INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISTS DEMAND FREEDOM FOR ALL CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS

    Gathered in Brazil, the Congress of the Socialist International, a club of more than 140 leftist parties from around the world, condemned Cuba on Wednesday for violating human rights and called on the island's communist leader Fidel Castro to release all political prisoners and stage democratic reforms. "We have major concern with human rights, democracy and dialogue within Cuban society," said Antonio Guterres, International Socialist president and a former prime minister of Portugal. "The Cuban people need to find a common way that leads to a democratic solution."

    The socialists added their voice to condemnation from left-wing leaders of Castro's imprisonment of dozens of political opponents and journalists earlier this year for terms of up to 28 years. Many of those arrested in one of Castro's harshest crackdowns in decades were charged with working for the United States to subvert his government. The prisoners deny the charges, and many describe themselves as human rights and democracy activists.

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO DETAINS WIFE OF JAILED DISSIDENT JOURNALIST 

    The wife of a political activist imprisoned in a crackdown on dissent said she was detained Wednesday by authorities who warned her to stop publishing a magazine once produced by some of the jailed dissidents. Claudia Marquez said that two officials picked her up at home and questioned her at a police station for three hours. Marquez said the officials asked her about the magazine De Cuba - From Cuba - a collection of original writings by some of the island's independent journalists.

    Marquez and several other wives of imprisoned activists recently published a third edition, a compilation of stories carried by international media about the crackdown. She said the officials told her "they would not permit another publication." Marquez, 26, is married to Osvaldo Alfonso, leader of an opposition political party. He was sentenced to 18 years on charges of working with American officials to undermine the socialist system of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Marquez has also written occasional columns for the San Antonio Express-News since January. "We are greatly relieved to hear she has been released," said the paper's editor, Robert Rivard.

    AMBASSADOR SHAPIRO: CHARGES ABOUT CIAçS INVOLVEMENT IN VENEZUELA IS COMPLETE "PAJAî

    Contentions by some Venezuelans that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is plotting to undermine leftist President Hugo Chavez are "complete malarkey," the U.S. ambassador in Caracas said on Wednesday. "As you say in good Venezuelan slang, that is complete 'paja,"' Ambassador Charles Shapiro told reporters, using a colloquial term meaning malarkey, nonsense, or baloney. "I think this is just the result of a hyperactive imagination."

    Deputies Juan Barreto, Nicolás Maduro and Roger Rondón insisted that the US intelligence service is trying to destabilize President Hugo Chávez' administration. Shapiro said when he met with Maduro last week, the assemblyman told him he would submit evidence proving his denouncement and he never did. "So, that's rubbish, as Venezuelans say," Shapiro commented.  He added that he disagrees with "microphone diplomacy, but when two deputies attack the US with groundless accusations, I have to respond".

    GOP WILL KEEP CUBA TRAVEL BAN INTACT

    Legislation that would relax the ban on travel to Cuba is headed for failure even though it passed both the House and Senate. Lawmakers said Wednesday that Republican leaders probably would strip the provision from a transportation funding bill during House and Senate negotiations so President Bush would not have to veto an important appropriations bill. The legislation would prohibit the use of federal funds to enforce the travel ban.

    Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a key negotiator who will help craft the final bill, wants the travel ban enforced and said, "Everyone is very aware of the veto threatî (Ÿ) "It is vital to American interests that we maintain a resolute policy toward Cuba.'' While declining to admit defeat, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said "A veto would create too much of a firestorm. They (Republican leaders) will find some other way to finesse it.'' The widely expected result is that when the House and Senate conferees meet to iron out differences in the two transportation bills, the Cuba provision will be quietly dropped or changed to render it impossible to enact.

    REICH: U.S. GOVERNMENT SEES CUBA AND VENEZUELA WITH CONCERN

    Ambassador Otto Reich, U.S. special envoy for Latin American, expressed the concern of his government for Cuba and Venezuela, and reiterated his support to Colombia. In a speech delivered at the 7th Conference of the Americas currently hold in Miami, Reich -of Cuban origin- said that he sees with special concern "the presence in Venezuela of foreign advisors who do not contribute to peace in the continent.î

    "As well as the government of (U.S.) President Bush is doing its best to ensure a transition towards democracy in Cuba, we see Venezuela with concern,î Reich said on Tuesday. "We must be worried about Venezuela because it is a strategic country. It is a rich nation that unfortunately is being very poorly managed,î he added. The forum, organized by "The Miami Herald" daily, has been attended by three Latin American presidents and an audience of about 300, comprising government officials and business of the U.S. and the region as a whole.

    CUBA SALES SHOES FOR ONLY ONE FOOT

    A sign in Havana's "Fin de Siglo" store offers "Single shoes for sale," a singular example of the quirks of the retail trade under Socialism. The "Fin de Siglo" store, renowned for its elegance before the advent of the Revolution, now gives visitors the impression they have entered a museum to decadence, displaying as it does, on its shelves and windows, disparate merchandise, some of it used or obsolete, and never attractively.

    Most recently, shoppers were puzzled by a sale on gas masks, which lasted until the military intervened, stopping the sale and initiating an investigation into the provenance of the merchandise.

    AUTO THEFT CHARGE AGAINST PROMINENT CUBAN DISSIDENT DROPPED

    A police prosecutor apologized October 17 to the president of the Democratic Solidarity party, Fernando Sánchez, who had been under investigation for the theft of an automobile. Sánchez was called to the sixth unit of the National Police in the Havana municipality of Marianao, where an officer who identified himself as Camilo apologized for the mistake regarding him, adding that there were already two men in custody in connection to the theft.

    Sánchez said he told the officer that it was easy to apologize after having tried to involve him in a common theft, which spoke poorly of the professionalism of the police. He added, he said, that he was certain the accusation was politically motivated. "You should make the apologies effective by discharging the officer who slapped my 11-year-old grandson in the face last week."

    "I cannot accept apologies from a government that has systematically violated our political and civil rights for 44 years. The real apologies should be extended to the 75 prisoners of conscience who were jailed last March, and to their relatives," Sánchez said.  

   CUBA SECOND FROM LAST, JUST AHEAD OF NORTH KOREA

    Reporters Without Borders is publishing its second world press freedom ranking. Second from last in the ranking, Cuba is today the world's biggest prison for journalists. Reporters Without Borders published this week its second world press freedom ranking. Like last year, the most catastrophic situation is to found in North Korea (166).

    Cuba is in 165th position, just ahead of North Korea. Twenty-six independent journalists were arrested in the spring of 2003 and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years, making Cuba the world's biggest prison for journalists. They were accused of writing articles for publication abroad that played into the hands of "imperialist interests."

    To compile this ranking, Reporters Without Borders asked journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists to fill out a questionnaire evaluating respect for press freedom in a particular country. A total of 166 countries are included in the ranking (as against 139 last year). The other countries were left out because of a lack of reliable, well-supported data.

    BRITISH MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT PASS RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF DEMOCRACY IN CUBA

    The British Parliament has passed a resolution, backed by 75 British MPs, in support of Cuban political prisoners and democracy in Cuba. The resolution also censures the Cuban government for its human rights violations. This most recent show of support for democracy in Cuba reflects the European Unionçs new policy towards Cuba on the heels of the March 18th crackdown on dissidents by the Cuban government.

    The "Early Motion,î as this type of resolution is known in the British Parliament, specifically mentions the cases of prisoners of conscience Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, and Oscar Elias Biscet. The motion calls on the Cuban government to provide medical assistance to all political prisoners, not to deny this type of assistance as a means of punishment, and to allow the Red Cross full access to Cuban prisons.

    The motion also demands that the Cuban government allow peaceful protests for human rights and pro-democracy issues and that it release those arrested for carrying them out. It insists that the Cuban government not pressure the family members of those imprisoned. The motion concludes by calling on the British government to make these issues a priority in its bilateral relations with the Cuban government.
The motion was presented thanks to the information support provided by Christian Solidarity Worldwide. For more information please call Marilu Del Toro of the Cuban Democratic Directorate at (305) 279-4416 or call Christian Solidarity Worldwide in the U.K., +44 20 8942 8810. 

    GENERAL VÁSQUEZ VELAZCO ALERTS ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY OFFICERS

    Former Commander of the Venezuelan Army, General Efraín Vásquez Velasco, warned the government is just setting a trap when stating that military officers can sign recall petitions. Vásquez Velasco told local Unión Radio that president Chávez is trying to identify "who are against himî to retaliate later. He recommended military officers not to participate in the gathering of signatures. "We all can vote later in the recall referendum, as vote is secret in that case.î

     U.S. SENATE VOTES TO END CUBA TRAVEL BAN

    Defying a threatened presidential veto, the Senate joined the House Thursday in moving to end four-decade-old restrictions on travel to Cuba.  "It is not constructive at all to try to slap around Fidel Castro by imposing limits on the American people's right to travel," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota. Opponents warned that the provision sent a wrong signal at a time when the Castro regime has escalated its crackdown on dissidents. "Why should we now open up travel to Cuba to give additional cash flow to the Castro regime?" asked Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

    The Senate voted 59-36 to bar the use of government money to enforce current travel restrictions. Last month a nearly identical measure passed the House, setting up a showdown with the administration, which says President Bush will veto a $90 billion Transportation and Treasury Department bill if contains the Cuba language.  "The administration believes that it is essential to maintain sanctions and travel restrictions to deny economic resources to the brutal Castro regime," the White House said in a statement.

    The Treasury Department estimates that about 160,000 Americans, half of them Cuban-Americans visiting family members, traveled to Cuba legally last year. Humanitarian and educational groups, journalists and diplomats are also allowed visits, but thousands of other Americans visit illegally, by way of third countries, risking thousands of dollars in fines and imprisonment. 

    MONSIGNOR PORRAS DENOUNCES COMPLOT AGAINST THE VENEZUELAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

    Monsignor Baltazar Porras, president of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, compared the attitude of Hugo Chávez government against the Catholic Church with the stance showed by nazis in Germany, fascists in Italy and pro-Franco people in Spain.

    Porras explained that Chávez government might be compared with Nazism in a series of aspects such as the "propaganda, strategies, the intention of discrediting the institutions, the accusations, and malicious stories." He said that the governments intended to discredit bishops, priests, and nuns with the aim of provoking "distrust among the faithfuls and dissent in the clergy. He denied the existence of many priests favoring the "revolutionary process" led by Chávez, to whom he described as a "man with a huge thirst for power."

  GENERAL MEDINA GÓMEZ REBUTS LINKS TO TERROR ATTACKS

    Venezuelan Army retired General Enrique Medina Gómez -one of the leaders of the dissident military officers who declared "in legitimate disobedience" and rejected President Hugo Chávez' government- on Wednesday rebutted claims by pro-government deputies that the dissident military officers are linked to terror attacks launched against diplomatic premises and to the killing of three soldiers who joined them, all of these with the support of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

    "Such events were not investigated in deep, and they (pro-government deputies) are based on manipulated declarations from a man who was tortured, but he did not declared that the dissident military officers (based in) Plaza Altamira were linked to those killings," Medina said.

    On Wednesday, ruling party MVR deputy Nicolás Maduro insisted that Luis Chacín, a retired officer from the Directorate of Police Intelligence Services (Disip) and security chief at Plaza Altamira, where military officers launched a "legitimate disobedience" against President Hugo Chávez, was arrested because he was linked to "terror attacks." Maduro also said that Chacín had linked the dissident military officers with said attacks.

    TWO CUBAN DISPENSARIES CLOSED: DOCTORS TO BE SENT TO VENEZUELA

    Two family medicine offices in Alamar, east of Havana, have been closed because the attending doctors are to be sent to Venezuela as part of Cuba's program of aid to that country.

    An Alamar resident said that the Popular Power (local government) delegate told neighbors on Tuesday that they would have to make do with the one remaining family medicine office. "Now we will have to come up with a better gift for the doctor," said the man. The two doctors are being sent to Venezuela to participate in the Inside the Neighborhoods program put in motion by the Chávez government with Cuban doctors.

  COLOMBIAN TROOPS KILL GUERRILLA COMMANDER

    Colombian troops have killed a guerrilla commander accused of kidnapping three U.S. military contractors and a former Colombian presidential candidate, the army said Monday. Edgar Gustavo Navarro, the No. 2 leader of an elite unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, known by his nom de guerre "El Mocho, was killed during a gunfight Sunday along with ten other rebels, said Army Gen. Hector Martinez.

     Navarro was the commander of the FARC outfit that has claimed responsibility for the abduction of three Americans --- Tom Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell -- after their single-engine plane crash-landed in FARC-controlled territory on Feb. 13 while on a counter-drug  mission. The rebels executed a fourth American, Tom Janis, and a Colombian soldier, Sgt. Luis Alcides Cruz, who also were on board. The FARC considers the three to be prisoners of war and wants to exchange them for imprisoned rebels. Washington is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the murder of Janis and the kidnapping.

    COLOMBIA SHOT DOWN TWO VENEZUELAN PLANES

    Two Venezuelan planes reportedly carrying weapons for the Colombian guerrillas were shot down by Colombian military forces, a Colombian military officer said on Monday without disclosing the date the incident took place. General Jorge Enrique Mora, head of the Colombian military forces, would not disclose details on the operation. He mentioned the incident when referring to the activities Colombian military forces were conducting in Arauca Department, with the support of the United States.

    He stated that the Venezuelan planes "were under the control of (the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces) FARC." Mora told a group of analysts in Washington that FARC is the "biggest threat for security in Colombia." "We have destroyed two Venezuelan flag planes in control of FARC which were carrying ammunitions into Colombian territory. Those planes have been destroyed by the Colombian military forces," Mora claimed. Even though he refused to comment on the attitude the government of President Hugo Chávez has adopted vis-¦-vis Colombian rebel armed groups, Mora indicated that such organizations are present "along every border" of Colombia, and they have even conducted operations against Venezuelan citizens.

    VENEZUELAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES HAVE THE RIGHT TO SIGN PETITIONS

    Venezuelan General Attorney Isaías Rodríguez said that serving officers from the National Armed Forces have the right to sign recall petitions, as far as they refrain from participating in political parties' activities and in the organization and/or official announcements of referenda. "They must be passive players. Their behavior must not show their political affiliation," said Rodríguez. He reminded that the National Constitution allows the military officers to vote and forbids their participation in political parties or organizations.

    Regarding the case of eight officers who were discharged for having participated in a signature collection drive for a consultative referendum, Rodríguez said that as far as he knows they were not penalized "for exercising their passive right" but for "actively participating" in that event.

    TRAVEL EXECUTIVES MET THE DICTATOR

    U.S. travel industry executives met Cuban dictator Fidel Castro for more than two hours on Sunday at the end of a one-day visit to explore business opportunities on the communist-run Caribbean island. "We are very appreciative of what you are doing," the dictator told the group, referring to lobbying efforts in Washington to end U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba.

    Castro did not comment on President Bush's opposition to loosening travel restrictions for Americans who want to visit Cuba, and its campaign to crack down on illegal travel to the island. During the one day visit, which included a stop at Havana's Revolution Square, the visitors were transported in vintage American convertibles from the 1950s. They also met with ruling Communist Party leaders.

    U.S. TRAVEL EXECUTIVES VISIT CUBA

    Three dozen U.S. travel industry executives defied President Bush administration crackdown on American travel to communist Cuba and visited the island on Sunday to study its future business potential. The group, whose industry stands to gain the most from the lifting of a U.S. ban on travel to Cuba currently being debated in the U.S. Congress, was welcomed with a champagne breakfast to the strains of salsa music and a tour of the city's hotels.

    The one-day visit, which included a stop at Havana's Revolution Square and meetings with ruling Communist Party leaders, is part of the first U.S.-Cuba travel conference held at the Mexican resort of Cancun. The group included Matt Grayson, vice president of the National Tour Association, whose members take 1 million American tourists a year on Caribbean holidays.

    The executives visited Havana for one day using a loophole in the trade embargo: they were fully hosted and did not spend a dime. The travel ban prohibits U.S. citizens from spending dollars in Cuba rather than specifically banning visits. An increasing number of Americans visit Cuba without Treasury licensing. Bush, announcing steps to speed up political change in Cuba on Oct. 10, said Washington would crack down on unauthorized travel to the island.

  CUBA TRAVEL FIRMS SAY U.S. HARASSING CLIENTS

    U.S. charter companies that fly some 150,000 people to Cuba annually charged Saturday that U.S. officials are harassing their clients even though they have permits to visit the communist island. "Customs and Treasury agents are going to every single flight that departs Miami for Cuba, and they are questioning every single passenger about their licenses and how much money they are taking," said Tessie Aral, vice president of Miami-based ABC Charters, Inc.

    Other charter operators meeting with Cuban officials at a three-day travel industry conference in Cancun said their passengers faced similar scrutiny. Complaints focused on U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Treasury Department officials at Miami's international airport, where all but two of 30 weekly flights to the Caribbean island nation depart.

    The aim of the Cancun conference is to ease travel restrictions that are part of a 41-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the communist government of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. U.S. law allows Cuban-Americans to visit the island for humanitarian reasons once a year, and more often with a special permit. The amount of money they can send relatives or carry with them is restricted. A week ago President George W. Bush announced he was toughening enforcement of Cuba travel restrictions by going after Americans who visit without the special permits, saying their money props up a repressive regime.

    FLORIDA STATE LAWMAKER OPPOSES LOOPHOLE

    David Rivera, a state lawmaker, takes his campaign against travel to Cuba directly to tourists taking advantage of an educational exemption to the ban. The Miami Republican opposes the educational exemption to the ban on travel to Cuba, saying it is being taken advantage of by travelers looking for a sunny beach, business opportunity or seedier forms of entertainment he called `îsex tourism.'' It is legal but it is immoral,î he said.

    Helpless to stop the trips, or the dollars travelers bring to the island, he set out to preach about the dark side of sunny Cuba. Rivera said he was worried that the Communist government was skimming money from the $3,250 cost of the weeklong tour organized by the University of South Florida.

    Rivera, recently appointed to the House education appropriations committee, is planning to introduce a bill requiring public colleges and universities in Florida that sponsor Cuba excursions to submit their itineraries and passenger lists prior to each trip. ''Each time, we're going to talk to the university about canceling the trip,'' he said.

  LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY SEIZED TO PASSENGERS TRAVELING TO CUBA

    U.S. authorities have stepped up inspections of charter flights to Cuba out of Miami, and plan to do the same at other airports, following a toughening of U.S. policy toward the island, a top official said on Thursday. U.S. President George W. Bush pledged last week to strengthen enforcement of the travel ban, part of a four-decade-old trade and travel embargo against communist-run Cuba. A Treasury official told a House subcommittee on human rights and wellness that the tighter scrutiny led to the seizure of $10,000 in unauthorized currency from one passenger. The maximum a passenger can take to Cuba is $3,000.

    "Already, in response to the president's announcement, Customs and Border Protection inspectors have stepped up their efforts by examining nearly all of the charter flights departing from Miami," said Richard Newcomb, Treasury's director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. The United States has allowed charter flights out of Miami since 1998, mostly for Cuban Americans wanting to visit relatives on the Caribbean island. Travel to Cuba is illegal for most other Americans, but tens of thousands visit the island every year, many by going through countries like Mexico and Canada.

    The White House says the Castro government uses hard currency from tourists to prop up a dictatorship. Cuba says Bush is pandering to the powerful Cuban community in Florida, a key state in the presidential election next year. OFAC also was hosting interagency meetings with Homeland Security, State Department, Commerce Department and U.S. Coast Guard officials to "develop an effective enforcement strategy. "We have procedures in place with Homeland Security to receive currency seizure reports and take appropriate penalty action against violators," Newcomb said.

    HUGO CHAVEZ: "THOSE WHO SIGN AGAINST CHAVEZ WILL BE SIGNING AGAINST THEIR OWN COUNTRYî

    President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelans on Friday not to seek a referendum on his rule, saying those who did would be "signing against their country and their future." His opponents, who will collect signatures between Nov. 28 and Dec. 1 to try to trigger the referendum, accused the leftist leader of threatening retaliation against state employees and members of the armed forces who signed in favor of a vote. "Those who sign against Chavez ... will be signing against their own country and their own future," said the president, who has scoffed at the opposition campaign to try to vote him out of office.

    "They are not going to get me out of here," Chavez told cheering supporters in Caracas. Chavez was first elected in 1998, six years after leading a botched coup. His political foes, who portray him as a fledgling dictator trying to emulate Cuba's Communist president, Fidel Castro, need to collect at least 2.4 million pro-vote signatures for a referendum to go ahead in late March 2004. In what opponents condemned as a thinly veiled threat to voters, Chavez said Friday.

    "Those who sign ... are going to have to put down their names, surnames, signatures, identity card numbers and fingerprints." "This is intimidation. ... It's the type of threat used by fascists," Antonio Ledezma of the opposition Coordinadora Democratica said. Fueling opposition fears of an anti-referendum witch-hunt, Defense Minister Jose Luis Prieto this week fired eight armed forces officers for taking part in a previous collection of pro-referendum signatures in February.

    BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT RESIGNS

    Embattled President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigned Friday, hours after losing the support of his last key ally following weeks of deadly street protests triggered by a government plan to export natural gas. Under Bolivia's constitution, Vice President Carlos Mesa will replace him. Earlier, as word of the president's impending resignation spread, thousands of miners, students, and Indians crowded the Plaza de San Francisco near the presidential palace, setting off sticks of dynamite and shouting anti-government slogans.

    The embattled leader submitted his resignation in a letter presented to Congress. Lawmakers were gathering in Congress for an emergency session. The resignation came after thousands of Bolivians marched through La Paz for a fifth straight day Friday, demanding the 73-year-old Sanchez de Lozada step down 14 months into his second term. Columns of students, Indians and miners brandishing sticks of dynamite threaded past street barricades, shouting, "We will not stop until he's gone!" The Pentagon dispatched an assessment team to Bolivia on Friday to assess the situation on Bolivia's streets and recommend possible changes to the embassy's evacuation and protection plans, said Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command.

    MESSAGE FROM A RETIRED CUBAN-AMERICAN GENERAL TO THE VENEZUELA ...AND BOLIVIA MILITARY (Originally published on 11 March 2003) 

    As a result of new tensions within the Venezuela military institution and the alarming wave of terror created by the "Chavistas", backed by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, CAMCO is reposting the message sent by Maj. Gen. (D.C.-Retired) Erneido A. Oliva, CAMCOChairman and former Second in Command of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, to the Venezuela military published on March 11, 2003  by several national English and Spanish newspapers. 

    CAMCO believes that this message is as relevant today as it was seven months ago, not only to the Venezuelans but also to the Bolivian military. CAMCO thanks the hundreds of individuals who sent e-mails and letters expressing their appreciation for General Oliva's letter.

     Please, click here    and read the MESSAGE   

    GREAT VICTORY FOR U.S. -- U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTS IRAQ RESOLUTION

    A very important victory for President George W. Bush. The 15-member Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Thursday aimed at attracting more troops and money to stabilize Iraq and put it on the road to independence. The vote bolstered U.S. efforts to win credibility for its rebuilding effort in Iraq and to ease the burden of American forces there. But at a summit in Brussels, some European leaders ruled out any immediate commitments of financial or military aid.

    The resolution authorizes a multinational military force in Iraq under a single command led by the United States, and calls for troop contributions and "substantial" financial pledges from the 191 U.N. member states. It also makes clear that the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq is temporary and states that "the day when Iraqis govern themselves must come quickly." It calls for the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to give the Security Council a timetable for drafting a new constitution and holding elections by Dec. 15.

    U.S. officials had been concerned that after six weeks of intense diplomatic campaigning, the resolution might get only the minimum nine "yes" votes needed for adoption. In a dramatic shift, the United States won last-minute backing from France, Germany and Russia, the main opponents to the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. President Bush, speaking in San Bernardino, Calif. thanked the Security Council "for unanimously passing a resolution supporting our efforts to build a peaceful and free Iraq."

    INDIGENOUS BOLIVIANS MARCHED INTO DE CAPITAL TO DEMAND THE PRESIDENTçS RESIGNATION

    Tens of thousands of poor indigenous Bolivians marched into the capital on Thursday as their leaders rejected President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's attempt to defuse a deadly revolt, declaring they would protest until the "butcher" quit. Indigenous leaders said his offer to change some of his hated U.S.-backed, free-market policies was too little, too late. Other marchers, including old indigenous women in their traditional bowler hats and farmers wielding sticks, waved the multicolored flag of the Incas as they marched past boarded-up banks and shops in the paralyzed city center.

    An estimated 76 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and mostly indigenous protesters furious with endemic poverty and inequality in South America's poorest country.  A U.S.-led effort to eradicate coca plantations and an unpopular plan to export natural gas sparked the unrest. In some parts of La Paz, police stepped in to calm restless crowds jostling for scarce supplies like bread as the blockade of the capital gradually made some basic food scarce, nearly tripling the price of eggs.

   BOLIVIAN RIOTS INCREASE PRESSURE ON PRESIDENT TO RESIGN

    Army troops formed a protective ring around Bolivia's presidential palace Monday as pressure increased on President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada to resign in the face of deadly anti-government protests. Set off in part by a controversial plan to export Bolivia's natural gas through Chile, the protests have become a wider movement against Sánchez de Lozada's yearlong administration and Bolivia's unrelenting poverty.

    At least 25 people have been killed in La Paz since Saturday, including two more who died in clashes Monday as the army attempted to regain control of the streets, according to media reports. Officials here put the three-day death toll at six. '' Sánchez de Lozada said he would not quit but offered an olive branch to the opposition: The plan to export natural gas through Chile, which long has had contentious relations with Bolivia, would be scrapped, he said.

    The United States urged calm, with U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher expressing support for Sánchez de Lozada, The Associated Press reported. The United States and other countries ''will not tolerate any interruption of constitutional order and will not support any regime that results from undemocratic means,'' Boucher said. The secretary-general of the Organization of American States, César Gaviria, issued a statement Monday saying: "Any government government that arises anti-democratically is absolutely unacceptable in the Americas."

    GAZA BOMB KILLS THREE AMERICANS

    A senior administration official in Washington confirmed that the four American casualties were employed by the U.S. Embassy to provide security. The official described the Americans as government contractors. Following the attack, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, issued an advisory calling on all U.S. citizens to leave Gaza.  Palestinian police cars were leading the U.S. convoy when a roadside bomb was triggered, hitting the lead U.S. vehicle near Beit Hanoun. No group has claimed responsibility.

    The convoy was carrying at least 12 Americans, Israeli sources said. A senior U.S. State Department official said the convoy had just entered Gaza to conduct "routine business" when the bomb exploded. U.S. officials frequently travel through Palestinian territories at the request of the Palestinian Authority to monitor the Mideast peace process, according to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.  

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv said it was investigating the bombing. When two U.S. investigators went to the scene accompanied by Israeli troops, Palestinians threw stones at them, Palestinian sources said. The Israeli troops fired their weapons and two Palestinian policemen were wounded, the Palestinian sources said. In addition, a car belonging to the FBI was also hit by stones when it was driven to the area, Palestinian sources said. The car continued on without stopping.

    WHITE HOUSE READY TO ENFORCE BAN ON TRAVEL TO CUBA

    Branding Fidel Castro a tyrant, White House national security chief Condoleezza Rice called on Monday for renewed international pressure against the Cuban dictator. Speaking just days after U.S. President George W. Bush said he would begin tight enforcement of an existing ban on travel by U.S. citizens to the island nation, Rice said Castro's crackdown on dissidents have brought him worldwide condemnation.

    "This needs to be an international effort," said Rice, speaking by a video connection from her Washington office, to a meeting of the Inter American Press Association in Chicago. "It is unacceptable that Cuba remain in the state that it does in this hemisphere at a time when democracy and freedom and prosperity are within grasp ... it should not be that the Cuban people are forgotten." Cuba on Monday said Bush was "dreaming" of a post-Castro transition. Rice also said she could not predict when a stepped-up enforcement of travel restrictions would begin but "I can tell you that there is a  process to begin immediately enforcing these ... restrictions as quickly and fully as possible."

    "We know there are a lot of people who are using the travel opportunities to go to Cuba in ways that wind up enriching the Cuban government because the Cubans are able to take the money in hard currency to then pay the workers in pesos and to pocket the difference ... it is simply unacceptable," she said. "We do not want to enrich the tyrannical government of Fidel Castro. We do not want to allow him to use these monies to fund his tyranny, his crackdown on dissidents,"  Rice said of the communist-run government.

    PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES NEW INITIATIVES  TO SPEED ‚TRANSITION TO FREEDOMç IN CUBA

    President Bush directed his secretary of state and his Cuban-born housing secretary Friday to recommend ways to achieve a transition to democracy in Cuba after 44 years under Fidel Castro.  Secretary of State Colin Powell and Housing Secretary Mel Martinez will chair a panel that will "plan for the happy day when Castro's regime is no more and democracy comes to the island,'' Bush said during a Rose Garden ceremony. "The transition to freedom will present many challenges to the Cuban people and to America, and we will be prepared,'' the president said.

    Bush also said the United States would step up enforcement of existing restrictions against the communist regime, such as a ban on tourism by Americans, and crack down on the trafficking of women and children in Cuba. The United States also will launch a public outreach campaign to identify "the many routes to safe and legal entry'' for Cubans who try to flee their homeland, he said. "We'll increase the number of new Cuban immigrants we welcome every year,'' Bush added. "We are free to do so, and we will for the good of those who seek freedom.''

    Scores of Bush supporters from Congress, the Miami community of Cuban exiles and other anti-Castro groups were briefed in advance of the official announcement. The votes of Miami's Cuban-American community could be crucial in the 2004 presidential election. The head of Cuba's diplomatic mission here, Dagoberto Rodriguez, said Thursday that Bush should "stop acting like a lawless cowboy.''  

    VENEZUELA VICE-PRESIDENT ALLEGES CIA ROLE IN "TERRORIST" ATTACKS

    Venezuela's Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency on Friday of being involved in recent bomb attacks against military and government sites in Caracas. The U.S. government, through its embassy in Caracas, said it would not respond to "baseless accusations" and rejected the use of violence.

    Without offering any evidence, Rangel told reporters he believed the CIA was working to destabilize the rule of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez's government has blamed hard-line foes for mysterious explosions at army and airforce headquarters in Caracas last weekend which it said were caused by "terrorist" bomb attacks. There were no casualties in the weekend blasts, which followed a similar attack last month against the barracks of Chavez's honor guard alongside the presidential palace. "I think the CIA are involved in this ... the CIA gets everywhere, working to destabilize," Rangel said.

    THE WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES MEETING OF CUBAN-AMERICANS ON FRIDAY

    Cuban Americans are expected to convene in Washington on Friday for a meeting with White House officials on Cuba policy. Details of the meeting are sketchy but several of the invited guests said that national security advisor Condoleezza Rice is expected to announce the creation of a Presidential Cuba Transition Commission.

    This working group, or commission to advise the president on a Cuban transition would be integrated by the Secretary of State, the Secretary or Defense and Mel Martinez, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Bush administration has said Cuba policy is under review, but no new announcements have been made. It is not known what role a new presidential commission would play.

  TWO IN CUBAN BOAT TRUCK GET VISA INTERVIEWS

    Two of the people who converted a 1951 Chevy pickup into a boat in a failed bid to reach American shores were granted interviews giving them a chance to get U.S. visas, one of the men said Wednesday. Ariel Diego and Luis Grass received letters from the U.S. Interests Section inviting them to interviews on Dec. 3. Such interviews do not guarantee being granted a visa. "At least this an option we have,'' Diego told journalists. "The possibility still exists.''

    The U.S. Coast Guard sent the group back to Cuba in July after a U.S. Customs plane spotted their unusual truck-boat floating south of Key West in the Florida straits. The craft came within 40 miles of the U.S. coast. The truck-boat was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon drums attached to the bottom as pontoons. A propeller attached to the drive shaft was pushing it along at about 8 mph. Under U.S. immigration policies, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are allowed to stay while those caught at sea are usually returned.             

    CUBA SAYS BUSH OFFICIALS LIED ABOUT BIOWEAPONS

    Cuba called on the United States on Monday to provide evidence to back up renewed charges that the communist-run Caribbean nation has a germ warfare program.  Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the accusations were aimed at winning U.S. President George W. Bush support among Cuban exiles in Florida, a crucial state for his re-election bid next year.  Washington, which lists Cuba along with North Korea, Libya, Syria, Iran and Sudan as states that sponsor terrorism, twice accused Castro's government last year of running a biological weapons program.

    President Bush administration last week charged again that Cuba has a limited biological arms program. Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Roger Noriega told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday that Cuba "has at least a limited, developmental, offensive biological weapons research and development effort and is providing dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states."

    "We completely and utterly reject Assistant Secretary Noriega's statement," Perez Roque told reporters. "It is a false argument used to justify the U.S. blockade of Cuba. It is scandalous that high-ranking officials in the U.S. government have to lie to that country's Congress to try to justify its discredited policy against Cuba," the foreign ministry said in a statement published by Granma, the ruling Communist Party newspaper.

    TSJ ORDERS END TO TAKEOVER OF CARACAS METROPOLITAN POLICE

   José Delgado Ocando, magistrate of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) ordered the government Tuesday to end its military takeover of the Caracas police force within three days. It also ordered the mandatory execution of a verdict dated December 19, 2002, which solved the authority competence dispute about the Metropolitan Police (PM) and gave instructions to demilitarize said police force.

    The mandatory execution order sets a 72-hour deadline for the Ministry of Defense to withdraw its troops from PM's facilities, taken over by the army on October 16, 2002. The army was instructed by the Executive Power. It also orders the checkup of PM's weapons by the arms director of the National Armed Force (FAN) within the next 15 working days.

    The court warned the government would be in defiance of the law if it failed to comply with the second such order it has been given in 11 months. President Hugo Chavez ordered soldiers to seize the metropolitan police force in November, accusing its officers of participating in a failed April 2002 coup. Chavez has brushed aside a December Supreme Court ruling ordering the police's progressive return to Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, a government opponent. Under Venezuela's penal code, contempt of court is punished with six to 15 months in prison.

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 7

    NORTH KOREA MISSILES GOING TO CUBA

   PROGRAM: THIS WEEK -- ABC NEWS 
      SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2003
      HOST: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS 
    EXCERPTS OF TRANSCRIPT BY ABC NEWS  

    10:45 AM  -- MODERATOR: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS) 

    Did you have anything else in mind though, not discovering a void, but did you, what did you think might be a surprise?

    10:47 AM  -- INTERVIEWEE:   DAVID KAY (Special Advisor, Iraqi  WMD search)

    You know, George, what I had in mind is I'm rarely gifted in having 1300 very bright and dedicated people who can use all of the technology that the US, the UK and the Australians can put there.  We're inside the country.  I know in that country we're going to find remarkable things about their weapons program.  I would contend we've already found things that if they had been known last December, January, February, you would have had headlines in all the papers who now pick on the sentence "NOT YET FOUND WEAPONS" trumpeting NORTH KOREA MISSILES GOING TO CUBA, CLANDESTINE LABS IN THE BIOLOGICAL PROGRAM. There's a whole host of stuff we have found.

    Click here     and read a very interesting related article written by Dr. Manuel Cereijo

    CHÁVEZ CALLS "IMBECILEî INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez claimed the international organizations that rejected an official order to seize equipment belonging to local news TV network Globovisión are acting as "imbeciles" and "criminals." During his radio and television weekly show "¡Aló, Presidente!," Chávez called them "poor people," arguing that those who showed support for Globovisión were echoing "a channel that illegally and clandestinely used the radio-frequency specter."

    He added that "it has been proven that Globovisión violates the law and then starts crying and shouting (...) Now they are calling the Inter American Commission (on Human Rights) and the Organization of American States, and they are asking for support from other countries." "Poor people those who are manipulated and act like imbeciles and issue press releases saying that the (Venezuelan) government is breaching freedom of speech." According to Chávez, "there is no doubt that Globovisión acts as a criminal." He warned the human rights international organizations and the government of the United States they should bear in mind that by supporting Globovisión "they are adopting a criminal stance, because anyone who protects a criminal becomes a criminal."

    Chávez asked the U.S. President, "Again, Mr. Bush? Do we have to bear that a U.S. official says we are violating freedom of speech?" And he angrily exclaimed: "Mind your own country's business! Venezuela's affairs are Venezuela's affairs. We do not have to bear this! We have just decided to investigate an illegal behavior, we are abiding by the law." Chávez was referring to a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy to Venezuela and Roger Noriega, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

    PRO-GOVERNMENT DEPUTY ACCUSES THE CIA OF PLANNING ATTACKS AGAINST CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT

    Pro-government Deputy Nicolás Maduro said that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has funded the attacks perpetrated in Venezuela in the last year, news agency Dpa reported.  The deputyçs accusation was produced several hours after two fuel trucks exploded at La Carlota airport -Venezuela's Air Force headquarters. He attributed the incident to "groups interested in disturbing the democratic climateî in the country.

    He announced that a group of Venezuelan deputies are scheduled to travel to Washington to request the U.S. Congress to make public classified documents on April 11, 2002 events that are kept by security organizations. "We are sure that these documents contain the names of people that have received money from the CIA and have planned all the terrorist attacks aimed at affecting Venezuelaçs democratic climate,î he said.

    U.S. ACCUSES CUBA OF MAINTAINING A GERM WEAPONS PROGRAM

   Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Roger Noriega said on Thursday that Cuba had a "limited" biological arms program. Noriega was responding to a question from Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Cuba, who asked why Washington continued to enforce a four-decade sanctions regime against Havana. Dodd quoted Secretary of State Colin Powell as having said Cuba did not constitute a military threat to the United States and asked: "If it is no longer a threat, why would we maintain those restrictions?"

    "We continue ... to believe that Cuba has at least a limited, developmental, offensive biological weapons research and development effort and is providing dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states," said Noriega, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America. "There are various aspects of the sort of threat that Cuba might represent," he said, adding that this position was not inconsistent with Powell's statement.

    The United States, which lists Cuba as a state that sponsors terrorism, accused Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's government of running a germ weapons program twice last year. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque called the charges a "bald-faced lie" and challenged the United States to supply proof.

     OSWALDO PAYA DELIVERS 14,000 SIGNATURES IN SUPPORT OF PROJECT VARELA

    Varela Project leader Oswaldo Payá delivered 14,384 new signatures to Cuba's legislature Friday, boldly defying a March crackdown that included the arrests of 42 members of his campaign for a referendum seeking democratic reforms. ''The Varela Project lives,'' Payá, 51 and one of the communist-ruled island's best-known dissidents, told reporters as he lugged a box stuffed with the names, addresses and national identity card numbers of petitioners.

    Government opponents say the signatures serve as a testament of Cubans' courageous desire for political change, despite efforts by President Fidel Castro to quash the dissident movement. Forty-two of the 75 people arrested in March and serving prison terms of up to 28 years were active members of the Varela campaign. ''The wave of repression has not stomped out the will of the Cuban people who want change,'' Ernesto Martini Fonseca, who accompanied Payá to the National Assembly, said in a telephone interview from Havana. "Our campaign will not be paralyzed. We have thousands more signatures.''

    Friday's delivery was the second time in 17 months that Payá has gone to the National Assembly, the island's legislature, to hand over the signatures of registered voters requesting a referendum on democratic reforms, a process allowed by Cuba's constitution. He delivered the first 11,020 signatures, 1,020 more than constitutionally required for a referendum, just days before a May 2002 visit to Cuba by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The Cuban government responded to the Varela Project with a massive signature drive of its own for a constitutional amendment, later approved by lawmakers, ratifying Cuba's socialist system as "untouchable.''

     IN OIL-RICH VENEZUELA, A VOLATILE LEADER BEFRIENDS BAD ACTORS FROM THE MIDDLEAST, COLOMBIA, AND CUBA (BY LINDA ROBINSON)

    Senior U.S. officials are concerned about the growing Cuban presence inside Venezuela. All told, some 5,000 Cubans have traveled to the country; in particular, many are turning up inside Venezuela's intelligence and paramilitary apparatus. Says one U.S. official: "The Cubans are deeply embedded in Venezuela's intelligence agency." Castro and Chavez are so close, they are said to talk by phone every day. Cubans also form part of Chavez's personal bodyguard detail. There is ample evidence, officials say, that "Cuba provides military training to pro-Chavez organizations" that have been set up to safeguard Chavez from coup attempts like the one he survived last year. None of this surprises U.S. officials who have been watching Chavez. "He decided to follow the Cuban model long ago," says one, citing speeches he made in 1994 and 1998. Chavez is sending some 53,000 barrels of oil monthly to help Castro's cash-strapped Cuba. And large numbers of Venezuelan military personnel have also been sent to Cuba for training.

    Click here   and read the complete article

    STARS AND INTELLECTUALS CONDEMN CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO

    Film stars and intellectuals including Catherine Deneuve, Sophie Marceau, Pedro Almodovar and Jorge Semprun attended a soiree here supporting the Cuban people and hitting out at repression by leader Fidel Castro.  Actress

    Deneuve opened the event organized by the association Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) at a theatre on the Champs-Elysees by reading from a speech made by Castro in Havana on January 8, 1959 just after the victory of the Cuban revolution. "Fooling the people will have the worst consequences ... I shall do everything in my power to resolve the problems without shedding a drop of blood," the revolutionary leader promised.

    Semprun, the Spanish writer and former culture minister, charged that 40 years later "the people are still on their knees in front of the rifles" and spoke of "the occultations of truth that have for so long been the prerogative of part of the European Left."  Special homage was paid to poet and journalist Raul Rivero, sentenced recently to 20 years in prison at a closed-doors trial for "attacking the sovereignty of the Cuban state." 

     A YOUNG CUBAN ARRESTED; HIS ITALIAN FRIEND WARNED TO KEEP HIS DISTANCE

    When Abel Rojas was arrested outside Havana's international airport, police warned his friend, Italian tourist Antonio Verdome, to stay some distance away from Rojas.

    Police then took Rojas in a car to be booked for "stalking a tourist," leaving behind a confused Verdome, who later said he never thought things would be that way in Cuba. He said that in Italy Cuba had been described a different way. Rojas said Verdome had asked him to go with him to the airport to retrieve some luggage that had been lost and subsequently found. After finishing their errand, Rojas said, they sat down to have a couple of beers. It was while leaving the airport that Rojas was arrested.

     "We left the terminal peacefully," said Rojas. "A policeman stopped us to ask for identification. He returned Verdome's Italian passport and told him to keep away from me. Verdome protested when they took me to the patrol car. I told them that we are friends and why we were at the airport. But they charged me and warned me to keep away from foreigners or I would end up in prison."

    CUBA, THE ISLAND PRISON (BY ARCH KIELLY)

    Castroçs government continues to hold captive over 100,000 Cubans in labor camps and incarceration centers that are lacking in food, proper shelter and health care. Inhumane treatment by guards is the standard protocol in these camps and centers. However these perpetrators who are killing and hurting their fellow citizens should be on alert because Cubans from both sides of the Gulf of Mexico know who they are. Castroçs tyranny will soon end and when freedom and democracy return to the island, these abusers will be brought to justice.

    These people may find themselves facing trials similar to the ones held in Nuremberg and the excuse that they were "following ordersî will not satisfy their judges. CAMCO knows that many members of the Cuban Armed Forces cannot stomach the suffering caused to these 100,000 Cubans and their families.  But, hatred of the system is not enough. Members of the Cuban Armed Forces must stop looking aside and must act to stop the torment of the Cuban people.

    The fact is that the 11 million Cubans who live on the island are all prisoners. The proof of this, is the daily attempts to escape the island prison. Cubans prefer to risk their lives and their families rather than to continue living in the hell that the Castros have created. CAMCO recommends that members of the Cuban Armed Forces demand the humane treatment and release of  all political prisoners.  Freedom is close. Many members of the military will be needed to reconstruct the political system and bring forth democracy.  They should not be among those who will be marginalized for the crimes committed by others against their fellow Cubans. 

    A Poem:  The zun zun, the eagle and others must remain on the top of the mountain. Make room for the parrots and some of the vultures. The snake now hunts and becomes strong! Watch for the sun behind the storm clouds.

    HAVANA PROMISES TO LIFT CUBAN EXILESç ENTRY RULE

    Beginning early next year, Cubans living in the United States will no longer need permission from Havana officials to visit their homeland, Cuba's foreign minister reportedly said at a meeting in New York. Felipe Pérez Roque, who was in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, also told the crowd of about 250 Cuban Americans that a conference between exiles and Cuban officials would take place May 27-29, according to several people who attended the meeting Saturday.

    The Nation and Emigration conference was called off in April in the midst of an island-wide crackdown that landed 75 dissidents in jail. Cubans who live abroad have long complained that they must obtain prior clearance from the Cuban government if they want to visit their homeland, saying it makes them feel like foreigners in their own country. Pérez told the audience that a passport was all that would be required for Cubans to visit. But it was unclear if that meant that Cubans with U.S. citizenship would have to obtain a Cuban passport.

    CUBAN ON FLOATING TRUCK DENIED VISAS BY U.S.

    The Cubans who converted a 1951 Chevy pickup truck into a boat and tried to sail to Florida said Monday their attempts to emigrate legally to the United States also failed. So far, 10 of the 12 people in the group that made the unusual and well-publicized attempt to reach American soil have received letters rejecting their requests for U.S. visas. îWe are really disappointed,'' said Eduardo Perez, a truck-boat passenger. Isadora Hernandez, wife of Luis Grass, owner of the floating green pickup, said that the letters began arriving last week.

    Hernandez said her husband and another man in the group, Ariel Diego, were the only two of the dozen who had not received letters by Monday. However,  the message in the official letters was clear. îUnfortunately you do not meet the necessary requirements to be processed under the current regulations,'' said the Spanish-language form letter from the mission's Refugees Program.

    The U.S. Coast Guard sent the group back to Cuba in July after a U.S. Customs plane spotted their unusual, bright green truck-boat floating south of Key West in the Florida Straits. The craft came within 40 miles of the U.S. coast. The truck-boat was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon drums attached to the bottom as pontoons. A propeller attached to the drive shaft pushed the vehicle along at about 8 mph. The craft contained nine men, two women and one small child. The truck was sunk as a hazard to ocean navigation. Under U.S. immigration policies, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are allowed to stay while those caught at sea usually are returned.

    EXPLODING ORDNANCE KILLS FOUR TRASH PICKERS IN CUBA 

    At least four persons were killed and several wounded September 11 when a mortar round exploded in Cotorro, on the outskirts of Havana, as unsuspecting trash pickers tried to take it apart.

    Reportedly, the trash pickers were trying to separate the projectile from its shell to sell the metal to a raw materials recycling facility nearby. The explosion was heard for several miles around, witnesses said. Police surrounded the area of the accident for their investigation. Among the casualties, a pregnant woman received shrapnel wounds on her torso.