CUBAN CENTRAL BANK TIGHTENS FOREX CONTROLS 

    Cubaçs central bank said on Thursday that all foreign exchange and its Cuban equivalent, the convertible peso, will be turned into a single account controlled by the central bank beginning next year, according to a resolution published in the official media on Thursday. The resolution also said a bank-run committee will decide deciding how the money in the account will be spent. State banks can no longer process companies foreign exchange or convertible peso transactions without the central bank's prior approval.

    Resolution 92/2004 allows each ministry to set an amount of company spending that does not need prior approval, but the bank reserved the right to cancel the privilege if it finds evidence of improper use of funds. "Experience shows it is necessary to move to a new organizational phase that concentrates all foreign exchange earnings in the central bank ... and centrally approve the use of convertible pesos by Cuban entities," the resolution states. Both convertible pesos and pesos circulate freely in Cuba.

    The central bank took the first step toward controlling 6000 state companies' use of foreign exchange in July of last year, when it banned them from using U.S. currency in their domestic operations in favor of the convertible peso. It also ordered them to seek permission for any dollar transaction with foreign firms of over $5000. Western businessmen hold mixed views about the government's increased control over foreign exchange and its stripping companies of what flexibility they have. "This means there is a greater possibility of debts being paid, but at the same time decision making will slow even further than it already has," a banker said.

    REP. DAVIS TO OPPOSE CHANGES TO CUBA TRADE POLICIES

    U.S. Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama said Tuesday he will ask the U.S. Treasury Department not to change Cuba trade policies, because new rules could damage Alabama's growing trade relationship with the nation. Alabama-based agricultural companies have built an $18 million export industry since 2002, when the state first began pursuing trade with Cuba. The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 allowed Cuba to import humanitarian products despite the U.S. economic embargo.

    Federal regulations do not allow Cuba to use credit or financing to purchase imported American products, but the island nation often makes payments after goods have been shipped from U.S. ports. Changes would require Cuba to pay before shipments leave the United States. "If there was a significant problem with late payments, it would make sense to tighten the cash schedule but Cuba has made its payments in a timely fashion," Davis, D-Birmingham, told the Birmingham News.

    About 90 percent of current exports to Cuba come from 15 American companies, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, Inc. American interests argue that changes to the current payment arrangement would send Cuban business elsewhere.

    OIL OFFER TO CHINA NOT INTENDED TO CUT SALES TO THE U.S., VENEZUELAN OFFICIAL SAYS 

    Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Alí Rodríguez Araque Wednesday said an offer Venezuela made to sell oil to China does not involve a reduction in oil sales to the United Sales. He explained that the move came in line with the state-run oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Pdvsa) business plan, whose goal is to increase output capacity in the next five years to five million barrels per day. "In this way, we will have a bigger capacity to meet the requirements from new markets," he added.

    Rodríguez indicated that producers have to diversify their markets, just like big consumers have the right to diversify their suppliers. He stated that there are indications that the United States will continue to rely significantly on oil imports, which is to translate into an increase in demand. Nevertheless, he said demand from China, India, and South America is also to soar.

    HUGO CHAVEZ POLITICIZES THE MILITARY

    An opposition leader accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday of attempting to turn the military into a tool of his left-leaning "revolution" and indoctrinate soldiers with anti-American sentiment. Gabriel Garcia Aponte said Chavez was violating constitutional norms meant to prevent politicians from molding the military in line with their political agenda.

    "Chavez is introducing an ideology with a political profile, which is a serious error ... it's causing divisions within the military," said Garica Aponte, a leader of the Red Flag opposition party. "This is prohibited under the constitution," he said in a telephone interview. Chavez, a former paratroop commander, urged hundreds of troops in a speech late Monday to take up "an ideological offensive" including "anti-imperialist thought."

    "Those who attempt to put the armed forces at the service of the world's empires will fail. This is an anti-imperialist military," said Chavez, an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy. In his speech Monday, Chavez said Venezuela's military was gradually working toward self-sufficiency and away from its traditional dependence on "imperialistic" superpowers. He said new uniforms were being manufactured in Venezuela while weapons and aircraft were being purchased from Russia, a strategic new ally.

     28 CUBAN REFUGEES ARRIVED IN HONDURAS

    Two boats carrying 28 Cubans refugees arrived in Honduras over the weekend, authorities announced on Monday. Apparently hoping to use the country as a stepping stone to the United States, the refugees were staying in police offices on the island of Roatan, 400 kilometers (248.56 miles) north of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

    "We fled out country because of the bad economic situation," said Reinaldo Guerrero, 35, of Vertiente, Cuba, in a televised interview. "It was a hard trip, but worthwhile. ... We just want to work in the United States." The new arrivals were from Camaguey province.

    Last week, 52 Cuban refugees arrived in Honduras. The majority of those passengers also were from Camaguey. Honduran authorities say many people take advantage of the November to January dry season to set out from Cuba on the risky journey in small vessels. Honduras' government usually grants Cuban refugees permits to stay for 15 days and they are often extended. Meanwhile, many refugees leave Honduras before their temporary permits expire.

     CUBA HITS TARGET OF 2 MILLION TOURISTS

    Cuba's tourism minister said on Sunday that 2 million people visited the Caribbean island so far this year, achieving a long sought after goal despite U.S. efforts to undermine the country's main foreign exchange earner. "This year the U.S. government increased the unjust blockade imposed on our country and pledged to affect the unstoppable development of our industry," Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said.

    "These 2 million visitors represent an 8 percent increase over last year and are one more demonstration that Cuba is not alone," he added at a ceremony in eastern Holguin province where one of the island's tourist resorts is located. Most U.S. citizens are banned by their government from traveling to Cuba and visits by Cuban-Americans are also restricted. Nevertheless, 200,000 people came from the United States last year, 130,000 of Cuban origin.

    The number of U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba has been reduced by more than 50 percent since President George W. Bush in June eliminated most loopholes allowing them to visit and restricted Cuban-Americans to one visit every three years, U.S. travel agencies reported this month. As part of its stepped up effort to undermine President Fidel Castro's government the United States is also funding information drives in Europe dissuading travel to Cuba on human rights grounds.

    U. S. EGGS UNDERSELL RESELLERS IN SANTA CLARA

    "Florida produce" at 1.50 pesos each, underselling those who used to resell eggs at 2 pesos in the local underground economy. The grade A, large eggs come from the Tampa Farm Service, in Dover, Florida, in cases of 360 each, with an expiration date of February 28, 2005.

    Recently, the same government food retail establishments have offered for sale, under the government's ration card, chicken thighs by Tyson Foods, of Arkansas, and retail establishments of the La Cadena chain have offered chicken at 23 pesos a pound, non-rationed price, and ground beef from Peco Foods.

    YUSCHCHENKO DECLARES VICTORY IN UKRAINE

    Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko celebrated his victory in Ukraine's presidential election rerun Monday, but his opponent refused to concede defeat and vowed to challenge the results before Ukraine's Supreme Court in what could be a protracted legal battle. The vast tent camp set up by orange-clad Yushchenko supporters on Kiev's main avenue after the fraud-plagued Nov. 21 election remained in place, indicating his backers were prepared for further tensions although no election-related violence was reported Sunday. Orange was Yushchenko's campaign color.

    With ballots counted from 99.7 percent of precincts, official results gave Yushchenko 52.1 percent of the votes compared with 44.1 percent for Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yushchenko held a 2.3 million-vote lead with just 100,000 votes remaining to be counted at 133 polling stations. Just more than 77 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. Some 12,000 foreign observers watched Sunday's unprecedented rerun to help prevent a repetition of fraud that led to Yanukovych's Nov. 21 victory being overturned by the court.

    ''Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you,'' he told a jubilant crowd in Kiev's Independence Square. ''We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free. Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine.'' But Yanukovych did not concede, and Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Yanukovych ally, said the prime minister's campaign would appeal the results to the Supreme Court, where Yushchenko took his legal appeals after the Nov. 21 vote. The court eventually overturned those results.

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO ANNOUNCES DISCOVERY OF CRUDE OIL DEPOSIT OFF CUBAN COAST

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said a crude oil deposit has been discovered off Cuba containing up to 100 million barrels, good news for a country that imports about half the petroleum it needs. "This is the first discovery since 1999," Castro said Friday in a speech to a closed session of the National Assembly. His comments were aired on state television Saturday.

    Castro said the deposit was located off the coast of Santa Cruz del Norte, east of Havana, during an exploratory drilling. He said production at the site could begin during 2006. Cuba currently produces 75,000 barrels daily, about half of what it needs. It imports most of the rest, much of it on favorable terms from political ally Venezuela.

    Oil specialists believe Cuba's waters in the Gulf of Mexico could contain large quantities of crude, just as those of Mexico and the United States do. Earlier explorations turned up only modest discoveries.

    28 PEOPLE KILLED BY BANDITS IN HONDURAS

    Six children and people bringing home Christmas gifts were among 28 killed by bandits on a bus in Honduras. Assailants claiming to be members of a revolutionary group opposed to the death penalty ambushed the bus packed with more than 50 people. Most of the passengers were women and children, many on their way home with bags filled with gifts and food for Christmas.

    Police say the bus was driving through a heavily populated neighborhood last evening when a car of gunmen cut in front of it and forced it to stop. The assailants jumped out and began shooting, as attackers in a second car fired from behind. Police have arrested a suspect driving a car similar to one identified by witnesses. The attack was described as an escalation of a battle between gangs and the government.

    THE CUBAN DICTATOR WALKS IN PUBLIC FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE BREAKING KNEECAP

    Cheered by hundreds of lawmakers, a smiling Fidel Castro walked in public Thursday for the first time since shattering his kneecap in a fall two months ago. Legislators looked stunned, then smiled and applauded, when Cuba's 78-year-old president entered the main auditorium of the Convention Palace on the arm of a uniformed schoolgirl to attend a year-end National Assembly meeting.

    "Long live Fidel!" a lone deputy shouted as Castro took his seat, followed by a shout of "Long live a free Cuba!" Castro's quick recovery from breaking his left kneecap into eight pieces was likely to dampen the latest round of rumors questioning his health. Because of his larger than life role in Cuba, his well-being has become a continual source of speculation, both on and off the island, as he has grown older.

    The tyrant who has ruled this communist country for nearly 46 years has emphasized he remains firmly in control of the government's daily affairs ever since he stumbled and fell after a speech in October. Castro is the world's longest ruling dictator and among the longest presiding heads of state. Britain's head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, was crowned in 1953 - six years before Castro's triumph in the Cuban Revolution.

    PRESIDENT BUSH CALLS SERVICE MEMBERS AROUND THE WORLD TO OFFER THANKS AND HOLIDAY WISHES

    President Bush today telephoned ten members of the U-S military around the world, including six in Iraq. Calling from the Camp David presidential retreat, he thanked them for their service and shared holiday greetings. The White House says the president expressed gratitude for "their service and sacrifice" as members of the armed forces.

    President Bush plans to spend Christmas Day at Camp David. He will fly on Sunday to his Texas ranch, where aides say he plans to relax until after the New Year.

     SECRETARY RUMSFELD MAKES SURPRISE VISIT TO IRAQ 

    Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a Christmas Eve mission to cheer up the troops in Iraq, promised them that no matter how bleak things might look at any one moment they will look back on their mission with pride. "There's no doubt in my mind, this is achievable,'' Rumsfeld told troops in Mosul just three days after the devastating attack on a U.S. military dining hall here.

    "When it looks bleak, when one worries about how it's going to come out, when one reads and hears the naysayers and the doubters who say it can't be done, and that we're in a quagmire here,'' one should recall that there have been such doubters "throughout every conflict in the history of the world,'' he told about 200 soldiers of the 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division at their commander's headquarters.

    Traveling in secrecy amid tight security, Rumsfeld landed in pre-dawn darkness and immediately headed for a combat surgical hospital where many of the bombing victims were treated after Tuesday's lunchtime attack on a mess tent. The most seriously wounded already have been transferred to a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

    CHAVEZ OFFERS OIL TO CHINA

    Hugo Chavez on Friday blasted "U.S. imperialism", called capitalism the road to hell. Addressing students and teachers at Peking University, one of China's top schools, Chavez won warm applause and chuckles when he declared himself to have been a Maoist from the time he was a child. "Capitalists believe in an unequal society. Capitalism is the champion of inequality," he said.

    "Now we are free and we make our resources available to the great country of China," he said at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, ships 60% of its daily oil output to the U.S., but since taking office in 1998, Chavez has sought to reduce the country's economic dependence on the world's powerhouse. He has made a point of increasing political and trade ties with China, Russia and other foreign countries.

    "I think if Mao Zedong and Simon Bolivar, Venezuela's 19th century independence hero, had known each other they would have been good friends because their thinking was similar," said Chavez. "Their inspiration came from the same place. It came from humanitarianism...I think if Bolivar had come to China he would have become a socialist," Chavez said speaking in Spanish through a Chinese translator.

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR MOCKS PRESIDENT BUSH AND THE UNITED STATES

    Cuban communist art students and cartoonists painted an American eagle cartoon Wednesday on the asphalt of Havana's coastal highway so cars can drive over it as they pass the U.S. diplomatic mission, the latest salvo in a spat over pro-dissident Christmas decorations hung by the Americans.

    Police closed off two blocks of the highway as the students drew the colorful cartoon of an aggressive-looking eagle with an enormous "B" on its chest - referring to the U.S. "bloqueo," or trade sanctions and President Bush. The government has used the figure in a televised campaign to criticize four decades of sanctions.

    "This character represents the blockade and will be squashed by all the cars and people who pass by here," said Ernesto Padron, a well-known cartoonist working on the painting.

    CUBANS PUT UP "ANTI-IMPERIALIST" IMAGES
   
    Dozens of other artists worked on billboards outside the mission. They said they planned to paint a caricature of James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section, as well as images protesting the U.S.-led war in Iraq. U.S. officials declined to comment Wednesday on the painting. The row began last week when Cason ignored orders by the Cuban government to remove Christmas decorations including a sign reading "75" - a reference to 75 Cuban dissidents arrested in a crackdown last year.

    The Cuban government then erected a billboard outside the U.S. mission emblazoned with photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners and the word "fascists" overlaid with a "Made in the U.S.A" stamp. "We reject the U.S. operations against Cuba and against Iraq," Lisandra Ramirez, 18, said as she painted. Earlier in the week, thousands of communist university students rallied outside the U.S. Interests Section to protest the Christmas display.

    U.S.-Cuba relations, never good during four decades of communist rule on the island, have deteriorated during President Bush's administration, which has toughened economic sanctions and publicized its plan for a democratic Cuba after Fidel Castro.

 
     FIFTY-TWO CUBAN REFUGEES ARRIVE IN HONDURAS WITHIN FOUR DAYS

    Fifty-two Cuban refugees have arrived in Honduras in only four days, the government said Wednesday. They were apparently hoping to use the country as a stepping stone to the United States. Eleven arrived Sunday in a small boat at the Atlantic port of La Ceiba. Fishermen rescued 22 others at sea on Monday. And on Wednesday, another 19 reached another Atlantic coast town, Tocamacho.

    The government said most had come from the Cuban province of Camaguey. Migration Director Ramon Romero told a news conference that many people take advantage of the November to January dry season to set out on the risky journey in a small vessel. At least 186 Cubans have arrived in Honduras over the past six months.

    ALABAMA TRADE MISSION INCREASES SALES TO CUBA

    An Alabama trade mission to Cuba lined up $18 million in sales of agricultural products and more deals are expected to result from the trip, state Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said Tuesday. The deal is the biggest yet with the communist island nation since Alabama agriculture officials began pursuing trade in 2002, Sparks said.

    "Clearly, the results from this trip show how Alabama profits from exporting to Cuba," he said. Alabama's delegation spent Wednesday through Saturday in Cuba, and it was one of several from the United States that participated in trade negotiations last week. Cuban officials said they agreed to buy $125 million in farm goods from the U.S. Sparks said $50 million of those sales will be shipped through the port of Mobile.

    Mobile officials have worked for years to re-establish the thriving trade that existed between Mobile and Havana before 1961, when the U.S. put trade restrictions on Cuba. A 2000 federal law allows the sale of agricultural products to Cuba on a cash-only basis. The Bush administration is reviewing whether the policy can continue under the current practice - Cuba paying for the goods before they are unloaded in Cuba - or whether Cuba must start paying for the products before they leave the United States.

    
    HUGO CHÁVEZ DEPARTING FOR CHINA

    Hugo Chávez government flush with oil proceeds, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making a flurry of trips across the globe cementing oil deals and building ties with strategic partners from Brazil to Russia. After visiting seven countries in the past month, Chavez departed Tuesday afternoon for China, where he plans to spend Christmas.

    An outspoken critic of the United States, Chavez has said he aims to be part of a movement for a "multi-polar" world, rather than one dominated by a superpower. His latest travels have taken him to Russia, Iran, Qatar, Libya, Spain, Peru, Brazil and Cuba. Chavez has not embarked on such an extensive and far-reaching world tour since 2001, when he visited nine nations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa during three weeks.

    In this trip to fuel-hungry China, Chavez is expected to sign energy-related agreements, as he has in many other recent visits. "We have a very important agenda in China, which has shown the most notable economic growth of all the countries in the world (and) brought about a strong demand for energy," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said Monday.

    A SUCCESSFUL CUBAN FARMER IS FORCED TO ABANDON HIS PLOT

    A man who in two years turned a weed-infested lot in Nueva Gerona, the capital of the Isle of Youth, into a model agricultural tract has been fined 20,000 pesos by the local zoning department and may have to give up his crops. Ramón Salazar was once awarded a diploma in recognition of his achievements in the plot, a barren city lot nobody wanted across the La Gaviota hotel, the use of which he was allowed two years ago. Salazar cleared the lot, planted vegetables and even some fruit trees.

    "I donate part of my crop to an institution for abandoned children and some to a home for people with mental problems and an old age home. The rest I sell at agricultural markets at fair prices," said Salazar. His success garnered him some attention from the authorities. "My work got everyone's attention. On several occasions, higher-ups from the Agriculture Ministry and the Communist Party visited me; even the local TV people," said Salazar.

   But Salazar's prominence also attracted the attention of others in authority. "I also received an unpleasant visit. A zoning inspector, showed up, sent in by the director of the department, asking about certain papers for a shed I had built to store implements and shelter animals. She told me the construction was not legal," said Salazar. Salazar said he was given the choice of abandoning his crops or paying a fine, which he calls exorbitant, of 20,000 pesos. He said he has appealed the officials' decisions to the municipal court.

    DEVASTATING BLAST IN IRAQ KILLED 22 PEOPLE, INCLUDING 19 AMERICANS

    A devastating blast in a mess tent at a base in northern Iraq killed 22 people and injured 72 in one of the deadliest attacks on American troops since the start of the war. Initial reports said that a 122 mm rocket ripped through the ceiling of the tent, spraying shrapnel as U.S. soldiers sat down to lunch Tuesday in their Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, some 225 miles north of Baghdad.

    But, a radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said it was a ''martyrdom operation'' - a reference to a suicide bomber - that targeted the mess hall. The dead included 19 Americans - 14 service members and five U.S. civilian contractors - and three Iraqis, the U.S. military command in Baghdad said Wednesday. Of the 72 wounded, 51 are U.S. military personnel and the remainder are American civilians, Iraqi troops, and other foreigners.

    President Bush said the explosion should not derail the elections and that he hoped relatives of those killed know that their loved ones died in ''a vital mission for peace.'' ''I'm confident democracy will prevail in Iraq,'' he said. ''This is the worst we have seen in the 11 months since we have been here,'' said Master Sgt. David Scott, chief ward master for the hospital. It was the latest in a week of deadly strikes across Iraq that highlighted the growing power of the insurgents in the run-up to the Jan. 30 national elections.

    UNIFORMED CUBAN COMMUNIST YOUTH PROTEST U.S. CHRISTMAS DISPLAY

    EIGHT MORE CUBAN REFUGEES ARRIVE BY BOAT IN HONDURAS

    Six men and two women from Cuba arrived on Honduras' Atlantic coast in a small boat as part of an attempt to reach the United States, authorities said Monday. Police spokesman Porfirio Escobar said the group, originally from Camaguey province, arrived on Sunday and was being held temporarily at a police station in La Ceiba. He identified them as Alex Pacheco, Jordan Romero, Carlos Figueroa, Pedro Romero, Hector Roque, Luque Martinez, Nancy Romero and Miriam Pacheco.

    "The government is analyzing the migratory situation of the refugees, though they say they want to go to the United States," he said. Honduras' government usually grants Cuban refugees permits to stay for 15 days and they are often extended. About 134 Cuban refugees have arrived in Honduras over the past six months. Most have gone to the United States.

    LUDICROUS EXCUSE TO WASTE MONEY AND TIME -- CUBA "SUCCESSFULLY" COMPLETED MILITARY EXERCISE TO PREPARE FOR POTENTIAL U.S. ATTACK

    Cubans awoke to air raid sirens Sunday and practiced shooting, putting on gas masks and doing duck-and-cover drills as the communist nation wrapped up a week of defense exercises to prepare for a potential attack by the United States. The activities, called the Strategic Bastion 2004 Exercise, were aimed at evaluating how prepared Cuba is to confront possible U.S. military action during a second term by U.S. President George W. Bush. State-run newspapers reported Sunday that the exercises were a success, and that Cuba's "capacity to resist and overcome an imperialist aggression" was demonstrated.

    Since even before the United States launched its unilateral attack on Iraq last year, Cuban authorities have insisted that a similar U.S. strike on their country is possible. "The risks of a (U.S.) aggression are real," Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said Sunday on Cuban television, which showed him checking in with officials around the country, via teleconference, on the status of operations. During televised remarks earlier in the week, Castro said the exercises were "for (the United States) to observe closely, so it doesn't make the same mistakes it made in Vietnam and is now making in Iraq."

    American authorities have repeatedly rejected that idea, saying there are no plans to attack Cuba. Last week, the U.S. State Department said the large-scale exercises in Cuba were really to distract people from the hardships of their lives. State media reported that a total of four million Cubans participated throughout the week in the exercise, which began Monday and was the biggest of its kind on the island in 18 years. 

    IRAQ ARRESTS 50 IN CONNECTION WITH DEADLY NAJAF BLAST

    The deadliest attacks in Iraq since July were a bloody reminder that the Shiite heartland in the south - and not just the Sunni regions of central and northern Iraq - is vulnerable to the mainly Sunni insurgents aiming to wreck the country's key elections scheduled for Jan. 30. In Baghdad, dozens of gunmen - unmasked and apparently unafraid to show their faces - executed three election officials on Sunday, part of their campaign to disrupt next month's parliamentary ballot.

    The gunmen ran rampant over a main downtown thoroughfare, dragged the three workers from a car, lay them on the street in the middle of morning traffic and shot them point-blank. Authorities in Najaf banned cars from entering the downtown area that houses the Imam Ali shrine to prevent future car bombings, Governor Adnan al-Zurufi said Monday. 'Fifty people, some of them from Najaf and others from outside, have been detained. One person detained this morning is a citizen of an Arab country.

    The deadly strikes Sunday highlighted the apparent ability of the insurgents to launch attacks almost at will, despite confident assessments by U.S. military commanders that they had regained the initiative after last month's campaign against militants in Fallujah. Shiites, who make up around 60 percent of Iraq's population, have been strong supporters of the polls, which they expect will reverse the longtime domination of Iraq by the Sunni Arab minority. The insurgency is believed to include many Sunnis who have lost prestige and privilege since Saddam Hussein's fall.

NEW YORK, December 20

    TIME DECLARES PRESIDENT BUSH ‚PERSON OF THE YEARç

    President Bush's bold, uncompromising leadership and his clear-cut election victory made him Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2004, its managing editor said Sunday. Time chose Bush "for sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters this time around that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years," Jim Kelly wrote in the magazine.

    Bush was also Time's choice to appear on the cover in 2000 after winning the presidential election despite losing the popular vote. His father, President George H. W. Bush, was named "Man of the Year" in 1990 for what Time called his mastery of foreign policy and his wavering domestic record. "Obviously many supporters of the president will be pleased, many people who do not support the president will probably sigh," Kelly said.

    "But even those who may not have voted for him will acknowledge that this is one of the more influential presidents of the last 50 years." The winner must be "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse," he said.
    

    DR. MOLINAçS SAGA --  ARGENTINE AMBASSADOR FIRED BECAUSE OF THE DIPLOMATIC CRISIS

    Argentine President Nestor Kirchner ordered that two diplomats be fired for letting a Cuban dissident enter the country's embassy in Havana after Cuba had barred her from visiting family in Buenos Aires, newspapers reported Saturday. Kirchner moved to dismiss Raul Taleb, the ambassador to Cuba, and senior foreign ministry aide Eduardo Valdes, leading newspapers Clarin and La Nacion said in reports that cited unnamed sources.

    The center-left president acted after the diplomats allowed Hilda Molina, a renowned Cuban neurosurgeon and dissident, to enter the Argentine embassy with her elderly mother Wednesday and stay there overnight. Molina denied widespread speculation that she had intended to seek political asylum. But Argentina's actions put the South American nation at odds with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who had earlier rejected a personal request by Kirchner that Molina be allowed to travel to Buenos Aires to visit her son and grandchildren.

    Tension between the two countries grew when Molina's son, Roberto Quinones, made an emphatic plea for Kirchner not to abandon the family's cause and said he feared for his mother's health. An Argentine foreign ministry spokesman declined to confirm or deny the reports that Kirchner had ordered the firings. The newspapers said the foreign ministry was drafting a document to try to justify Valdes' actions and avert his dismissal.

    COLOMBIA WEIGHS EXTRADITING REBEL LEADER, ASKS RELEASE OF HOSTAGES

    Colombia's president says he will extradite a captured Marxist rebel leader to the United States on drug-related charges if his guerrilla group does not free dozens of hostages, including three Americans and a German, by year end. Ricardo Palmera, a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, would become the first member of the rebel group ever sent to face U.S. justice. He is wanted by a federal court in New York for cocaine trafficking.

    President Alvaro Uribe on Friday signed extradition orders for Palmera after winning approval from Colombia's Supreme Court. But he is ready to revoke the decision if the FARC releases the hostages before Dec. 30, his office said in a statement. Uribe issued a list of 63 captives, including politicians, soldiers, police officers, three U.S. Defense Department contractors and a German businessman.

    The three American captives held by FARC - Tom Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell - were captured in February 2003 after their small plane crash-landed in a rebel stronghold. Uribe's list also included Lothar Hintze, a German hotel owner who was seized by armed men in March 2001 in western Tolima state. The group has said it will only release the hostages in exchange for hundreds of imprisoned guerrillas, Palmera among them.

    CUBA AGREES TO BUY US$125 MILLION IN AMERICAN FARM GOODS

    Communist Cuba agreed to buy about US$125 million (94.24 million) in farm goods from U.S. companies attending trade talks in Havana, officials said. The deals, which were agreed on during three days of negotiations that ended Friday, surpassed expectations, Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the Cuban food import company Alimport, told The Associated Press. Cuba had expected to sign deals worth about US$100 million (75.39 million) going into the talks, he said.

    More than 300 people, primarily producers of American farm goods, attended the meetings, as did several lawmakers - including Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. On Thursday, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro addressed the group for several hours, talking about everything from Cuba's health care system to a recent government decision to take the American dollar out of circulation on the island.

    Under an exception to the embargo, American agricultural goods can be sold to the island on a cash-only basis. Including this week's deals, Cuba has contracted to buy more than US$1 billion(750 million) in American farm goods - including shipping and hefty bank fees to send payments through third nations - since it began taking advantage of the exception in 2001.

    PRESIDENT BUSH SIGNS INTELLIGENCE REFORM BILL

    President Bush on Friday signed the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence-gathering in a half century, aiming to transform a system designed for Cold War threats so it can deal effectively with the post-Sept. 11 scourge of terrorism. "Instead of massed armies, we face stateless networks. We face killers who hide in our own cities,'' President Bush said in a somber ceremony in an ornate Commerce Department auditorium where the treaty creating NATO was signed.

    The new law creates a national intelligence center and a powerful new position of national intelligence director to oversee the nation's 15 separate intelligence agencies. Establishing such an intelligence chief was a principal recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission. It also was one of the legislation's most controversial provisions as lawmakers tangled over the extent of the director's budget authority and how the person would work with the military.

    But President Bush gave a clear job description, saying the new DNI would be the "principle adviser to the president on intelligence matters'' and making plain that the director could move intelligence assets around the globe as needed to keep an eye on terrorist groups like al-Qaida. The president also made a point of saying the intelligence director would have complete control over spending - Washington's best indicator of power - by being responsible for both determining the intelligence agencies' annual budgets and directing how the funds are spent.

    PRESIDENT MUBARAK: ATTACKING IRAN WOULD BE A "CATASTROPHIC" MISTAKE

    Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published Saturday that he hopes tensions over Iran's nuclear program will not lead to a U.S. attack on the country - a move that would be "a mistake of catastrophic proportions." Washington believes Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program and has been pressing the U.N. atomic agency to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

    "If the United States were really to attack Iran, that would be a mistake of catastrophic proportions," Mubarak was quoted as saying by the German weekly Der Spiegel, responding to a question about Middle Eastern fears of such an attack. "Terror and violence in the Middle East and, shortly afterward, in the whole world, would then overshadow everything we have seen so far," he added. "I hope it doesn't come to that." Iran insists that it is only pursuing a peaceful nuclear energy program.

    CUBA STRIKES BACK AT AMERICAN MISSION, MOUNT BILLBOARD ATTACKING U.S.

      Cuba retaliated for the U.S. diplomatic mission's Christmas display supporting Cuban dissidents by putting up a billboard Friday emblazoned with photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners and a huge swastika overlaid with a "Made in the U.S.A" stamp. The billboard, erected overnight facing the U.S. Interest Section's offices, stands on the Malecon, Havana's famed coastal highway.

    A diplomat at the mission noted the abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison had been widely reported and discussed openly and said those responsible were being prosecuted. "On the other hand, the Cuban government does not allow a single word of dissent in its media, jails those who dare espouse different ideas and has not allowed (anyone) to visit Cuban political prisoners since the late 1980s," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the mission's diplomatic status.

    The trimmings included a Santa Claus, candy canes and white lights wrapped around palm trees - and a sign reading "75," a reference to the 75 Cuban dissidents jailed last year. Smaller billboards with photographs of prisoner abuse in Iraq went up in less conspicuous places, including near a back entrance to the U.S. mission and at the neighboring Anti-Imperialist Plaza.

    CUBAN DOCTOR BARRED FROM TRAVEL TO BUENOS AIRES RETURNS HOME FROM ARGENTINE EMBASSY

    A prominent Cuban doctor returned home Thursday after an overnight stay at the Argentine Embassy that raised tensions between the two nations amid reports she was seeking political asylum. Dr. Hilda Molina, 61, denied she had sought refuge at the embassy, telling reporters at her home in Havana that she wanted Argentina's help arranging a teleconference with her son, an exile living in the South American country. "I was discussing something that didn't have anything to with political asylum," said Molina, a brain surgeon who has held top government posts in Cuba.

    She said she ended up staying overnight because her 84-year-old mother, who had accompanied her to the embassy Wednesday, fell ill while they were there. Argentine officials offered to let them stay at the embassy until she felt better. Several international journalists spent Thursday gathered outside the embassy, waiting for Molina and her mother to leave. Late that night, however, it was discovered that Molina was already back home.

    The respected Argentine daily La Nacion reported early Thursday that Molina intended to seek political asylum, citing two unnamed diplomatic sources. The Argentine government remained silent about the case. In Buenos Aires, Molina's son denied the report, saying his mother was just a "guest" at the embassy. "My mother doesn't want this to affect diplomatic relations between the countries, or be turned into a political act," said Roberto Quinones, also a doctor.

    UNITED STATES DIPLOMATS IGNORE CUBAçS DEMANDS

    U.S. Interest Section diplomats on Wednesday refused to take down their offices' trimmings of Santa Claus, candy canes and white lights wrapped around palm trees. The diplomats  ignored a demand by Cuba to remove Christmas decorations that include a reference to dissidents jailed by Fidel Castro's government. The element that irked the Cuban authorities most was a sign among the decorations that reads "75" - a reference to 75 Cuban dissidents jailed last year, according to James Cason, the chief of the Section.

   Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcón called the sign "rubbish" on Wednesday, and told reporters that Cason seems "desperate to create problems." Cuba had warned the U.S. Interest Section in Havana to remove the decorations or face unspecified consequences, but Alarcón did not say what the consequences would be. No other officials from Castro's administration have commented on the spat.

    In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher defended the decorations, and said there are no plans to take them down until after the holidays are over. The "75" sign "shows our solidarity with Cubans who struggle for democracy and freedom, when we think it's appropriate, at the holiday season, to remember ... these people who are missing because of political repression," Boucher said.

    CUBAN DISSIDENT SEEKS POLITICAL ASYLUM IN HAVANAçS ARGENTINE EMBASSY

    A Cuban doctor, denied permission to travel to Buenos Aires to visit relatives there, sought refuge in the Argentine Embassy in Havana, according to a newspaper report. Embassy officials on Thursday declined to confirm that the woman, Dr. Hilda Molina, was inside the embassy, but one diplomat said she had spent all night at the mission. The prominent Argentine daily La Nación reported that Molina, a brain surgeon, entered the embassy Wednesday with her 84-year-old mother. Molina, 61, was planning to ask Argentina for political asylum, La Nacion said, citing two unnamed diplomatic sources.

    Molina, formerly a friend of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, is considered an opponent of the island's communist government. She formerly served various top health posts in the government. The woman's son, Dr. Roberto Quinones, lives as an exile in Argentina. For more than a decade, he has been asking the Cuban government to let his mother travel. Argentine President Nestor Kirchner even wrote a letter this time, asking Castro to let Molina visit her son and two grandchildren. Castro declined, offering instead for the family to come spend Christmas with their mother in Cuba.

    Cuba-Argentina relations are becoming tense as a result of the case. Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa ordered Raul Taleb, ambassador to Cuba, to return to Argentina after Castro's response was made public Tuesday. Taleb, currently in Buenos Aires, clarified that he had traveled there for personal reasons, but that Bielsa had indeed ordered him to not return to Cuba until further notice by Kirchner. On Wednesday, Taleb told Argentine radio that the Cuban government's response "was not to the liking of the Argentine government."

    BORDER GUARDS TRIED TO SINK VESSEL ESCAPING FROM CUBA

    Cuban border guards tried to sink a small craft in which 10 migrants were attempting to leave the island last Wednesday, one of them said. Yolanda García said that as they sailed off the south coast of Pinar del Río province, they were intercepted by two border guard fast-patrol boats, which at first tried to swamp the boat in their wake.

    When that failed, García said, they threatened them with rifles, but desisted after some of the men in the escaping craft yelled that they had a woman on board. Their ordeal lasted for four hours, said García, until the patrol boats left, apparently running out of fuel. Later, she said, they had to land again to repair their engine and were apprehended.

    García said they were taken to the Technical Investigative Department of the police, where they were kept until Saturday. She said there were about 50 others there in similar circumstances. García, 34, said this was her second attempt to leave the island by these means.

    NO RUNNING WATER IN PINAR DEL RIO

    Residents of Pinar del Río say water service in the city is now the worst it's been in living memory, and complain that government officials don't seem to care and certainly can't seem to address the problem. The situation, say residents, is affecting hospitals and polyclinics, that have had to interrupt treatment of patients, in addition to ordinary residents.

    The sight of people lugging water buckets from available spigots to their homes is now a commonplace in the city, many here say.

    CUBA THREATENS TO TAKE ACTION IF U.S. DIPLOMATIC MISSION DOESNçT TAKE DOWN CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

    The Cuban government has threatened the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana if it doesn't immediately take down Christmas decorations outside its offices, the top American diplomat on the island said Tuesday. The trimmings of Santa Claus, candy canes and white lights twirling down palm trees outside the oceanfront building don't appear to be the problem.

    What is likely irking the Cuban authorities, U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason said, is a lit-up sign that says 75 - a clear reference to 75 Cuban government opponents rounded up in a massive crackdown last year and sentenced up to 28 years in prison. "Our intent, in the spirit of Christmas, was to call attention to the plight of these 75," Cason told reporters. "We're prepared to pay whatever price for the things we believe in."

    Cason said officials from Cuba's Foreign Ministry, including the director of North American affairs, insisted the decorations be taken down in meetings Saturday and Tuesday. The U.S. Interest Section refused, and was told there would be consequences. "They could expel us, they could continue to hinder our activities," Cason said. "We don't know what they're going to do." "We'll find out shortly," he added.

    UNBELIEVABLE! EUROPEAN UNION TO SCALE DOWN COCKTAILS TO REPAIR CUBA TIES

    Diplomatic cocktails in Havana will become a rather modest affair if European Union ministers accept recommendations by officials on Tuesday to break a deadlock in relations with Cuba. Foreign ministers will be asked in January to agree to scale down or scrap National Day receptions, at least temporarily, to end a stand-off over invitations to dissidents which led the communist government to freeze out European diplomats.

    "It's up to ministers to decide but it might come down to holding rather small-sized, scaled-down national day celebrations without inviting either the authorities or dissidents," a spokesman for the EU's Dutch presidency said. The recommendation by a working group of national experts on Latin America policy came after Cuba freed 14 out of 75 dissidents arrested last year and hinted that more releases are on the way.

    The EU policy of inviting political opponents to National Day parties so incensed the Cuban government that it shut its doors to European diplomats, shunned ambassadors and did not return telephone calls. Spain's Socialist government, keen to end the row and develop more constructive relations, took the lead in seeking a review of the 25-nation bloc's policy towards its former colony. Several EU members, including Germany and most ex-communist east European states, argued that Cuban President Fidel Castro should make the first move by releasing political prisoners.

    CHAVEZ MEETS WITH CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO 

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Monday night arrived in Cuba with one-day delay to pay an official visit and celebrate the tenth anniversary of his first visit to the island. The visit of Chávez, who is a close friend of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, is "a reaffirmation of the bonds of solidarity and brotherhood of the peoples of (Simón) Bolívar and Martí," the Granma reported.

    In 1994, when he was a military officer recently released from jail after he headed a failed coup attempt, Chávez visited Cuba and was received by Castro as a head of state. That initial visit was to be honored in an event scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in which Venezuelans studying and receiving medical care in Cuba were to participate. The two men have since then been close friends and political allies.

    The streets of Havana were filled with colorful posters depicting Chavez and saying "Welcome." The photo displayed on this page, shows an unidentified Cuban girl playing with one of the posters that reads "homerun for the Bolivarian Revolution Congratulations!. It is very interesting to see in the photo that the Cuban girl wears an American flag headband.

    CUBAN SUGAR MINISTER SAYS 23 MILLS WILL NOT OPEN

    Cuban sugar Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro announced 23 mills would remain closed during harvest just getting underway, confirming reports that drought had hurt this year's crop, the official daily Granma said on Monday. Rosales, opening the harvest over the weekend, urged increased industrial efficiency to maintain output at the previous harvest's 2.52 million tonnes of raw sugar, despite the unanimous opinion of local experts that production will not exceed 1.8 million tonnes, the lowest since 1909.

    "The minister insisted efficiency was a determining factor to counter possible low yields that the intense draught has caused sugar plantations," Granma said. The harvest usually begins in November or December and runs into May, but Cuba is in the grip of the worst drought in 40 years, according to the government.

    Rosales said just three mills would open this month, 46 in January and six in February. There were 85 mills opened during the previous harvest, 79 of which produced raw sugar and the remainder derivatives. Cuba had planned for 26 mills to open in February, but apparently worry that drought conditions could further damage yields led to the decision for most to open earlier. Prolonged drought from the eastern to the central parts of Cuba has destroyed and stunted cane.

    U.S. GOVERNMENT SAYS SHOW OF CUBAN MILITARY A DIVERSION

    Large-scale exercises by the Cuban military are an attempt by Fidel Castro's government to distract people from the hardships of their lives, the State Department said Monday. Defense Minister Raul Castro said last week the exercises are designed to deter the United States from attacking the island.

    State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States repeatedly has urged Cuba to begin a peaceful transition to democracy. "We think that's what the Cuban people deserve, and we think they deserve it in a peaceful fashion," Boucher said. The exercises were to begin Monday and end Sunday.

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's younger brother said the United States should observe the exercises closely "so it doesn't make the same mistakes it made in Vietnam and is now making in Iraq." The maneuvers also are aimed at evaluating how prepared Cuban society is to face possible U.S. military action against Cuba, he said. Cuba has been warning of a possible American invasion over the past year.

    OSWALDO PAYÁ REPORTS THAT HOUSE WAS BUGGED

    One of Cuba's best-known political activists said Monday his house had been bugged by the island's communist government, and showed reporters small microphones he said he found inside telephone outlets in his bedroom and dining room. Oswaldo Paya, lead organizer of the Varela Project democracy drive, said, "we are indignant that such a low method was used against a family's home."

    A telecommunications engineer by trade, Paya said he suspected he was being spied on, so he dismantled the phone outlets where his phone line is plugged in and found bugs in two separate outlets - one of which was next to his bed. Paya accused the telephone company ETECSA, which is owned jointly by the Cuban government and an Italian firm, of installing the bugs. "For many years, the totalitarian state in Cuba has let loose ... all its technical resources and an ... army of agents to spy on, harass, and repress my family," Paya said.

    Listing other reported violations by the government, Paya said officials have also cautioned the parents of his children's friends against interacting with the family, and have asked the family's doctors to provide them with information after any medical visits. Paya said that shortly after he found the bugs, an ETECSA technician came to his house without having been called in, saying he needed to repair the lines. Paya said he refused to let him in. He said he also discovered a bug in his aunt's house, just a block away.

    U.S. BUSINESSES TO ATTEND CUBAN TRADE TALKS

    Two years ago in December, fewer than 30 U.S. business representatives came to Havana to sign agreements with Cuban officials to export food to the Caribbean island. This week, Cuba expects more than 340 people - primarily producers of American farm goods - to attend the latest round of talks, in which communist officials hope to sign deals worth about $100 million.

    "This shows a great interest on the part of American businesses," Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the Cuban food import company Alimport, said Monday. With that growing interest has come increased pressure on the U.S. government by the American companies and even members of Congress to lift trade and travel restrictions against Cuba, Alvarez said. "There is a marked and growing interest in continuing to improve relations with Cuba," he said.

    Four decades of trade sanctions against Cuba have been tightened under the Bush administration. Yet Alvarez was optimistic that President Bush in his second term will start heeding requests from U.S. business interests and lawmakers - particularly those from farm states - to ease restrictions.

    ZAPATERO FACES GRILLING ON ALLEGATIONS HE USED MADRID TERRORIST ATTACKS FOR POLITICAL GAIN

     Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was to take the stand before lawmakers Monday to address allegations that his Socialist party helped instigate protest rallies to reap political capital from the Madrid train bombings that claimed 191 lives. Cell phone text messages convening protest rallies spread like wildfire the night before Spain's general election on March 14, three days after the bombings. Angry demonstrators accused the pro-U.S. government of making Spain a target for al-Qaida. The opposition went on to win the election. Under Spanish law, political rallies are banned on the day before an election.

    The new Socialist government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the demonstrations that brought thousands of screaming protesters to streets outside ruling Popular Party offices in Madrid and other cities, describing them instead as spontaneous outpourings of anger and grief.  Protesters called then-prime minister Jose Maria Aznar a murderer, accusing him of provoking the bombings by supporting the Iraq war, and said his government lied by insisting Basque militants were the prime suspects even after evidence of an Islamic link emerged.

    Despite the Socialist denials, the Popular Party says it has proof Socialist party officials helped stir up the anti-government furor and will grill Zapatero about this when he testifies Monday. "We all know there were Socialist party members, people with responsibilities in government bodies, that convened people with cell phone messages," party leader Mariano Rajoy said Friday. Zapatero will be the first Spanish prime minister to testify before a parliamentary commission of inquiry.

    VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO WAS POISONED BY UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES

    Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, doctors said yesterday, adding the highly toxic chemical could have been put in the opposition leader's soup, producing the severe disfigurement and partial paralysis of his face. Yushchenko was in satisfactory condition and was expected to be released from Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic today or tomorrow to return to the campaign trail in Ukraine, said hospital director Dr. Michael Zimpfer. Yushchenko, who faces Viktor Yanukovych in a rerun of a disputed presidential runoff Dec. 26, has claimed he was poisoned by Ukrainian authorities.

    They deny his allegation. His supporters at home expressed little surprise over the doctors' conclusion.  Yushchenko fell ill in early September and had been treated at the Vienna clinic twice before. But it was the tests run since he checked in Friday night that provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said. "There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease -- especially following the results of the blood work -- has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," Zimpfer said.

    "We suspect involvement of an external party, but we cannot answer as to who cooked what or who was with him while he ate," Zimpfer said, adding tests showed the dioxin was taken orally.  Zimpfer said Yushchenko's blood and tissue registered concentrations of dioxin -- one of the most toxic chemicals -- that were 1,000 times above normal levels.  "It would be quite easy to administer this amount in a soup," Zimpfer said. The substance containing the dioxin would most likely have been consumed the day Yushchenko fell ill, as dioxin is rapidly absorbed, Zimpfer said.  A parliamentary commission that investigated Yushchenko's mysterious illness in October said he complained of pains after meeting with Ihor Smeshko, the head of Ukraine's Secret Service.

MADRID, December 14

    AFTER BOMB THREAT, MADRIDçS BERNABÉU STADIUM WAS EVACUATED IN 88 MINUTES DURING REAL MADRID-REAL SOCIEDAD GAME

    Real Madrid and Real Sociedad match was stopped Sunday when a bomb threat emptied Santiago Bernabeu stadium with three minutes to play and the scored tied 1-1. About 70,000 fans and players cleared the stadium, some players leaving in uniform. No bomb was found. The incident raised questions about how to protect crowds at sports events in Spain and elsewhere.

    It was the first time a major Spanish sports event has been halted due to a bomb threat. "Now we can say it was just a scare, and we hope it won't happen again," Real Madrid President Florentino Perez said. The Basque newspaper Gara, often used by the separatist group ETA to announce its intended targets, reported that a device was set to explode at the stadium at 9PM. The Interior Ministry confirmed Monday that no device was found.

    ANTI-GOVERNMENT GRAFFITI IN THE STREETS OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA

    Several streets in central Santiago, Cuba's second largest city, were plastered overnight with graffiti this past Tuesday. The slogans on the walls, calling for the downfall of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, were found in the area of Paraíso, Reloj, Santa Rosa, Carnicería, and Santa Rita Streets.

    Authorities promptly set out to erradicate the writing on the walls on Tuesday morning. There are reports of three arrests in connection with the incident, but no further details.

    PENTAGON, PRESIDENT BUSH PLEDGE MORE PROTECTION FOR THE TROOPS

    Military officials said they were working hard to upgrade the armor on Army vehicles in Iraq, a day after a soldier pressed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the subject. President Bush said, "The concerns expressed are being addressed.'' About three-quarters of the Humvees in the Iraqi theater now have upgraded armor protection, but many larger trucks and tractor-trailer rigs do not, according to congressional figures.

    The issue of whether the military is providing enough protection to soldiers is receiving new attention after a National Guardsman on his way to Iraq questioned Rumsfeld on Wednesday as to why soldiers had to scrounge through scrap piles to protect their vehicles. At the White House, Bush was asked about the situation. '' . . . We expect our troops to have the best possible equipment,'' Bush said. 'If I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country, I'd want to ask the secretary of defense the same question. And that is, `Are we getting the best we can get us?' And they deserve the best.''

    Lt. Gen. Steven RWhitcomb, commander of the 3rd Army, was questioned about that by Pentagon reporters Thursday in a teleconference from Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. ''If I can add another plate or another inch or more to the vehicle I'm riding in that gives me protection, it's better,'' he said. "So I think that's a prudent thing to do, if the soldier has the capability. . . . In my opinion, it's not being done in mass numbers or mass quantities.'' He said vehicles with upgraded armor are being added daily.

     NORTH DAKOTA TRADE TRIP TO CUBA PLANNED FOR THIS WEEK

     The North Dakota Farm Bureau is leading another trade delegation to Cuba next week. The farm group received a $25,000 grant earlier this year from the state Agricultural Products Utilization Commission, which funds developers of North Dakota farm products. Farm Bureau also is paying part of the cost of the trip planned Dec. 16-22, said John Mittleider, the group's vice president of public policy. Two APUC members will accompany the Farm Bureau representatives.

     "Our objective is to get the groundwork laid for a larger delegation that would probably occur next spring or early summer," Mittleider said. Cuba, which has a centralized system for buying food, has bought $5.5 million worth of North Dakota dry peas and beans in the last five years.

    U.S. DIPLOMAT PREDICTS END NEARING FOR CASTRO AND HIS GOVERNMENT

    U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason, the top American diplomat in Cuba says the end is near for Fidel Castro and his government and that even Castro's supporters are preparing for a transition to democracy. Castro's government "is on its last legs," Cason said. "Even regime supporters are discreetly preparing for the inevitable democratic transition" on the communist-run island, the American official said. Come New Year's Day, Castro, 78, will have been in power 46 years. Cuba's communist leaders say the island will retain its current political system for many years to come.

    Castro's designated successor is his younger brother, 73-year-old Defense Minister Raul Castro, who is also No. 2 in Cuba's ruling Communist Party. There was no immediate reaction from Castro's government, which traditionally takes several days to respond to statements by American officials. In the past Castro has accused Cason of being a "bully with diplomatic immunity" charged by Washington with trying to provoke the island.

    President Bush has steadily tightened the long-standing U.S. trade and travel restrictions on Cuba. Earlier this year, the Bush administration issued new rules based on recommendations by a presidential panel, which outlined the role the United States could play in a transitional, post-Castro Cuba. Cuban officials say the recommendations amount to a blueprint for overthrowing their government, a charge American officials deny.

    U.S. DIPLOMATS AND CUBAN DISSIDENTS BURIED A TIME CAPSULE

    U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason spoke at his official residence where dissidents gathered Friday for a time capsule ceremony marking International Human Rights Day. Dissident guests filled the capsule with messages spelling out their dreams for a different kind of Cuba. Oswaldo Paya, leader of a pro-democracy petition drive known as the Varela Project, was among about a dozen dissidents assembled for the evening ceremony at Cason's home. "Would God grant that our children and the Cuban people do not inherit our hates and miseries but rather our faith so that they can construct their own history," Paya said.

    The group also included Elsa Morejon, wife of imprisoned dissident Dr. Oscar Biscet, who was among 75 people jailed in a crackdown on dissent in March 2003 and sentenced to long prison terms. The time capsule - a small black box later buried in Cason's backyard - included a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, several non-governmental magazines published on the island and a speech by President Bush about Cuba.

    "This is a ceremony of hope," said leading Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya. "The message I deposit here is a well-known secret. All the Cuban people want this ... I'm sure that very soon we can read it out in public places without fear of arrest," said dissident Manuel Vasquez Portal. U.S. officials placed a pin with the number 75 in the time capsule to commemorate the dissidents jailed in March last year in the worst crackdown in decades against Cuban pro-democracy activists. The time capsule included the text of a speech U.S. President George W. Bush made on May 20, 2002, when he announced stepped-up U.S. pressure for political change in Cuba.

    ELECTION STIMULATES CUBA EMBARGO BACKERS IN U.S. CONGRESS

    For the first time in years, congressional supporters of the economic embargo against Cuba are prepared to go on the offensive. After years of fighting defensive maneuvers to keep U.S. sanctions on Cuba intact, changes in Congress and the White House have emboldened pro-embargo legislators to consider more aggressive policies against the island.

    The addition of Florida's Mel Martinez to the Senate, the strengthening of the Republican majority in Congress and Condoleezza Rice's nomination as secretary of state have shifted the balance of power in favor of the pro-embargo camp, analysts and congressional officials say. ''We're going to get together and form a coalition with other members of like mind to have a proactive stance . . .'' said a Cuban-American U.S. legislator.

    In February the group will launch an ''adopt-a-prisoner'' campaign that will invite lawmakers to wear buttons with pictures of political prisoners, their names and prison sentences. The group also will look to curtail U.S. agriculture exports to Cuba and keep U.S. banks from doing business with Fidel Castro's government. U.S. food and agricultural exports to Cuba totaled $714.5 million from December 2001 to October 2004.The group described Powell as ''a good soldier'' on Cuban issues but said she considers Rice, an expert on the former Soviet Union, ''a true believer.'' in the anti-Castro cause.

IRAQ, December 11

    SECRETARY RUMSFELD: "YOU GO TO WAR WITH THE ARMY YOU HAVE, NOT THE ARMY YOU MIGHT WANT TO HAVE"  

    In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment. ''You go to war with the Army you have,'' Rumsfeld replied, "not the Army you might want or wish to have.''

    Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, ''Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?'' Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

    ''We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north,'' Wilson, 31, of Nashville, Tenn., concluded after asking again. Rarely, though, is it put so bluntly in a public forum. U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq are killed or maimed by roadside bombs almost daily. Adding armor protection to Humvees and other vehicles that normally are not used in combat has been a priority for the Army, but manufacturers have not been able to keep up with the demand.

    BANCO DE SANTANDER  FINED $20,000 FOR BREACHING U.S. TRADE SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA

    A fine has been levied against Santander's bank in Nassau, Bahamas, for a transfer of funds through Cuba in 2001. Information posted on the treasury department's website showed that the Spanish bank was fined last month.

    The US embargo on trading with Cuba has been in place since 1963 and firms and individuals trading with the country must keep records and provide them to the US government. Santander refused to comment on the fine and the US treasury department would not elaborate upon the sketchy details provided on its website. The website indicates that Santander did not voluntarily
disclose the transaction.

    The US treasury department's office of foreign assets control is responsible for policing the sanctions against Cuba which are intended to isolate the government. Santander was fined under the range of civil penalties used by the department, which can levy financial penalties of up to $55,000 for each violation. Criminal penalties for violating the sanctions range from 10 years in prison, $1m in corporate fines and $250,000 in individual fines.

    JAPAN TO EXTEND IRAQ TROOPS DISPATCH

    Japan will keep its troops in Iraq for another year, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Thursday, arguing that extending the unpopular mission - the military's most dangerous overseas deployment since World War II - is a necessary duty. Koizumi said he had "no doubts" the mission was essential to Iraq's reconstruction and the security of Japan, which depends closely on its top ally, the United States.

    "The Iraqis are trying to build a government with their own hands. We must support this. The Self-Defense Forces are needed for this end," he said in a nationally televised address. The prime minister, who staunchly backed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, added, "Japan cannot ensure its peace and independence on its own."

    "We must not isolate the United States. We must create an environment in which the United States can cooperate with the world," Koizumi said. About 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under a security treaty. Koizumi spoke after the Cabinet voted to keep Japan's 500 non-combat troops in southern Iraq to purify water and rebuild infrastructure. The troops were sent to Iraq in January, the largest overseas mission for Japan's postwar military.

    REVOLT IN A BAHAMIAN PRISON HOLDING CUBANS

    Unrest at a Bahamian holding camp for illegal Haitian and Cuban migrants left 16 detainees and Bahamians injured Thursday after an escape attempt, officials said.

    Two of the three escapees were quickly recaptured, but inmates later set a dormitory on fire and hurled objects at Bahamian immigration and military officers trying to remove a belligerent detainee, said a government statement. Eleven Royal Bahamian Defense Force officers sustained bruises and lacerations during the altercation, and five detainees had to be taken to an area hospital for injuries.

    The Cubans injured were: Oreste Cordero García, Jorge Luis Conde Morales, Arnulfo Santiesteban, Jorge Albert Batista Pérez and Arcel Emilio Rondón Herrera. The Carmichael Detention Center in Nassau is under investigation by Amnesty International because of allegations that detainees are subjected to beatings and other abuses. The government has said the allegations are exaggerated.

    CUBAN SUGAR CROP SEEN DOWN 30 PERCENT

    Cuba's sugar harvest was set to begin on Friday, with the drought-ravaged crop estimated at no more than 1.8 million tonnes, compared with 2.52 million tonnes a year ago, industry sources said on Thursday. The last time Cuba, one of the world's largest sugar exporters, produced less than 1.8 million tonnes of sugar was in 1909. Just four of 65 mills were scheduled to open this month, with the rest coming on line in January and February.

    An additional 20 mills will remain closed this harvest for lack of cane. "Given the limited amount of cane this time, there are not early dates to begin milling," Varela said. The final estimate proved worse than August's, industry sources said. "It is a disaster. The crop will come in at 1.7 million tonnes to 1.8 million tonnes," a local sugar expert, who recently toured four important sugar-producing provinces, said.

    Cuba sells abroad all but 700,000 tonnes of its crop, mainly to Russia and China. But it has been known to sell more to meet contractual obligations and then purchase sugar abroad. The 2002/2003 sugar crop was the lowest in 70 years at 2.2 million tonnes, after the Communist-run country shuttered 71 of 156 state mills and relegated 60 percent of sugar lands to other uses.

    A SOUTH AMERICAN COMMUNITY OF NATIONS IS CREATED, EYE  EUROPEAN UNION MODEL

    South American presidents met in Peru on Wednesday to sign a regional integration pact they said would go beyond rhetoric and usher in European-style unity. "Sooner rather than later we will have a single currency, a single passport," Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo told the start of the summit in the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco. "Sooner rather than later, we will have a parliament with representatives elected by the direct votes of this new nation that we are creating today," he said.

    The South American Community of Nations, whose birth will be marked with the signing of a formal declaration later on Wednesday, by the presidents of Venezuela, Guyana, Brasil, Chile, Surinam and Perú, and by representatives of Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. The governments México and Panamá did not sign but they will be observers.

    "The example of the European Union is the course to follow," Peruvian Foreign Minister Manuel Rodriguez told reporters. "In a way, this is an American dream coming true." President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Latin America's economic powerhouse, told the summit the new community "will not just be rhetoric." Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country is the region's economic powerhouse, said,  "If in the past, geography divided us, today it unites us."  The leaders of Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay had already stayed away from the summit for domestic political and personal reasons.

    FIFTEEN PEOPLE WOUNDED BY GUNFIRE IN DOWNTOWN CARACAS

    Venezuelan police firing tear gas and shotgun pellets clashed with rioting street vendors in Caracas on Wednesday and 15 people were treated for gunshot wounds, officials and witnesses said. The street violence, the worst seen in Caracas for several months, erupted after police tried to dismantle the vendors' stalls following an order from the Interior Ministry to clear areas around banks and subway stations.

    Several hundred rioters burned two buses and two police motorcycles, set fire to garbage and pelted police with stones and sticks in running battles with armed officers. "The vendors started to attack the police ... We have 42 people treated for injuries, 14 of them from firearms," William Martinez, deputy commander of the Caracas Metropolitan Fire Service, told reporters.

    Witnesses heard gunshots but could not say who started the shooting. At least one department store was looted. As black smoke rose from the burning vehicles, some of the rioters also shot fireworks at the police. National Guard troops in riot gear later restored order to the debris-strewn streets. Some of the vendors, part of an army of thousands of street sellers who clog the pavements of central Caracas, accused police officers of stealing their wares.

    US STATE DEPARTMENT: NEW VENEZUELA MEDIA LAW ‚DEEPLY TROUBLINGç

    A State Department spokesman called Venezuela's new media law "deeply troubling," saying it shares concerns raised by rights groups that the law threatens freedom of expression. "The law specifically imposes vague and unclear restrictions on media content and allows the government regulatory agency to censor content it considers harmful to 'public order and national security,"' spokesman Adam Ereli said.

    Some Venezuelan television channels began altering their programs Thursday, citing fears of penalties under a new law that places restrictions on broadcasters. Private TV channel Globovision blocked out photographs of street violence with white space when it displayed the day's newspapers, filled with coverage of riots on Wednesday that police said left at least 25 injured.

    President Hugo Chavez signed the Law for Social Responsibility in Radio and Television Tuesday, following its approval by legislators last month. Critics say the law threatens press freedoms and have dubbed it the "gag law."

    HUGO CHÁVEZ APPROVES MEDIA LAW --"GAG LAW"

    A law that gives the government control over the content of radio and television programs in Venezuela took effect Thursday. Congress approved the bill last month over concerns it threatens to press freedom, and President Hugo Chavez signed the law Wednesday. "We can say that the Venezuelan people have begun to free themselves from ... the dictatorship of the private media," Chavez said in a speech late Tuesday.

    Opposition leaders and journalists say the law would permit the government to censor news reports. Chavez has clashed repeatedly with the media, accusing broadcasters of conspiring to topple him and "spreading lies" to ruin his image. Media executives deny the allegations.

    The new law requires TV and radio stations to "broadcast all messages in Spanish" and set aside 70 minutes of programming each week for government-produced spots, said Alberto Federico Ravell, director of the privately owned Globovision television channel. "The government, starting today, began a progressive intervention of the media," Ravell told reporters.

    RAUL CASTRO: CUBA READY TO REPEL A U.S. INVASION

    Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro warned the United States Tuesday not to repeat its mistakes in Vietnam and Iraq by invading Cuba because its armed forces and civilian population were ready to resist. Castro, the younger brother of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, said civilian-military exercises to be held across Cuba from December 13 to 19 will be a show of preparedness so that Washington does not underestimate Cuba's defense capability.

    "The Americans should watch closely, so that they do not commit the mistakes they made in Vietnam and are now making in Iraq, where they are bogged down," Castro told reporters. Like the Vietnam War, Castro said, U.S. troop escalation had already begun in Iraq due to local resistance. Bastion 2004 is the latest annual mass drill involving troop exercises with civilian involvement based on a guerrilla strategy designed to resist an invasion force. This year's operation is more extensive than last year's.

    "We are holding Bastion 2004 so they observe well and do not underestimate our people who are more united and therefore much stronger than the Iraqis. That is the reason," Castro said. Dictator Castro, who is currently wheelchair-bound after shattering his left knee in a fall in October, has accused the Bush administration of planning to invade Cuba. He has also charged Washington with toying with the idea of a surgical strike to remove him and his Communist government. American authorities have repeatedly rejected that idea, saying there are no plans to attack Cuba.

    SENATOR BAUCUS DEFENDS TRADE WITH CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO

    A Senate Democrat threatened Wednesday to block the president's Treasury Department appointments as the Bush administration reconsiders a rule for companies that sell food and agricultural products to Cuba. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said a potential revision threatens to obstruct trade and "takes this administration's dangerous obsession with Cuba to a whole new level." "I will not sit idly by if the Treasury Department attempts to rewrite legislation Congress intended to facilitate trade with Cuba," he said.

    The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and banks have questions about whether a 2000 law permitting agricultural trade with Cuba requires that U.S. exporters be paid before shipping their products to Cuba. Some exporters currently ship products to Cuba before getting paid, but Cuban importers do not get the goods until they pay the U.S. exporter. Baucus wants OFAC to let exporters stick with their current shipping and payment practices.

    Josh Markus, a Florida attorney and former American Bar Association international law officer, said the government might look askance at the delayed payments because U.S. laws prohibit companies from extending credit to the Cuban government. "The U.S. government has taken a much harder line on many things for Cuba," he said. A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said guidance will be issued soon. President Bush has called for more stringent enforcement of provisions that forbid most economic activity and travel with Cuba.

    VENEZUELA WILL PURCHASE AS MANY AS 100,000 RUSSIAN RIFLES

    Defense Minister Gen. Jorge Garcia confirmed Venezuela's plans to buy as many as 100,000 Kalashnikovs AK103 and 104, after deciding to replace the military's standard issue light automatic rifles with the Russian-made firearms. Following a meeting in Moscow last month, Chavez and Russian President Vladimir Putin said the two countries would cooperate in weapons sales.

    Venezuelan officials said in October they want to buy 40 military helicopters from Russia to patrol the country's volatile border with Colombia, Chavez, a self-proclaimed revolutionary and former army lieutenant colonel, has said Venezuela is also interested in purchasing anti-missile and anti-tank weapons from Russia.

    CUBAN DISSIDENT SENTENCED AGAIN

    Atila Sáez was sentenced on November 25 to two years in prison for "disrespect" toward Fidel Castro. On December 2, he was sentenced to one more year for disrespect toward the court that tried him in the first instance. Sáez, 23, was tried by the Municipal Tribunal of Placetas, Villa Clara province. During the first trial, there was an altercation between him and the presiding judge, ended only after several police forcefully pinned Sáez down.

    Outside the courtroom, several dissidents who had not been allowed into the courtroom milled about in a show of support for Sáez. A few hours after the trial, activist José Antonio Pérez said, two officers of the political police showed up at his home and told him he was "inciting to rebellion" since at the first trial he had been present by himself and at this second trial he had brought five more dissidents with him. Pérez said police told him he would face the consequences.

    CUBAN DISSIDENTS PLAN NATIONAL MEETING

    Cuban dissidents, seeking to regain the initiative after a wave of arrests last year, announced plans on Tuesday to hold a national meeting of opponents of President Fidel Castro's communist government in May. But several dissidents among a group of seven released on parole last week plan to leave for the United States because they fear they could be rearrested, a human rights activist said.

    Economist Martha Beatriz Roque, who was freed in July after 16 months in jail, said the umbrella organization she leads, called the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, will meet on May 20, 2005. The coalition of 343 groups includes small political groupings, human rights activists and independent libraries. It was unlikely the Cuban government would authorize the meeting.

    "This is a demonstration that the dissident movement is not fragmented, because it is not easy to bring so many people together," Roque said at a news conference at her home. "There is enormous interest in attending," she said. The other main opposition effort, headed by Oswaldo Paya, is not part of her umbrella organization. Paya is the leader of the Varela Project, a petition for a referendum on civil rights.

    MICHIGAN COUPLE FACING $9,750 FINE FOR TRAVEL TO CUBA

    The U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control asked an administrative law judge to fine Michael and Andrea McCarthy $9,750, for traveling to Cuba. Administrative Law Judge Irwin Schroeder said he planned to decide before Christmas what the fine should be. The McCarthys, of Port Huron, Mich., went to Cuba through Canada in April 2001. They are Catholics who considered the trip a missionary effort as well as a vacation.

    The U.S. government learned about the trip when the McCarthys told an officer at the border between Canada and Michigan that they had been to Cuba. McCarthys' attorney, Kurt Berggren, said the couple knew others who had traveled to Cuba and believed the government wouldn't enforce its travel rules. The McCarthys say they spent $1,400 on the weeklong trip.

    Berggren told Schroeder that the $9,750 fine would be a hardship for the couple. Michael McCarthy is a physician's assistant and Andrea McCarthy is a nurse, and the couple has three college-aged children. The McCarthys were offered a settlement of $1,000 each but refused because they wanted to challenge the law in a hearing. Michael McCarthy said the couple believes strongly that their religion requires them to help make peace with countries such as Cuba. The McCarthy case is one of about 20 now before OFAC judges.

    CUBAN AMBASSADORçS WORDS CAUSE STIR IN SLOVAKIA 

    "The dignity and morality of the people and government of Cuba stand far above the wretchedness of such people as you". These words, communicated by the Cuban Ambassador to Slovakia, Caridad Milian, in a letter to Slovak Speaker of Parliament Pavol Hrusovsky, have caused consternation in political and diplomatic circles.

    This offensive missive came in response to a request from Hrusovsky for information about the state of Cuban political prisoner Luis Ferer. According to Slovak experts on diplomatic protocol, such strong words violate diplomatic form and are an insult to one of the country's top officials. The Cuban ambassador further wrote: "We express our belief that the Slovak citizens will judge in due course the way you have abused your parliamentary mandate for deplorable manipulation".

    According to Butora, this last sentence of Milian's letter may even be deemed interference in the country's internal affairs. Hrusovsky, the letterçs recipient and Parliamentary speaker was outraged. "I've never seen such a letter by an ambassador to one of the country's highest officials," he said. The Foreign Ministry invited Milian to a meeting in November and asked her to refrain in future "from unacceptable vocabulary that does not correspond with the stature of an experienced diplomat".

    PANAMA, CUBA AGREE TO REOPEN CONSULATES FOLLOWING SPAT OVER PARDONS

    Panama and Cuba have agreed to reopen their respective consulates, Panamanian authorities announced Monday, three months after the two nations broke off diplomatic relations over former Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso's pardon of four anti-Castro militants.

    Cuba reopened its Panama City consulate Monday, and Panama will do the same with its consular office in Havana on Dec. 13, though neither country fixed a date for restoring full diplomatic relations and exchanging ambassadors. The consular openings are "a first step toward normalizing relations," Panama's Foreign Relations Ministry said in a press statement.

    Moscoso pardoned the four Cubans - who had been accused of trying to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro - on Aug. 26, just five days before she left office. Cuba broke off relations in protest, and Panama did the same. New Panamanian President Martin Torrijos bitterly opposed the pardons and has vowed to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba.

    RICARDO ALARCÓN: PRESIDENT BUSHçS COMMITMENT TO LIBERATE CUBA IS DESTINED TO FAIL, EVEN IF THE UNITED STATES ATTEMPTS A MILITARY INVASION

    U.S. President George W. Bush's commitment to "liberate" Cuba is destined to fail, even if the United States attempts a military invasion, Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcón said Monday. "If they try it, they have to attack Cuba, then use military occupation and then attempt a regime change," Alarcón said at a press conference in Caracas. "They can attempt it, they can try it, but they will be handed a defeat they will never forget," he added.

    Last week, U.S. State Department official Roger Noriega said Bush was committed to the "liberation of Cuba" by extending moral and political support to the Cuban people. He did not mention military intervention. Alarcón also accused the United States of supporting terrorists who are plotting to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro. Cuban and Venezuelan exiles near Miami are preparing for terrorist acts in their homelands, he said.

    "They have camps, where they practice with bombs," Alarcón said. "The United States has done nothing to stop them ... the FBI knows who they are, where they are and what places they meet," he added. Chavez, a self-proclaimed revolutionary who has irritated U.S. officials by forging close ties with Castro, has made similar accusations. U.S. officials have denied that militiamen or terrorists intent on toppling Chavez and Castro are training on American soil.

    EIGHT DIE IN TERRORIST ATTACK AGAINST U.S. CONSULATE

    Eight people have been killed in a gun battle between Saudi security forces and five gunmen who attacked the U.S. consulate in the port city of Jeddah. Saudi forces killed three of the gunmen and captured two others, both of whom were wounded, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. Five consular employees -- four security guards and one local staff member -- were also killed. Four other local staff members were injured and recovering in hospital, U.S. officials said. The U.S. Embassy said no Americans were killed or suffered any serious injuries.

    The Interior Ministry said the militants threw explosives at two gates of the sprawling, walled consulate and then entered, exchanging fire with guards. A Saudi official said several members of the Saudi security forces were killed and several others wounded. In addition, he said some Saudi civilians who were at the consulate were hit by the gunfire.

    A senior Saudi official in Washington that an unknown number of third-country nationals who work at the consulate were taken hostage for a time. Some suffered wounds but all were released. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said no Americans had been taken hostage. . "We have accounted for all Americans on the compound in Jiddah and none of them are being held hostage," Kalin said. "We have a local work force that was on duty and we are still in the process of accounting for them."

    SMALL BOMBS EXPLODED ACROSS SPAIN

    Small bombs exploded Monday in at least six cities around Spain after telephone warnings from callers claiming to speak on behalf of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, the Interior Ministry said. The bombs detonated in Leon and Santillana del Mar in the north, Avila and Ciudad Real in central Spain, Alicante in the east, and Malaga in the south, the ministry said, adding it had no reports of injuries. two people were slightly injured in Santillana del Mar and the bomb went off in the center of the town, not the parking lot mentioned in the warning call.

    The blasts followed two telephone warnings to the Basque newspaper Gara from callers claiming to represent ETA that said bombs had been placed in seven cities throughout the country. The last of the seven is Valladolid in the north. Before the blasts, the Interior Ministry had said the seven sites targeted - mainly streets and plazas - had been evacuated and cordoned off.

    Another small bomb was defused Saturday in the southern city of Almeria. Spanish security forces were on alert Monday, a public holiday marking the 26th anniversary of the passage of the Spanish constitution. The document laid the groundwork for Spain's system of granting broad autonomy to regions like the northern Basque country. In several of Monday's blasts, the targets were streets or plazas named after Spain itself, such as Avenida de España or Plaza de España.

    "YOUNG MAN SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS  IMPRISONMENT FOR BEING DISRESPECTFUL OF THE CUBAN DICTATOR 

    Alila Sáez Romero, 23, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for being disrespectful to President Fidel Castro. When Sáez Romero was led from the closed-door trial, he could be heard shouting, "Down with the tyranny." He was arrested for remarks he made November 25 against Castro. Witnesses against him were four women, all members of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution or the Federation of Cuban Women.

    SENATOR McCAIN CRITICIZES PENTAGON'S DECISIONS ON IRAQ WAR

    The increase in U.S. troop strength in Iraq announced last week is not likely to be enough, Sen. John McCain said Sunday. McCain told "Fox News Sunday" that more troops probably would be required to protect polling places during next month's elections, prosecute the fight against the insurgency and help reconstruct Falluja, the volatile city where U.S. forces have been conducting operations.

    The Arizona Republican, who has frequently been critical of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said Sunday that he respects President Bush's decision to keep Rumsfeld in his post. But McCain declined to give the decision an endorsement. "I respect the president," McCain said. "The president of the United States was re-elected by a majority of the American people, and I respect his right. And I will work with the president obviously and with the secretary of defense." Asked if such comments were a vote of confidence, McCain responded, "No, it's not."

    The United States is dispatching an additional 1,500 troops to Iraq and extending the stays of more than 10,000 others to bolster security ahead of January's scheduled elections, the Pentagon said last week. McCain said the problems in Iraq go deeper than troop numbers. "The problem we have here is that the Pentagon has been reacting to initiatives of the enemy rather than taking initiatives from which the enemy has to react to," he said. "And the problem, when you react, you have to extend people on duty there, which is terrible for morale. There's a terrific strain on Guard and reservists. If you plan ahead, then you don't have to do some of these things. The military," he said, "is too small."

    RAÚL RIVERO PONDERS HIS FUTURE

   After three intense days that followed his prison release, all writer Raúl Rivero wants to do now is wander through the noisy, cobble-stoned streets of his beloved Havana Vieja. ''I just want to walk,'' Rivero told The Associated Press on Friday night in his walk-up apartment, winding up what he said he hoped would be the last of innumerable interviews after his surprise release Wednesday.

    During his 20 months behind bars, Rivero said he longed for the familiar streets with their music and chatter just as he missed them in the 1980s while he was a Moscow correspondent for the news agency Prensa Latina. ''I've never wanted to leave,'' the 59-year-old dissident writer and poet said in his book-lined living room while consuming cigarettes and thick Cuban coffee served by his wife of 15 years, Blanca Reyes.

    Now, freed less than two years into what was a 20-year sentence, Rivero is pondering his options. The mayor of the Spanish city of Granada has invited him to visit for a year. His daughter Cristina wants him to meet his 6-month-old granddaughter Maya in the United States. There is the book he's writing about his prison experiences.

    ROGER NORIEGA: CASTROçS ACTIONS ARE "CYNICAL AND EVIL"

    A top U.S. diplomat on Friday criticized Spain's attempts to warm up the European Union's relations with Cuba as "wrongheaded.'' Following a meeting between the foreign ministers of Cuba and Spain, the Cuban government this week released six of the 75 dissidents arrested in a crackdown last year. ''Shifting people in and out of jail cells is something [Cuban dictator Fidel] Castro does with aplomb,'' Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Roger Noriega told a gathering at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    Castro ''dollops them out for diplomatic favor,'' a practice that is ''cynical and evil,'' Noriega said. ''And making concessions to a regime of that nature is really wrongheaded policy.'' Cuba suspended all contacts with EU diplomats in Havana last year after the Europeans condemned the arrests of the 75 and began inviting dissidents to embassy functions. But Spain's new Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has taken a softer stance on Cuba than his conservative predecessor, José Maria Aznar.

    Noriega said those who credit a government for "releasing innocent persons from jail are not only humiliating themselves but they're complicit in a policy of putting people in jail for simply thinking about their own lives.'' ''As some of our European friends look to retool their policy, it should not be engaging with a rotting, disintegrating, deteriorating regime. It should be engaging the Cuban people like never before,'' he added.

    GOOD NEWS!  DONALD RUMSFELD TO STAY ON AS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE 

    Overcoming criticism about his handling of Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has won a strong vote of confidence from President George W. Bush and will remain at the Pentagon. It settles one of the last major questions about who goes and who stays in the second-term Cabinet.

    Secretary Rumsfeld's future was sealed in an Oval Office meeting with President Bush on Monday but not announced until Friday. Rumsfeld also has a long history of influential support from Vice President Dick Cheney from their days together in the Ford administration in the mid-1970s. Rumsfeld has a full plate: continuing military operations in Iraq, focused now on securing the country ahead of January elections; the ongoing effort in Afghanistan and a plan to modernize the military.

    DESPITE THE DESPICABLE CONCESSIONS MADE BY ZAPATERO SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS, FIVE EXPLOSIONS HIT MADRID 

    The Basque separatist group ETA set off five bombs at petrol stations around Madrid on Friday, putting a stranglehold on the city at the start of a long holiday weekend Two police officers were slightly wounded, officials said. The attacks mark a significant return to violence after months of relative inactivity for ETA. They also dashed hopes of Christmas truce after the guerrillas had offered to enter talks with Spain.

    The blasts forced police to seal off major highways leading from the capital amid a massive exodus for a long holiday weekend. "Five small artifacts have exploded. They were not powerful bombs. There is hardly any material damage," an Interior Ministry spokeswoman said. But witnesses were impressed by the force of the blasts. ETA forewarned of the attacks in a telephone call to the Basque newspaper Gara, a method which ETA regularly uses to announce impending terrorist attacks.

    ETA has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a bombing and shooting campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France. But it has been relatively inactive since the March 11 train bombings killed 191 people in Madrid.

    DRUG LORD FLOWN TO JAIL IN U.S.

    The founder of the Cali Cartel, the powerful family-run syndicate that once supplied 80 percent of all the cocaine on U.S. streets, was flown to Miami today in the biggest extradition of a Colombian drug lord. Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela faces U.S. conspiracy charges of drug smuggling and distribution and obstruction of justice by murdering witnesses.

    The former banker nicknamed ''The Chess Player'' was escorted by U.S. agents, in response to a U.S. indictment accusing him and his brother Miguel of continuing to run the multibillion-dollar Cali Cartel even though they have been in a Colombian prison since 1995. His first court appearance in Miami is expected Monday. He is to be held in the federal detention center in Miami-Dade. Col. Oscar Naranjo, chief of Colombia's judicial police, said that a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration jet with Rodríguez aboard took off before midnight Friday from the Bogotá airport.

    POULTRY INDUSTRY FEARS LOSS OF TRADE WITH CUBA IF PAYMENT SYSTEM CHANGES

    Poultry industry officials say a surge in product sales to Cuba could be halted by President Bush administration's attempt to reinterpret a 2000 trade law covering payment for the shipments. U.S. poultry sales to Cuba more than doubled to $61 million in the past year, according to Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council in Washington, D.C. But Lobb said sales could be jeopardized because the reinterpretation of the law - if adopted - requires Cuba to deposit money for the purchases in U.S. banks before shipments leave port for Havana.

    Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said Thursday the review of the 2000 law began when some U.S. financial institutions handling Cuba's purchases asked the government to clarify the policy. "We expect to issue guidance in the near future," she said. She declined to speculate on the final decision or the extent of a lobbying campaign against any change in the payment system. She said the U.S. Agriculture Department and State Department are working with Treasury on the issue.

    Agriculture products are only part of the multimillion-dollar trade with Cuba pegged to the 2000 law. Sales to Cuba are required to be in cash, but nothing is unloaded from vessels until Cuba's payments are deposited in a bank. Federal officials, however, have been looking at the terminology "payment in advance" versus "cash against documentation" in the law to determine whether it extends a line of credit to Cuba. The new interpretation of the law could potentially require "in-hand" prepayment for goods prior to being shipped out of the United States.

    CUBAN ARMED FORCES ANNOUNCE CIVILIAN DEFENSE EXERCISE TO PREPARE FOR PRESIDENT BUSH SECOND TERM

    Worried about possible military action against Cuba during a second term by U.S. President George W. Bush, Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces on Thursday announced a series of defense exercises for the general population. "In the face of continuing aggressions and threats from the government of the United States, the Strategic Bastion 2004 Exercise will be held throughout the country Dec. 13-19," the Defense Ministry announced in an official notice published on the front page of the Communist Party daily Granma.

    The exercise coincides with Cuba's annual National Defense Days, Dec. 18-19, which are observed with similar defense exercises every year. The Defense Ministry said the exercise is aimed at evaluating "the level of preparation throughout the entire society to face an armed aggression." Participating will be Cuba's regular army troops, reserves and militia as well as the defense forces of the Interior Ministry, which oversees internal security, and other defense organizations that include much of the general population, the note added.

    Since even before the United States launched its unilateral attack on Iraq last year, Cuban authorities have insisted that a similar U.S. strike on their country is possible. American authorities have repeatedly rejected that idea, saying they are no plans to attack Cuba.

    CHÁVEZ: PRESIDENT BUSH GOVERNMENT IS A "GREAT THREAT"

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Wednesday described as "the height of cynicism" the fact that a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State claimed that Washington warned the Venezuelan government that a coup would be conducted in April 2002. "I cannot say a rude word because this speech is being broadcast in a nationwide radio and television mandatory transmission, and I do not want to be rude," Chávez said.

    Chávez' statements came during the opening ceremony of the First World Summit of Artists and Intellectuals for Humankind, held at cultural center Teresa Carreño in Caracas. Chávez praised the fact that evidence has been found that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plotted to unseat the Venezuelan democratic government. In this sense, he congratulated U.S. lawyer Eva Golinger -who attended the event and who promoted the investigation on the CIA.

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 3

     KELLOGG EXPLORED BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES WITH CUBA UNDER GUTIERREZ LEADERSHIP

    As U.S. Commerce Secretary, Cuban-born Carlos Gutierrez would be expected to support President George W. Bush's policies of blocking most trade with dictator Fidel Castro's communist government. Yet while Gutierrez was chief executive officer of Kellogg Co. (K), the nation's largest cereal maker explored the possibility of doing business with Cuba, signing up for a trade show in Havana in 2002. The Treasury Department permitted U.S. companies to attend the event, but the Bush administration made its disapproval clear.

    The U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council that sponsored the trade show, included Kellogg in a list of 291 companies that had participated in the event. The council's president, John Kavulich said Thursday that a review of records showed the company withdrew at the last minute. "The understanding was that it had to do with input from Cuban-American community in south Florida," Kavulich said.

    Gutierrez could face questioning about Kellogg's dealings with Cuba as he defends the administration's position that trade with Cuba only aids Castro's authoritarian government. Many American products produced by subsidiaries are exported to Cuba by wholesalers in Mexico and other countries through wholesalers. Anti-Castro activists strongly support the nomination of Gutierrez, whose family fled Cuba in 1960 when he was 6 years old. "He definitely shares President Bush vision for a free Cuba," said a Cuban-American U.S. legislator.

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR TRANSFERS 18 DISSIDENTS TO HOSPITAL

    As many as 18 jailed dissidents have been transferred from provincial penitentiaries to the main prison hospital in Havana, raising hopes that they will soon be freed, relatives of the dissidents said Wednesday. Activist physician Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and veteran opposition politician Hector Palacios were among those transferred late Tuesday to the hospital at Combinado del Este Prison, their wives said.

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist government released five dissidents in the past week, all after checkups at the same prison hospital. They included perhaps Cuba's best known dissident, Raul Rivero, an independent journalist and poet. Those released this week and all those transferred to the prison hospital on Tuesday were among 75 independent journalists, opposition politicians, rights activists and others rounded by in a March 2003 crackdown.

    Palacios' wife, Gisela Delgado, told The Associated Press that her husband called her last night from the prison hospital. He had been serving a 25-year sentence at a penitentiary in the western province of Pinar del Rio. Biscet's wife, Elsa Morejon, confirmed that her husband also had been transferred to the prison hospital from Pinar del Rio. He was sentenced to 25 years as well. After surveying relatives of other imprisoned dissidents, Delgado said as many as 18 were transferred to the Havana prison hospital on Tuesday.

    MEXICAN AMBASSADOR SAYS MEXICO-CUBA RELATIONS HAVE IMPROVED

    Mexico's ambassador to Cuba said Wednesday the two countries have improved relations after a diplomatic spat in May. "I think that now there is a very constructive atmosphere in relations between Mexico and Cuba," Ambassador Roberta Lajous said. She said both countries have worked to strengthen communication and diplomatic relations.

    In May, Mexico expelled its Cuban ambassador and withdrew Lajous from Havana, after accusing the Cuban government of intervening in the country's internal affairs. Mexico's votes to criticize Cuba at Human Rights Commission meetings in Geneva were among the factors that led to a deterioration in diplomatic relations between the two states. The ambassadors eventually returned to their posts.

   WASHINGTON COULD IMPAIR RELATIONS BETWEEN URIBES AND CHAVEZ

    SHOOTING ERUPTS NEAR PALACE AS POWELL VISITS HAITI

    Heavy gunfire rang out near Haiti's presidential palace Wednesday as Secretary of State Colin Powell met with the country's interim leaders. Powell said international peacekeeping troops need to come down hard on street toughs and those who carry out political violence in Haiti. They have to forcefully take on those armed individuals of the kind who were firing this morning,'' Powell said after meetings at the National Palace with President Boniface Alexandre, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and other political leaders.

    After Powell wrapped up his one-day trip, shots continued to echo through the streets. Four people were killed and at least 11 were injured. Bloodied gunshot victims crowded the corridors at the capital's main hospital, where U.N. police were standing guard. U.N. troops were also on alert at the national penitentiary, said Damian Onses Cardona, a spokesman for the U.N. force, now at more than 6,000 members. Most of the clashes occurred in Bel Air, a slum loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and several blocks away from the National Palace.

    A palace security official said a shot was fired from a passing car, and U.N. forces guarding the palace returned fire. Several U.N. tanks appeared a short while later and patrolled the palace front. Shots were also fired at the U.S. Embassy. Witnesses also reported shots being fired at the National Palace and the National Penitentiary.

    CASE DROPPED AGAINST AMERICANS WHO VISITED CUBA

    Milwaukeeans have expressed relief that the federal government has agreed to dismiss, without fines or penalties, the case against them for traveling to Cuba on a church mission without a license. "It's been looming over our heads for five years," Dollora Greene-Evans said of word that a settlement had been signed by Administrative Law Judge Robert L. Barton Jr. in Washington, D.C.

    She, along with William Ferguson Jr. and Theron Mills, faced an administrative hearing and possible fines of $7,500 each or more in connection with a 1999 trip to Cuba. "I never thought it would come out like this. I'm very pleased," Greene-Evans said. Mills said the three were delighted.

    "I would love to go back to Cuba, but there are other places I would also like to go, like Spain and Portugal." The trio was among six members of the Central United Methodist Church who went to Havana to mark the 100th anniversary of its sister congregation, Iglesia Metodista Central de Trinidad. The federal government contended the three violated the Cuban Assets Control Regulation because they spent U.S. money in Cuba without the necessary license from the U.S. government.

    SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL: "WE SHOOT DOWN MiGs"

    A White House official on Tuesday took a dim view of the possibility that Venezuela would buy Russian MiG-29 fighter jets to replace its U.S.-made F-16 jets. Venezuela, which is enjoying a windfall from high world oil prices, plans to buy large amounts of arms from Russia, leftist President Hugo Chavez said after private talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week.

    Chavez did not mention warplanes, but Venezuela is evaluating MiG-29s as possible replacements for its F-16s. "It should be an issue of concern to the Venezuelan people," said the official, speaking at a briefing for reporters accompanying U.S. President George W. Bush on his first official visit to Canada. "Millions of dollars are going to be spent on Russian weapons for ill-defined purposes." Pressed further, he replied: "Let me put it this way: We shoot down MiGs."

    CUBAN DISSIDENT WRITER RAUL RIVERO RELEASED FROM PRISON

    Cuba's communist government freed its most prominent imprisoned opponent, dissident poet and journalist Raul Rivero, on Tuesday after 18 months behind bars. "He just walked in the door. They have released him," his euphoric wife, Blanca Reyes, said by telephone from their central Havana home. Rivero was among 75 dissidents arrested in a crackdown in March 2003. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail on charges of conspiring with the United States to overthrow dictator Fidel Castro.

    Rivero was the fifth dissident freed this week by Cuban authorities on medical grounds, and the 11th this year. On Monday economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe and fellow dissidents Margarito Broche and Marcelo Lopez were set free.  An international campaign had tried to secure the release of Rivero, 58. In February, he won UNESCO's World Press Freedom prize. A former Moscow correspondent for the official Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, Rivero broke with Castro's government in 1991 when he signed a letter with nine other intellectuals calling for the release of prisoners of conscience.

    Rivero criticized Cuban journalism by state-run media as a "fiction about a country that does not exist." Rivero's wife, Blanca Reyes, said her husband was released on a medical parole after undergoing a checkup at a Havana prison hospital for his emphysema and cysts on a kidney. In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher welcomed the first wave of releases on Monday but said the detainees never should have been imprisoned in the first place. "We continue to condemn the unjust incarceration of dozens of other prisoners of conscience in Cuba," Boucher said. "We hope that they can return to their work to build a truly just and open Cuban society."

    VENEZUELA, IRAN SIGN $35 MILLION TRACTOR ASSEMBLY

    Venezuela and Iran have signed a $35 million joint venture to assemble farm tractors in the South American nation starting early next year, the Venezuelan partner said Monday. State industrial holding Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) said its president, Rafael Sanchez, signed the deal creating the Venirantractor C.A. company in Tehran Sunday during a visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

    Venezuelan and Iranian officials have said the joint venture will be the Islamic Republic's first major direct investment in Latin America. "The (Venirantractor) company, which involves an investment of $35 million, will be located in Ciudad Bolivar and will have an installed production capacity of 5,000 tractors a year," CVG said in statement released in Caracas.

    The assembly of the Massey Ferguson model tractors would begin in the first quarter of 2005. The Iran Tractor Manufacturing Co. (ITMCO) would control 51 percent of the joint venture, while Venezuela's CVG would hold the rest, the statement said. Iran and Venezuela are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and left-winger Chavez has made a point of strengthening trade and political ties with the Islamic state. This is part of Chavez's declared strategy of diversifying Venezuela away from what he sees as an excessive past dependence on the United States.

    VENEZUELA, IRAN PRESIDENTS HOLD TALKS ON OPEC POLICY

    Hugo Chavez held talks Sunday on OPEC policy and energy cooperation with his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Khatami in Iran's capital. Chavez said the aim of the talks was to "defend" crude oil prices, to discuss the two countries' relations within the framework of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and to promote relations in Iran's petrochemicals sector. Khatami told reporters the talks would concentrate on OPEC issues.

    The oil producer group meets in Cairo on Dec. 10 to decide output policy ahead. Both Iran and Venezuela are considered to OPEC hawks, potentially advocating a reduction in OPEC's production ceiling in a bid to prevent U.S. stock builds from further pushing down oil prices from recent near-record highs.

    "Historically, OPEC is in its best position ever," Khatami told reporters before the meeting. He extended his gratitude to Venezuela for its role in OPEC and in protecting the interests of producers and consumers. OPEC is seen pumping at or near its available capacity, with 10 of its 11 members bound by the 27 million b/d quota agreement likely to produce around 28.4 million b/d this month, according to tanker survey specialist Petrologistics.