawmakers are talking about trying to block gas and refined petroleum exports to Iran, possibly causing serious disruptions in the lives of ordinary Iranians. "If we want to get their attention, we have to do something real: sanction Iran's gasoline imports," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, in a speech on the House floor. "That's where Ahmadinejad is vulnerable," he said, referring to Iran's president. Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, is one of several lawmakers working on plans to expand current penalties.

    "Congress must equip President (Barack) Obama with a full range of tools to deal with the threats posed by Iran," said Dodd, D-Conn., who said his bill would include extending current restrictions on Iran's financial institutions, imposing new trade bans and exacting penalties for entities exporting certain refined petroleum products to Iran. His committee plans a hearing on the subject Tuesday. Obama said talks Thursday in Switzerland between Iran and six world powers, where Iran indicated it would open its newly disclosed nuclear plant to U.N. inspectors, were "a constructive beginning." But he said Iran must match its words with actions

    The president said his administration, in conjunction with Congress, is crafting plans that could target Iran's energy, financial and telecommunications sectors. The hope is to gain a united international front that includes China and Russia, countries reluctant in the past to restrict trade with Iran. Several Democratic leaders, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., say Iran should be given a short time to show it is acting in good faith. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the talks should have the chance to succeed. But, he added, "We don't have to wait, certainly for Russia or China or for anybody else, to take the action we deem to be appropriate."

THOUSANDS OF VENEZUELAN STUDENTS PROTEST JAILING OF HUGO CHAVEZ OPPONENTS

       CARACAS, VENEZUELA-- THOUSANDS OF VENEZUELAN marched across Venezuela's capital Saturday to protest what they say is the persecution of President Hugo Chavez's opponents. The marchers called on the Organization of American States to investigate what they consider a deterioration of human rights in the South American country.

    No arrests or confrontations with police were reported during the march. But Venezuelan state television said later that its reporter had been harrassed by marchers.  More than 2,000 Chavez opponents have gone to trial in the last seven years on charges stemming from participation in protests and roughly 40 are still in prison, according to the Venezuelan Penal Forum, a local human rights group.

    Attorney General Luisa Ortega says Chavez adversaries who have been arrested committed crimes ranging from disturbing the peace to assaulting police officers. Chavez has denied bringing trumped-up charges against political opponents.

ECUADOREAN INDIGENOUS PROTEST AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT

         QUITO, ECUADOR--Rafael Correa and indigenous leaders on Thursday cast blame on each other for Wednesday's incident near Macas, where police clashed with indigenous protesters who were blocking a highway. According to the government, one person, a teacher from the Shuar nation, was killed, and 40 police officers were injured. Tito Puanchir, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, or CONFENIAE, put the number at three indigenous residents dead and 10 injured. The current impasse revolves around a proposed water law and a mining law, which locals say will impact area resources without their consent.

     The key complaints were the privatization of water sources, priority of water access for industry, and lax pollution regulations, according to Amazon Watch, an indigenous rights advocacy group. Protest organizers called the clash a sign of "civil war" that violated international human rights law. The protests, which began on Monday, also called for an end to mining and oil extraction in the region, the group said. A coalition of indigenous groups halted their demonstrations after the government ordered them to, but Puanchir's CONFENIAE defied the calls and continued to block roads.

    In an interview with the state-run media on Thursday, Correa said that the police were not armed and had only riot gear to protect them from demonstrators who were wielding shotguns. The Shuar man that died was killed by protesters' own weapons, Correa said. "The 40 police officers were injured by the same shotgun pellets that killed the brother Shuar," he said. "Those are the consequences of the violence called by radical organizers." Opposition lawmakers on Thursday demanded the sacking of Interior Minister Gustavo Jalk and the country's police commander in response to the incident, and asked Correa for an independent investigation. The president said he was "devastated" by the death, and indicated that the government would investigate and prosecute those responsible for the violence. Correa also called on indigenous leaders to travel to Quito, the nation's capital, for a face-to-face meeting. Puanchir, on the other hand, said that local leaders have extended an invitation for Correa to meet them in the Amazon region. Another standoff.

U.S. REPORT: HARD TO EASE CUBA EMBARGO

       WASHINGTON, D.C.--A U.S. president has limited ways to ease the embargo on Cuba -- unless he or she certifies that Havana is moving toward democracy or Congress overturns U.S. laws on the sanctions, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “The bottom line is that the president and Congress have done about as much as they can for now'' to ease the sanctions, said a U.S. government official who studied the report. ``So, unless Cuba takes steps [toward democracy] the ball is in Congress' court.'' The report comes amid a debate between supporters of the sanctions, who argue that current laws make it all but impossible to change them, and sanctions opponents who argue the president has the power to significantly ease the embargo.

    Some have argued, for example, that President Barack Obama could allow all Americans to travel to Cuba by simply allowing tourism under the ``general licenses'' that do not require specific reasons for traveling to Cuba. The GAO report, which was released Thursday, was requested by three supporters of easing the Cuba sanctions: Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. ; Rep. Jeff Flake, R.-Ariz, and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. The report concluded that a U.S. president can nibble around the edges of current restrictions, such as “further easing restrictions on travel, remittances and gift parcels beyond the changes recently implemented'' by Obama and Congress.

    The president could end the embargo only if Congress were to amend or repeal (Helms-Burton) and other embargo-related statutes,'' the report said. The Democrat-controlled House is expected to take up several bills in the next year that would ease U.S. sanctions in Cuba. Embargo opponents have claimed they have the votes to approve some of those bills, including one lifting all restrictions on travel to Cuba. Embargo supporters say they will fight in the Senate, where the Democratics have a more slender majority, to block any significant easings of the embargo.

POPE BENEDICT XVI MEETS NEW US ENVOY, AMBASSADOR MIGUEL H. DIAZ, A CUBAN-AMERICAN

       THE VATICAN, ITALY-- Pope Benedict XVI pledged on Friday that the U.S. Catholic church will keep working to shape American consciences on ethical questions such as abortion as he praised the United States for its "vibrant" democracy. He told new U.S. Ambassador Miguel H. Diaz, a university theology professor who is a Roman Catholic, that he was confident the two sides would continue to enjoy "fruitful dialogue and cooperation in the promotion of human rights, and the service of justice, solidarity and peace."

    Vatican teaching forbids abortion, and some Catholic bishops have threatened to withhold Communion from Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion.  President Barack Obama is pro-choice but the Vatican welcomes many of the new U.S. administration's other initiatives and Benedict praised Obama's recent efforts at the U.N. Security Council to work toward a "goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. Diaz, a Cuban-American, presenting his credentials to the pope in a ceremony in the Apostolic Palace, hailed Benedict for emphasizing "moral imperatives."

    Benedict endorsed American Catholics efforts to be vocal about their faith's teaching on public issues. "The church in the United States wishes to contribute to the discussion of the weighty ethical and social questions shaping America's future by proposing respectful and reasonable arguments grounded in natural law and confirmed by the perspective of faith," the pontiff said. The ambassador told Benedict that his "urgent priorities" including efforts to combat climate change, ensure food security and find an ethical response to the financial crisis "coincide with those set forth by President Obama."

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTING: TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR FREE PRESS IN VENEZUELA

         BRAZILIA, BRAZIL--The situation facing freedom of expression in Venezuela was termed the "most serious" in Latin America by the 39th General Assembly of the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB), which was held in Brasilia from September 28 through October 1. The broadcasters association expressed "solidarity" for the Venezuelan media and urged the international community to "take urgent action," because "time is running out to save free press" in Venezuela.

     Oswaldo Quintana, an adviser of the Venezuelan Chamber of the Radio and TV Broadcasting Industry and legal representative of private TV channel Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), said that the assembly ended with the adoption of several resolutions on the Venezuelan case.  He said that the 39th General Assembly of the IAB condemned the shutdown of 32 radio stations and demanded restoration of their operations.  The IAB also condemned threats and harassment of the private TV news network Globovisión; it rejected the closure of private TV channel RCTV and asked the government to restore the open signal of the channel and return of its equipments.

     The association also asked Venezuela to meet international obligations, particularly those related to the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights.  Finally, it urged Venezuela to allow the visit of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR), and to "stop the threat of further shutdowns of radio stations."  Quintana said that copies of the resolutions would be forwarded to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the United Nations, among others.

IRAN MEETS U.S. AND ALLIES FOR NUCLEAR TALKS IN GENEVA

       GENEVA, SWITZERLAND--Critical talks over Iran’s nuclear ambitions began Thursday morning in the Geneva countryside, with Washington and its allies hoping to draw Iran into a serious negotiation that will open up the country to serious nuclear inspections, suspend Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and reassure its neighbors that its intentions are peaceful. Thursday’s meeting with Iran and the five members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany and the European Union, will mark the beginning of an “extraordinarily difficult process” and further meetings are likely, a senior American official said. Washington would still like to begin bilateral talks with Iran on a broader relationship, including trade and Tehran’s support for Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi insurgent and terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

    But after new disclosures of a hidden Iranian enrichment facility dug deep into a guarded mountain near Qum, the negotiations “cannot be an open-ended process, or talks just for the sake of talks, especially in light of the revelations about Qum,” said the official, who briefed reporters Wednesday on condition of anonymity. “We need to see practical steps and measurable results, and we need to see them starting quickly,” he said. As the talks began at the isolated Villa Le Saugy, an 18th-century building well-protected from the press, Washington buzzed over a quiet visit on Wednesday from the Iranian foreign minister to visit the unofficial embassy in Washington, the first trip to the capital by an Iranian of that rank in a decade.

     The visit of the minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who had been at the United Nations, was approved by the White House, and it was seen as an effort to help thaw the atmosphere as the Obama administration puts its policy of engagement with Iran to the test. The State Department said Mr. Mottaki asked for permission to visit the staff at Iran’s interest section, a diplomatic outpost that Iran maintains in the Pakistani Embassy because it does not have relations with the United States. The last time an Iranian foreign minister was permitted to make such a visit was in the late 1990s, during the Clinton administration. “It is an unusual coincidence; whether it’s a happy coincidence, we’ll see,” said Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman. “It doesn’t make the serious issues we confront any easier, but if it’s taken as a small gesture and contributes in some way, that will be terrific.”

SPANISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT MEETS WITH VENEZUELAN STUDENTS

       MADRID, SPAIN.-- Ricardo Sánchez, a student leader and President of the Federation of Students' Councils (FCU) at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), along with a group of students, were received on Wednesday by César Luena, a Spanish Parliament deputy and secretary of Spain's Socialist Youth Movement. The group explained to him the situation of human rights in Venezuela.

    "The four presidents of the Federation of Students' Councils who travelled to Spain were received in the Spanish Parliament by Deputy César Luena, a member of parliament who is the Secretary of Spain's Socialist Youth Movement; a leftist politician who is aware of Venezuela's situation, who understands what is happening with our students. He expressed solidarity with the hunger strike," Sánchez said from Madrid.

    He added that during the meeting, they delivered a report about the socio-political situation facing Venezuela, "especially on the issue of freedom of expression, the right to information, the right to protest, and of course the criminalization of politics."  Similarly, they submitted a list of requests from the student movement "which, among other things, demands the Spanish Parliament to discuss Venezuela's situation and demands the Spanish Socialist Youth to urge the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR) to visit the OAS headquarters in Caracas (where students are waging a hunger strike)."    Sánchez also stressed that in the coming hours they will hold a meeting with Alvaro Cuevas, the President of the Commission on Justice of the Spanish Parliament.

POLL SHOWS SUPPORT BY CUBAN EXILES FOR JUANES' HAVANA CONCERT

         MIAMI, FLORIDA--Support by Cuban exiles for the recent concert by Colombian singer Juanes doubled among those who watched the unprecedented event held in Havana last month, a new poll has found. And something that Juanes said may been a key factor in quashing opposition. The initial 27 percent approval before the concert nearly doubled to 53 percent after the concert on Sept. 20.

    "The support is logical,'' said Carlos Saladrigas of the Cuba Study Group, which supports diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington. ``Cubans had fun and heard Juanes scream `Cuba libre' in the middle of La Plaza de La Revolución. . . . He showed courage.''  The poll, based on 400 interviews with Cubans living in Florida, New Jersey and New York, had an error of margin of 5 percent. Half of those polled also said they would like to see more cultural exchanges between the United States and Cuba.

    Morw surprising was that 50- to 80-year-olds were the ones who were more likely to watch the concert, said Sergio Bendixen, whose company, Bendixen & Associates, was commissioned to conduct the latest poll.  “They were not interested in rock, they were interested in the politics,'' Bendixen said of those polled. ``Despite their resentments, most of them concluded the concert uplifted the Cuban people.'' A 21 percent minority of those who disagreed with the event said it ``helped the Cuban government, not the people.'' Seventeen percent said it won't change anything and 10 percent said, ``Cuba needs food, not music.''  “Juanes wanted to bring Cubans together,'' Juanes' manager, Fernan Martinez, said after the results were released. ``He is very happy to find out the exiled community was able to see his good intentions.''

A SENIOR U.S. DIPLOMAT MET WITH CUBAN OFFICIALS AND DISSIDENTS IN HAVANA

       HAVANA, CUBA--A senior US diplomat met with Cuban officials and dissidents in previously unannounced talks, in new signs the United States is toning down hostility toward communist Cuba, US and dissident sources said. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Bisa Williams, who leads the State Department's Cuba office in Washington, took the step after a dialogue here last week on renewing bilateral postal service. Williams met with Cuban officials including deputy foreign minister Dagoberto Rodriguez and members of civil society "to assess the economic and political situation on the island," the spokesman for the US Interests Section here said.

     Dissident Elizardo Sanchez told AFP that he and several other opponents of Raul Castro's government, including Marta Beatriz Roque, Oscar Espinosa Chepe and Vladimiro Roca, met at the US Interests Section September 21 with US officials including Williams. "They wanted to listen to us. They set themselves apart a bit from the European Union which only wants to talk with the government. But this official spoke with authorities, and spoke with" dissidents, Sanchez said. Cuban authorities claim the dissidents are "mercenaries" in the pay of the US Interests Section.

    Williams led a delegation with the USPS that held talks here September 17 in a first round of talks aimed at restarting bilateral mail service which was cut off in 1963. But her meetings with Rodriguez and other Cuban officials were not announced until now. US President Barack Obama has said he would like a more normal relationship with Cuba but has not set out a specific strategy for attaining that goal. Since he took office, the United States has ended Bush-era sanctions to allow Cuban-Americans to visit their homeland whenever they want and send home unlimited remittances.

IRAN'S THREAT AGAINST THE FREE WORLD 

       WASHINGTON, D.C.--Irán’s threat against the great powers of the world and, through leftist Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chávez, against the countries of the Western Hemisphere, is something extremely serious and dangerous. The Iranian dictator, with the approval of his ideological boss, Ayatollah Khamenei, has challenged the world with several short and long range missiles that were launched as a test a few days ago. Those missiles could be the precursors of a devastating weapon if a nuclear head were attached to any of them making it capable of producing a catastrophe.

    Geographically, Iran is very far from the American continent. However, politically, because of the alliance it now has with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez, the activities of the Iranian government have a dangerous gravitation, to say the least, over Venezuela and the rest of the region. This alliance accounts for the visits that Ahmadinejad makes to Venezuela and the ones that Chávez does to Tehran, where he is received “warmly” like a political and military ally.

    Because of the recent events determined by Iran’s actions, the Western powers, with the United States, France and Great Britain in the lead, have constituted a front expressing serious warnings to the Iranian regime. In a way it could be said that the Western world is now realizing the aggressive, very threatening, policies of the Ahmadinejad regime, who has just made a speech in the UN in the defiant tone that was also used by Hugo Chávez at the same rostrum.   The free world, whatever its degree of freedom might be, must follow closely the Iranian arms race and, especially, its alliances with other countries of the Western Hemisphere, such as Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela. Iran has an old alliance with Fidel Castro, but Castro does not have the resources that Venezuela has. When Castro had money it was from the Soviet Union.

 honduran general asks all sectors of HIS country's society to find A peaceful solution TO THE CRISIS

         TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--The general who oversaw the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya implored all sectors of Honduran society to join in resolving the country's deepening crisis Tuesday, a message that seemed aimed at calming an uproar over a government order suspending civil liberties. Gen. Romeo Vasquez's comments on Channel 5 television came hours after interim President Roberto Micheletti said he would accept congressional calls for him to reverse the emergency decree suspending civil liberties that he had announced on Sunday.

    But little had changed on Tuesday. Two critical broadcasters remained shuttered and police faced off with about 500 demonstrators who sat in the middle of a street after officers blocked them from marching.  Micheletti also said he would allow an Organization of American States team whose arrival was blocked this weekend. The OAS hopes to persuade the coup leaders to bow to international demands they reinstate Zelaya, who was arrested and expelled from the country on June 28.

     Micheletti's backpedalling reflected the largest public show of dissent within the ranks of his supporters to date. Conservatives expressed fear that Sunday's decree would endanger the Nov. 29 presidential election, which they consider Honduras' best hope for regaining international recognition. The message by Vasquez seemed aimed at easing domestic and international protests that escalated after the government imposed the restrictions in response to Zelaya's surprise return home. "I am sure that Hondurans will find a peaceful solution soon to the crisis we are facing," Vasquez said, adding that "All sectors of society should put aside their differences to unite the homeland."