NEW REPRESSIVE ACTIONS AGAINST DISSIDENTS LAUNCHED BY THE COMMUNIST REGIME

    Cuba launched a new campaign Monday to characterize the country's dissidents as Washington's puppets at a time when the United States was preparing to increase financial support for the island's opposition.

    ''All of these people are puppets manipulated by the State Department of the United States,'' parliament Deputy Lázaro Barredo told a news conference called by the Foreign Ministry's International Press Center.

    Increased U.S. support for Cuban dissidents is part of a renewed effort to force a change in Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist government.

    OIL SEARCH IN CUBA WATERS IN FINAL STRETCH

    Spain's Repsol YPF will complete a test well in Cuba's virgin Gulf of Mexico waters over the next few weeks, and a commercially viable oil find could put further pressure on the four-decade-old U.S. economic embargo on the island, experts said on Monday. ñƒ discovery will certainly result in advocacy by upstream and downstream oil companies," said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, an organization that monitors bilateral commercial relations.

    Drilling has been delayed twice since one of the world's largest deep-water rigs, the Norwegian-owned Eirik Raude, arrived 18 miles (29 km) off Cuba's northwest coast at the beginning of the month, industry and diplomatic sources said. "It has not been easy or cheap working a mile under the sea," a Cuban expert on the project said. "If the work continues it is because they are encouraged by what they have seen so far," he added, asking to remain anonymous.

    The high-risk well's location was changed a week after the Eirik Raude arrived. Last Wednesday a pressure valve blew as the bit neared its target, diplomatic and industry sources said. "We are still drilling the well ... This operation will continue for a few more weeks," said Bob Warrack, a senior vice president of Ocean Rig , owner of the Eirik Raude. Repsol, which contracted the rig for $195,000 per day, and Cuba's state-run oil monopoly Cubapetroleo had no comment.

  KERRY SAYS BUSH HAS NEGLECTED LATIN AMERICA

    Democrat John Kerry, seeking votes from Hispanics, told Latino officials Saturday that President Bush has neglected Latin America and that he would do better. Kerry said that as president, he would assemble leaders in the Western Hemisphere in a group intended to defend democracy and the rule of law.

    "I will be a president of the United States who knows where Latin America is and knows that we owe it respect," the Massachusetts senator told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Kerry criticized Bush for failing to intervene when "mob violence" drove leaders from office in Bolivia and Argentina, and for encouraging Haiti's former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to flee during a deadly uprising.

    Kerry also said that unlike Bush did in Venezuela, "We will not welcome a government named by a military junta." "Strong democratic states with transparent rules and a broad respect for the rule of law are essential to alleviating poverty and inequality in the region," Kerry said. "As president, I will strongly support democratic institutions, assist democracy where it is troubled and promote democracy in Cuba."

    U.S. TRANSFERS SOVEREIGNTY TO IRAQ BEFORE SCHEDULE 

    The temporary stewards of Iraq's future reclaimed their nation two days early, accepting limited power Monday from U.S. occupiers who wished them prosperity. ''Please let us not be afraid by those outlaws that are fighting Islam,'' interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in his inaugural address. ''Some of them have already gone to the fires of hell and others are waiting their turn.''

    The transfer of sovereignty places Iraq's immediate future in the hands of two men with widely different styles and power bases: Allawi, a Shiite Muslim, physician and former Baath Party member with longtime ties to the State Department and CIA; and President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni, American-educated engineer who lived for many years in Saudi Arabia and prefers traditional Arab dress.

    The U.S. civilian authority, which rode in on a swift military victory that swept away Saddam's generation-long regime, withdrew quietly. Its leader, L. Paul Bremer, left Iraq aboard a military plane two hours after the transfer and was swiftly succeeded by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. The interim government will hold power for seven months until, by U.N. Security Council resolution, elections are held ''in no case later than'' Jan. 31. The Americans retain responsibility for security.

    DEADLINE STIRS RUSH IN TRAVEL TO CUBA

    On the last Sunday before strict new U.S. regulations on travel to Cuba are to take effect, hundreds of Cuban-Americans lined up at Miami International Airport to get on board flights to the communist island. Many in the two hour-long check-in lines expressed frustration with the new rules ordered by President Bush, which limit family visits to once every three years instead of annually. Those caught in violation face a $7,500 fine.

    The new measures are part of a broader tightening of U.S. sanctions on Cuba ordered by Bush last month that also include limits on remittances. Officials say the restrictions are intended to hasten the fall of Cuban President Fidel Castro's communist government.

    The debate over the new measures has exposed fissures within the Cuban-American community, pitting those who support a hard-line stance against Castro against those who favor a more open approach. Supporters of the new measures say they are needed to bring change to Cuba.

    THREATS TO BEHEAD A MARINE IN IRAQ

    In a videotape broadcast Sunday on Al-Jazeera, a man identified as Wassef Ali Hassoun appeared as the captive of armed men who displayed his Marine identification papers. One of the captors brandished a sword above the man's head. On the tape, a speaker said the man was lured from his base and captured. His captors threatened to kill him unless U.S. military authorities release Iraqi prisoners.

    The man's captors threatened to behead the hostage identified as Amjad Yousef Hafeez, unless the United States released Iraqi prisoners. One other U.S. serviceman is being held prisoner by Iraqi insurgents. Army Pfc. Matt Maupin was captured April 9 when his convoy was ambushed outside Baghdad. President Bush met with Maupin's family June 21. Insurgents battling U.S.-led forces in Iraq have killed at least four hostages in a string of kidnappings that began in April.

    CUBA TURNS TO US FOR DURUM WHEAT

    Cuba bought its first U.S. durum wheat in more than three decades, the U.S. Agriculture Department reported on Thursday, a sign of Cuba's growing commercial food ties to the United States. Cuba has become a significant buyer of U.S. farm goods even as the Bush administration moves to further distance itself from the communist-ruled island.

    The USDA's weekly export report showed Cuba bought 5,300 tonnes of U.S. durum wheat -- used in pasta products -- during the week ended June 17. It was the first such purchase since federal reporting began in 1973, according to the USDA. Historically, Cuba has turned to the European Union, Canada and Argentina for much of its wheat supply. But since 2001, Cuba has spent about $300 million on U.S. grains, meat, and other farm goods, the USDA says. Some experts believe the primary reason behind Cuba's purchases is to win political allies in Washington.

     U.S. GIVES CUBA TRAVELERS UNTIL JULY 31 TO RETURN

    Bowing to protests from the travel industry and lawmakers, the U.S. Treasury Friday agreed to extend by a month to July 31 a deadline forcing thousands of Cuban Americans visiting relatives in Cuba to return to the United States. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 16 published rules which obliged thousands of Americans visiting relatives on the island to return before June 30 or face fines of up to $55,000.

    The office, which enforces the four-decade long Cuba embargo, posted the extension on its Web site, authorizing U.S. citizens or residents who are in Cuba on June 29 to stay until July 31. The ruling will "give people who are currently in Cuba and subject to the country's information embargo the necessary time to make appropriate travel arrangements off the island," said Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise. 

    PRESIDENT BUSH MET WITH EU LEADERS AND ASKED THEIR SUPPORT FOR THE NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT

    U.S. President George W.  Bush, in Ireland for a European Union (EU) - U.S. summit, said that people in Iraq are looking for their freedom and reform. "We are listening to their voices," the president said.  During a joint press conference with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and EU Commission President Romano Prodi, President Bush said he is looking forward to an increased international effort in Iraq.

    He also said he hopes NATO responds "in a positive way" to interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's request for help in training Iraqi security forces.  Bush landed in Ireland on Friday on the first stop of a five-day diplomatic tour -- which will include a trip to Turkey for a NATO summit -- amid heavy security.

    Everything from terrorism to trade is on the Euro-American summit agenda. But, with the handover of sovereignty just five days away, Iraq likely will end up taking center stage. President Bush is seeking support and a consensus from European leaders before next week's transfer of power. But there is a rift between the United States and the EU over Washington's policy in Iraq.

    U.S. GIVES TRAVELERS TIME TO ADJUST TO CUBA RULES

    The U.S. government will give air charter companies and travelers more time to adjust to stringent new rules curtailing visits to Cuba, a top State Department official said Thursday. Rules implemented June 16 oblige thousands of Cuban-Americans visiting relatives on the island to return before June 30 or face fines of up to $55,000. After that date, U.S. residents and citizens will be allowed to visit Cuba once every three years instead of annually, among other restrictions.

   "We are in the process of formulating a response that we will make generally known to the travel service providers, the U.S. Interests Section in Havana and to the public that those who are legally in Cuba will be able to make arrangements to come back to the U.S.," said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fisk, the top U.S. diplomat for Cuba. "They will have to return by a certain date, but they will have sufficient notice," Fisk told Reuters, adding "it will be respectful of logistics and of the efforts needed to get people back from a country that has an information embargo. Fisk did not provide additional details.

    Some lawmakers and travel industry representatives say the new regulations gave air charter companies too little notice to inform passengers, many in remote rural areas, that they had to return before the end of June. A top State Department official said the new rules aim to cut off about half of the estimated $1.5 billion the Cuban exile community in the United States provides annually to the island through travel, gift parcels and remittances. The Bush administration says Cuban President Fidel Castro uses the money to repress his people.

    TWO BOMBS KILLED FOUR IN ISTAMBUL BEFORE NATO SUMMIT

    A bomb exploded on an Istanbul bus Thursday, killing at least four people and wounding 14, and another bomb went off in front of the Ankara hotel where President Bush is to stay before Monday's NATO summit, wounding three.

    Police said they suspected far-left Marxists in both attacks, the latest in a series of blasts - most of them small, without casualties - ahead of the NATO gathering. Bush arrives in Ankara on Saturday night to meet with Turkish leaders before heading to the summit in Istanbul.

    White House press secretary Scott McClellan said ''these terrorist attacks are intended to disrupt preparations for the upcoming NATO summit.'' He added that President Bush's schedule would not be changed. Istanbul has been the scene of al-Qaida attacks in the past, but many Turks also are angry over Bush's visit because of high opposition to U.S. policies in neighboring Iraq. About a half-dozen small sound bombs have exploded in Istanbul in recent days, injuring several people.

    ILL CUBAN DISSIDENTS TRICKLE OUT OF PRISON 

    An independent Cuban journalist walked out of prison to become the sixth ailing government opponent freed after a crackdown on dissent last year, opposition sources said Thursday. Manuel Vazquez Portal, 52, who suffers from respiratory problems, was one of 75 dissidents sentenced to an average of 19 years in prison after daylong trials in April 2003. "He arrived home around midnight and looked well," said Laura Pollan, wife of still-imprisoned Hector Maseda.

    Academic Roberto de Miranda, 62, who had been sentenced to 20 years behind bars, was also released Wednesday. He suffers from a heart condition. The first of the six was released in April and all were conditionally freed for health reasons. Last year's crackdown, considered the harshest in decades, provoked an outcry from numerous governments, Pope John Paul, and other prominent people.

    Communist authorities accused the 75 opponents of working with the United States to overthrow President Fidel Castro's government, a charge they denied. The repression led to a dramatic deterioration of Cuba's relations with the European Union, which continues to demand all 75 prisoners be freed. In a separate case, four other dissidents were unexpectedly released this month after being held for more than two years without trial. But another 16 government opponents have been jailed since April, according to veteran human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez.

    HONDURAS FEARS U.S.-BOUND CUBANS 

    Honduran Officials said Tuesday they would mount operations "by sea and by land" to prevent the mass arrival of Cuban rafters trying to use the country as a stepping stone to the United States. Ramon Romero, the director general of immigration, made the announcement a day after saying he believed that Miami-based groups were encouraging Cubans to flee to Honduras.

    "We only want to keep such a large quantity of Cubans from reaching the country," Romero said. "So we will carry out intensive operations by sea and by land." Romero did not indicate whether Honduras might follow the U.S. policy of returning Cubans intercepted at sea while trying to reach the country. "The Cubans are trying to reach Honduran territory illegally with the intention of seeking political asylum here to later set a path toward the United States," Romero said.

    Cuba's ambassador in Honduras, Alberto Gonzalez, said immigrant traffickers were charging as much as US$10,000 to bring Cubans to the United States. "Honduras is the only country (in the area) that has not signed an immigration treaty with Cuba ... and the immigrants know that," the ambassador added. Eleven Cubans arrived Saturday on the Atlantic Coast in a small boat with an outboard motor. Twenty-two arrived June 5 in the northern town of Puerto Lempira and 23 others shipwrecked in May along the northern coast. The government so far has granted asylum to 10 of them.

    U.S. LIMITS GIFT PARCEL DELIVERIES TO CUBA

    The U.S. government on Tuesday banned U.S. citizens from including clothing and other items in their parcels to Cuba, a move that further isolates Cubans from their relatives in the United States. Under the new rules by the U.S. Department of Commerce, packages can no longer include clothing, seeds, personal hygiene items, veterinary medicines and supplies, fishing and soap-making equipment. Food, medicines, medical supplies and equipment and receive-only radio equipment are still allowed, according to the regulations published in the Federal Register.

    The measures were recommended in an interagency report issued in May which suggested ways to hasten the demise of the communist government in Cuba by denying the island of much-needed cash and resources. For packages containing items other than food, deliveries are limited to one parcel a month per household, instead of the previous one parcel a month per individual recipient. The parcel receivers must now be immediate family members like a grandchild or sibling. Packages containing one-time gifts like watches and bicycles are also permitted, provided they do not exceed $200 in value.

    The Department of Commerce said in a statement accompanying the rules that though the parcels provided a "critical humanitarian benefit" to the Cuban people, they also reduced the "burden of the Cuban regime to provide for the basic needs of its people," freeing up resources to "strengthening its repressive apparatus." The parcel limitations come on top of rules published last week by the U.S. Department of Treasury, which cut the frequency that Cuban Americans can visit their relatives on the island to once every three years from once a year, and curtailed the amount of money they could spend there.

    SENATOR NELSON WANTS VENEZUELAÍS VOTING SYSTEM REVIEWED

    Sen. Bill Nelson Tuesday asked the Organization of American States and the Carter Center to review Venezuela's decision to purchase an untested voting system to be used in a recall referendum on President Hugo Chávez. Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has been highly critical of Chávez, also plans to raise the issue at a meeting of the Foreign Relations Committee Thursday, and warn colleagues that Venezuela's late switch to a touch-screen system could threaten ``a free and fair election.''

    The Carter Center and the OAS monitored the contentious process that led to the recall vote, set for Aug. 15. Venezuela's National Electoral Council, with a majority of Chávez supporters, awarded a $91 million contract in February to Boca Raton-based Smartmatic Corp. and two other firms to provide 20,000 touch-screen machines never before used in an election. The Venezuelan government was a 28 percent owner of one of the partners, the Bizta Corp. ''There ought to be a lot of anxiety about this election, and this is one more concern,'' said Nelson, who visited Venezuela in April. He said: ñThe Venezuelan people have come too far to have any subversion or other questionable process cast doubt upon the results of the referendum.''

    THOUSANDS OF CUBAN PHYSICIANS SENT TO VENEZUELA WHILE TEN MEDICAL DISPENSARIES ARE CLOSED FOR LACK OF PHYSICIANS

    The 10 medical dispensaries attached to the Pablo de la Torriente sugar mill in Bahía Honda, Pinar del Río province, have been closed since the doctors that used to work in them were shipped off to Venezuela to assist in a joint Cuban-Venezuelan government program.

    The closings affect some 15,000 residents of Bahía Honda. "We have to travel up to 13 kilometers (8 miles), the lines at the polyclinic are very long, and there are only two doctors who work 24-hour shifts each. The last time I was there, there were approximately 50 patients waiting for one of them, Dr. Osmany Domínguez", said Abigail García, a local resident. "We don't even have a dentist", she said. García said that in some of the dispensaries, and cited the one at I and 52 Streets, the nurse has been kept on, but is not seeing patients. "I imagine they kept her sitting there, collecting a salary, so that homeless people don't move in, as has happened at some of the closed offices".

    CONTRERAÍS FAMILY ESCAPED FROM CUBA

    Jose Contreras' family defected from Cuba this week, and the New York Yankees pitcher left the team Tuesday and traveled to Miami to reunite with his wife and two daughters. "It's spectacular news," Yankees manager Joe Torre said before Tuesday night's game at Baltimore. Wife Miriam, 11-year-old Naylan and 3-year-old Naylenis were taken by the border patrol to immigration offices, where they were interviewed and released.

    After being examined by Miami-Dade County medical officials, they left with Contreras' agent, Jaime Torres, early Tuesday evening. The family looked tired, and Torres said they were "in pretty good condition." Contreras, the former star on Cuba's national team, defected in October 2002. Nicaragua twice granted Contreras' family visas, but the Cuban government denied permission for his relatives to leave the island. In late 2002, Contreras' family was informed that it would have to wait five years for a document required to leave.

   KOREAN HOSTAGE BEHEADED IN IRAQ

    An Iraqi militant group has beheaded its South Korean hostage, Al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday, just hours after a go-between said the execution had been delayed and there were negotiations for the man's release. Kim's body was found by the U.S. military between Baghdad and Fallujah, 22 miles west of the capital, at 5:20 p.m. Iraq time, said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil.

    Kim, 33, worked for Gana General Trading Co., a South Korean company supplying the U.S. military in Iraq. He was abducted last week, according to the South Korean government. The videotape of Kim, apparently made shortly before his death, showed him kneeling, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit.

   Five hooded men stood behind Kim, one reading a statement and gesturing with his right hand. Another captor had a big knife slipped in his belt. One of the masked men said the message was intended for the Korean people. "This is what your hands have committed. Your army has not come here for the sake of Iraqis, but for cursed America."

    IRAN CAPTURED THREE UK BOATS IN ITS TERRITORIAL WATERS

   The UK government has summoned Iran's ambassador, demanding the release of eight navy sailors arrested in Iranian waters. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Tuesday also held talks with Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi to try to defuse tensions, but reports said the sailors would be charged with illegally entering Iran's waters on three patrol boats.

    The Foreign Office later said officials had asked Ambassador Morteza Sarmadi to explain why Iranian guards had arrested the sailors in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway. "The ambassador was asked to explain why the eight are being held, for their release as soon as possible and for full consular access to them meanwhile," the Foreign Office said in a statement.  "He was asked for information on the reports that they will be prosecuted and told they were on a routine mission."

    British officials are working hard to prevent Monday's arrest escalating into a diplomatic crisis. Richard Dalton, the British ambassador in Tehran, is trying to resolve the situation with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But Iran's state-run television reported that the men would be charged. "They will be prosecuted for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters," the Arabic language Al-Alam television reported. On Monday, Iranian television showed pictures of the detainees and officials said the eight crew were being interrogated.

    47 CUBANS ON 2 BOATS REACHED FLORIDA KEYS

    A go-fast boat with 21 Cuban refugees and two suspected smugglers aboard led the U.S. Coast Guard on a three-hour chase early Monday, then brought the Cubans ashore at Big Pine Key before they could be intercepted. Earlier Monday, 26 migrants, also Cuban, were discovered at Elliott Key. Their boat came ashore at around 2:30 a.m. after a two-hour journey from Cuba, according to U.S. Coast Guard representatives. There was no chase in that case.

    Both groups of migrants are expected to be allowed to stay, since they made it to dry land, officials said. The speedboat arrived in Big Pine Key off Beach Road at about 5:15 a.m. after eluding Coast Guard boats. ''We chased the vessel, but we were unable to stop it,'' said Petty Officer Ryan Doss. Coast Guard officials caught up with the boat on shore. Two men suspected of smuggling the group were immediately arrested. Last week, about 40 Cubans in three boats made it to shore in the Keys, while four refugees intercepted at sea were sent back to Cuba.  

    CUBAN TOWN WITHOUT WATER SERVICE FOR MORE THAN A MONTH

    Residents of La Cotilla neighborhood, in the San José de las Lajas municipality outside the city of Havana, haven't had municipal water service in more than a month. Government authorities say the lack of fuel is the reason they can't supply water.

    Residents Luis and Miriam Gorrín approached the director of municipal services to ask that a tanker-truck be provided for the neighbors, but the official said they could have it if they provided the necess ary diesel fuel.

    NINE DEAD IN TWO-CAR CRASH

    A two-car crash Tuesday afternoon on the National Highway left nine dead, including a minor and a U. S. resident visiting the island. According to preliminary accounts of the accident, a car rented in Havana by the U. S. visitor hit a taxi from the town of Ranchuelo at about kilometer marker 254 on the National Highway.

    THE ROAR OF THE MOUSE: CASTRO WARNS PRESIDENT BUSH AGAINST LAUNCHING MILITARY ATTACK

    Tens of thousands of Cubans rallied Monday, as Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, dressed in his typical olive green uniform and cap, warned President George W.  Bush against launching a military attack on Cuba, saying it would provoke a mass exodus and an all-out ground war. Washington has repeatedly denied it is planning any military action against Havana.

    But an increased tightening of sanctions against the island, along with the Bush administration's pre-emptive strike on Iraq, seems to have convinced the Cuban leadership that a military attack is not impossible. "Do not try crazy adventures such as surgical strikes or wars of attrition using sophisticated techniques because you could lose control of the situation," Castro said in a speech addressed specifically to Bush before the morning.

    "You could shatter the immigration agreement and provoke a mass exodus that we would not be in a position to prevent, and you could bring about an all-out war between young American soldiers and the Cuban people," he said. "That would be very sad." "You would never be able to win that war," the Cuban leader said. "Here you will not find a divided people." 

    A CUBAN MIGRANT SLASHED HIS WRIST TO AVOID REPATRIATION 

    A Cuban migrant intercepted by the Coast Guard slashed his wrist, apparently to prevent repatriation to the communist island, an anti-Castro group in Miami said Sunday. Coast Guard officials would not confirm the account, but would not deny it either. ''Until we close the case, we cannot discuss it,'' said Petty Officer Luis Negron.

    The Cuban migrant has been identified as Hector Martín Sánchez, picked up along with four other migrants in waters between Florida and Cuba. ''Hector Martín slashed his wrist aboard the cutter. He was bleeding profusely,'' said relatives of the migrants in Miami. Four migrants were repatriated Saturday afternoon and Hector Martín Sánchez would likely be returned once his condition improves.

    The journey for many migrants -- across shark-inhabited waters -- is filled with peril and uncertainty. Even when caught, migrants sometimes take desperate measures to make it to U.S. territory. Cuban migrants who make it to shore typically can stay while those intercepted at sea are usually repatriated, a policy informally known as ñwet foot/dry foot.'' Last year, a group of migrants intercepted off the Florida Keys told Coast Guard officers they had just taken pills and were ill. Members of that group were taken ashore for medical treatment, and eventually were allowed to stay.

    SENATOR LUGAR: WASHINGTON SHOULD TREAT LATIN AMERICA AS A PRIORITY

    The United States should stop treating Latin America as an afterthought and do more to foster democracy in the region, a top U.S. senator told the Organization of American States Monday. "The United States must treat its own hemisphere as a priority, not as an afterthought," said Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

    He told the OAS, which brings together 34 member countries in the Americas except Cuba, that "years of steady progress were not enough to solidify democratic institutions" and pointed to recent crises in Argentina, Venezuela and Bolivia as signs of trouble. "The cause of stable democracy in the Western Hemisphere would be immeasurably strengthened if the United States would examine and then improve its own inconsistent engagement with Latin America," the Indiana Republican said. We cannot make the mistake of adopting a 'no nukes, no terrorists, no problem,' approach to our own hemisphere," he said.

    FEDERAL RULES QUASH BOATING TRIPS TO CUBA

    A series of new federal rules, regulations, and procedures have already begun to quash ''regular'' recreational traffic between Key West and Cuba. And the potential stakes for violating the embargo have risen sharply in the past two weeks. On June 9, two Key West sailors, Peter Goldsmith, 55, and Michele Geslin, 56, were indicted on criminal charges that could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and up to 15 years in jail. Their offense: allegedly violating the Trading With The Enemy Act by organizing and promoting a series of sailboat races between Key West and Cuba.

    Last week, the federal government released details of new Cuba embargo rules slated to go into effect at the end of the month. The changes would eliminate a controversial provision that has allowed boaters to visit Cuba as ''fully hosted'' guests of a nautical club operated by the Cuban government-owned Marina Hemingway, just outside of Havana. Within the next month, the Coast Guard is expected to release the details of more new requirements that would expressly bar from Cuban waters U.S. boaters who don't have an export license from the Commerce Department and a license from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, no matter where the trip to Cuba originated.

    ''We are not going to issue a permit until they can present the licenses from OFAC and Commerce,'' Tony Russell, a Miami-based Coast Guard spokesman, said. In the past, the Coast Guard routinely issued the permits regardless of whether vessels or the people on them were authorized by other federal agencies to visit Cuba. American boats have all but dried up at Marina Hemingway, according to its commodore, Jose M. Diaz Escrich.' ''There has been a very substantial decrease -- practically we don't have the arrival of any American boats,'' he said.

    CUBAN-AMERICANS IN CUBA MUST RETURN TO U.S. BEFORE JUNE 30

    Hundreds of Cuban Americans will be considered illegal travelers to Cuba if they do not return from the island before new travel rules take effect on June 30. Operators of charter flights to Cuba are scrambling to schedule flights to ferry hundreds of Cuban Americans back from the island before new travel regulations make them illegal visitors.

    The agencies are also trying to contact Cuban Americans already on the island who may not know that they have to return before the more restrictive rules take effect. ''It's quite a panic right now,'' said María Teresa Arau, chief executive and vice president of ABC Charters in Miami, one of seven local companies that operate flights to Cuba. ñI'm in the process of contracting more planes, but I don't think I'll be able to accommodate everyone.''

    The new rules, which have been pending for months, were published Wednesday in the Federal Register. A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which regulates travel from the United States to Cuba, said the two weeks until they take effect allow travelers time to change schedules. ''We encourage folks to use this time period to make travel arrangements to get back to the U.S.,'' said Molly Millerwise, a Treasury spokeswoman. A traveler returning after June 30 will be subject to a $7,500 fine.

    ABDELUZIZ AL-MUGRIN, THE KILLER OF PAUL JOHNSON, IS DEAD  

    Abdeluziz al-Muqrin -- the top name on the Saudi Interior Ministry's most wanted list and the self-proclaimed leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia -- is indeed dead, Saudi security sources told CNN on Saturday after an Islamist Web site denied the reports. Saudi officials said al-Muqrin and three others were killed Friday after authorities found the beheaded body of U.S. engineer Paul Johnson -- kidnapped a week ago by al-Muqrin, who promised to kill him if his demands weren't met.

    "The bodies have been shown on Saudi TV," a security source told CNN. "If he wasn't dead, he would be issuing the statement instead of having it issued in his name." "This is the group that has been the same that has carried out operations since November," the source said. "So while there are some out there, we hope that this means large-scale attacks won't happen again."

    An Islamist Web site Saturday disputed reports that the Saudis had killed the al Qaeda militant who claimed responsibility for the beheading of Johnson Jr., calling it "false news." At least 10 other important suspects from al-Muqrin's terror cell were arrested Friday, including al-Muqrin's No. 2 man Rakan Muhsin Mohammad Alsaykhan -- the second most-wanted on the Saudi Interior Ministry's list -- Saudi security sources said. 

    RUMSFELD AIDE NOMINATED AS SOUTHCOM COMMANDER

    President Bush on Friday nominated a three-star Army general who now serves as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's senior military aide to become the new chief of the Pentagon's Miami-based Southern Command. If confirmed, Lt. Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, a 33-year career Army officer, gets an automatic one-star promotion to the rank of general that comes with the job. Craddock would succeed Army Gen. James ''Tom'' Hill as overall commander of any U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

    On paper, Craddock has no hemisphere-specific experience and apparently does not speak any Spanish. His Army résumé lists no fluency in any foreign language. All of his overseas experience, according to his résumé, took place in Europe. According to news reports, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez had been dropped as a Southcom candidate because of the Iraqi prisoner-abuse scandal.

    CUBA GRIPPED BY WORST DROUGHT IN DECADES

    Cuba's worst drought in a decade has dried up reservoirs and stunted crops, including sugar cane for next year's harvest, officials and industry sources say. Authorities on the Communist-ruled island are scrambling to get water to residents in central and eastern parts of the country and to limit damage to agriculture.

    Next year's sugar crop has been seriously stunted, according to industry sources, and coffee, rice and citrus are also hurting. The government reported that 36,000 head of cattle had died in the province of Camaguey. Vice President Carlos Lage toured the hardest hit provinces of Camaguey, Holguin and Las Tunas, where hundreds of thousands of people are relying on water trucked in every five to 10 days, official media said.

    "There is drought across the country. It is the driest year in 10 years," Lage said during his trip on Thursday. Areas such as Holguin were suffering the driest weather in 43 years, he added. The official daily newspaper Granma reported that between April 2003 and May 2004 rainfall in parts of central and eastern Cuba was 16 inches (40 cm) below the norm.

    U.S. HOSTAGE BEHEADED BY AL-QAIDA GROUP

    An al-Qaida group said Friday it killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr, posting an Internet message that showed three photographs of a severed head that appeared to be his. The message, in the name of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, appeared as a 72-hour deadline set by the group ended. "In answer to what we promised ... to kill the hostage Paul Marshall (Johnson) after the period is over ... the infidel got his fair treatment," the statement said.

    "Let him taste something of what Muslims have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles," the statement said. Johnson, 49, who worked on Apache attack helicopter systems for Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands. One of the three photographs posted on the Web site showed a man's head, face toward the camera, being held by a hand.

    The beheaded body was dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, similar to those issued to suspected Islamic militants imprisoned by the United States at Guantanamo Bay - and similar to the suit another American captive, Nicholas Berg, was wearing when he was beheaded in Iraq last month by another group of Islamic militants inspired by al-Qaida.

    HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: CHAVEZ AND HIS ALLIES ARE TRYING TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his allies are trying to take control of the country's Supreme Court in a threat to judicial independence that could influence an August referendum on his rule, an international rights group said on Thursday. José Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch Americas Director, said in a report the left-wing president and his supporters pushed through parliament last month Supreme Court legislation that would allow a political takeover of the top court. This would affect the court's ability to rule impartially on any dispute over the referendum result, the report said.

    "We believe democracy in Venezuela is at serious risk," Vivanco told a news conference in Caracas after presenting the report. Vivanco urged the president to modify the controversial Supreme Court law that allows parliament to choose new court members by simple majority and to annul existing appointments. The law also expands the tribunal to 32 magistrates from 20. Previous appointments were made by a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. If Chavez and his supporters did not move to amend the law, the Organization of American States should invoke its Democratic Charter to persuade them to respect and preserve the independence of Venezuela's justice system, he added.

    Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel replied Thursday morning comments of Vivanco that the country's government totally dominates the Judicial Power, by saying that Vivanco is a "mercenary" and a "trouble-maker who does not represent anybody." "It is unacceptable that a person like Vivanco, who is a mercenary at the service of imperial powers comes to Venezuela and contemptuously makes remarks against the functioning of our institutions," Rangel said.

    TWO MORE CUBAN DISSIDENTS RELEASED FROM PRISON 

    Two Cuban dissidents walked out of jail and into the arms of their loved ones on Friday, bringing to four the number of President Fidel Castro's foes released from the 75 imprisoned last year in a crackdown on dissent. "This caught me completely by surprise. I think it was a goodwill gesture and I hope they free all brother political prisoners," human rights activist Orlando Fundora told Reuters after his release.

    Along with Fundora, who had been sentenced to 18 years, 67-year-old independent trade unionist Carmelo Diaz, with a 15 year sentence, was also freed. The two men, and the two others recently released, suffer from serious health problems. "The government is freeing them so they do not die in prison. Communist authorities imprisoned the 75 opponents for average 19-year-terms after one-day trials last year, provoking an international outcry and calls for their release from numerous governments, Pope John Paul, and other internationally prominent people.

    Four other dissidents were unexpectedly released earlier this month after being held for more than two years without trial in a case not connected with the 75. Another 16 government opponents were jailed in the last two months, according to Sanchez's illegal, but tolerated, human rights organization. 

    PUTIN WARNED PRESIDENT BUSH ABOUT SADDAMÍS TERRORIST PLAN TO ATTACK THE UNITED STATES

    Russian intelligence services warned Washington several times that Saddam Hussein's regime planned terrorist attacks against the United States, President Vladimir Putin has said. The warnings were provided after September 11, 2001 and before the start of the Iraqi war, Putin said Friday, according to the Interfax news agency.

    The planned attacks were targeted both inside and outside the United States, said Putin, who made the remarks during a visit to Kazakhstan. "After September 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services ... received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests," Interfax quoted Putin as saying.

    "Despite that information about terrorist attacks being prepared by Saddam's regime, Russia's position on Iraq remains unchanged," Putin said. Putin made his comments in response to a question from reporters seeking clarification on similar statements leaked by an unnamed intelligence officer in a dispatch by Interfax. The United States never mentioned the Russian intelligence in its arguments for going to war.

    EUROPEAN AND LATIN AMERICAN ACTIVISTS AND LAWMAKERS ANNOUNCE THE FORMATION OF A COMMISSION TO PROMOTE DEMOCRACY IN CUBA

    A group of European and Latin American activists and lawmakers Wednesday announced the establishment of a joint commission to monitor human rights abuses and promote democracy in Cuba. The non-government commission will pressure Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's government to respect the rights of citizens seeking democracy in the communist nation, said Francisco Landero, a Mexican federal congressman from the conservative National Action Party.

    Also present at the announcement at Miami's Our Lady of Charity Shrine were Anna Maria Stame Cervone, an activist in Italy's conservative Christian Democratic party, and Alvaro Dubon, a conservative Guatemalan member of the Central American Parliament. Relatives of political prisoners in Cuba and officials from various Cuban exile groups joined the news conference to support the commission. Although the European Community and some Latin American countries, especially Mexico, have been pressing Cuba to improve its human rights situation, there has been little coordination so far between the two sides.

    Stame said the Joint Commission of European and Latin American Parliamentarians in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in Cuba has 50 members from Chile, the Czech Republic, Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico and Italy, and expects many more to join in coming weeks. Commission members said they will push for the creation of a humanitarian fund to support nongovernment groups in Cuba and will support political change on the island.

    U.S. IMPLEMENTS RULES LIMITING FAMILY REMITTANCES AND TRAVEL TO CUBA

    The U.S. government on Wednesday published in the Federal Register regulations that further tighten the embargo against Cuba, pleasing the powerful Florida-based Cuban-American lobby. Acting on the recommendation of an interagency commission seeking ways to hasten the fall of Cuban President Fidel Castro's communist government, the Bush administration on May 6 announced measures that would make it harder to travel to the island and spend money there.

    The Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in the Federal Register that the new regulations would take effect on June 30, and it would consider comments from the public until no later than August 16. The tough new rules allow Cuban-Americans to visit immediate relatives on the island only once every three years, instead of once per year. Visits can last no longer than 14 days, according to the published regulations.

    U.S. citizens who are not Cuban-Americans are banned from visiting the island, just 90 miles (150 km) from Florida, with a few exceptions like journalists and legislators. The regulations ban travelers from bringing back any Cuban merchandise and receiving any gifts of goods or services from the Cuban government, Cuban nationals or citizens of third countries. Travelers previously had been allowed to bring back up to $100 worth of Cuban products for personal consumption. And authorized visitors can now take only $300 in cash to Cuba, down from $3,000. The rules also limit to 44 pounds (27.5 kilograms) the amount of baggage travelers can carry to the island and reduce the daily spending limit from $167 to $50. Educational visits to Cuba were also curtailed.

    CUBA SEEKS PARTNERS IN THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 

    Cuban authorities are looking for foreign partners to help fund such projects as building an alcohol distillery and producing lollipops to further develop the island's sugar industry. On Tuesday, the government distributed a pamphlet listing 26 such initiatives to delegates at the International Congress of Sugar and Sugarcane Derivatives. ''We are looking for financing, technology and/or markets,'' Manuel Alonso Padílla, a Cuban sugar ministry official, told reporters at the event. ñWe will provide the infrastructure, top-notch labor and engineering.''

    Dozens of business representatives from Australia, Brazil, Mexico and Europe are to discuss the proposed sugar projects, some of them costing millions of dollars, on Wednesday and Thursday. Cuba's sugar industry has been undergoing a major restructuring over the past several years as officials struggle to make production more efficient and a once-crucial industry more relevant. Once the locomotive that drove this island's economy, sugar has been replaced in recent years by tourism as the island's primary source of foreign income. The sugar crop of 2003-2004 reached only 2.5 million tons, one of the worst in the Cuban sugar industryÍs history. The congress, which began Tuesday, is to run through Friday at the Hotel Habana Libre in the Cuban capital.

    OTTO REICH RESIGNS HIS POSITION AT THE WHITE HOUSE

    Otto Reich, who took a hard line against Cuba dictator Fidel Castro in Cuba and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, resigned as a top adviser to President George W. Bush on Latin America, officials said on Wednesday. White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in a statement that she accepted the resignation of Reich "with regret" and praised his "service to our country and his commitment to a brighter future for the western hemisphere."

    Reich said last month he planned to quit for "personal and financial reasons" and that he may join Bush's re-election campaign. Rice's statement did not say what Reich's plans were, but an aide said he planned to return to the private sector.

    Reich sparked controversy elsewhere, including Venezuela, where he was accused of initially welcoming a short-lived ouster of leftist President Hugo Chavez. Venezuela's vice president responded by calling Reich a "clown." Unable to secure Senate confirmation because of stiff opposition from Democrats, Reich was appointed by Bush to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, the top Latin American diplomatic posting for the U.S. government. He was later named special envoy to Latin America. During the 1980s, Reich worked on the Reagan administration's controversial campaign against the leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

    JAMAICA COMPANY LEAVES CUBA TO AVOID US SANCTIONS

    A Jamaican resort company has cut back its business in Cuba to avoid having top officers denied entry into the United States for investing in confiscated property, company officials and a lawyer close to the case said on Tuesday. They said SuperClubs has canceled three hotel management contracts -- a move analysts said is likely to have a chilling effect on foreign investment in Cuba. "We now have two hotels in Cuba. Until two months ago we had five, but we've been closing contracts," said one SuperClubs official.

    SuperClubs officials in Cuba said the privately held company had canceled a management contract with the Cuban government under which it ran the Breezes Costa Verde resort in Holguin province. They did not name the other two canceled operations. The Breezes Costa Verde resort is located on property claimed by Sanchez-Hill families, who left for the United States after Cuban dictator Fidel Castro took over in 1959 and say their properties were confiscated.

    The State Department notified SuperClubs on May 6 that it was "trafficking" in confiscated properties and had 45 days to stop, or visas would be denied to its top management and their spouses and children under the 1996 Helms-Burton law that aims to curb foreign investment in the island. SuperClubs is headed by Jamaican entrepreneur John Issa. Several European hotel operators, including Spain's Sol Melia and France's Club Med, operate on properties claimed by Sanchez-Hill families.

     41 CUBAN MIGRANTS REACHED FLORIDA KEYS

    Nineteen Cubans came ashore in the Keys on Tuesday morning -- eight in a homemade boat landed on Higgs Beach in Key West and 11 more came ashore on Long Beach Road in Big Pine Key, probably after being brought there by smugglers, officials said. A day earlier, 22 Cuban migrants came ashore at Rodriguez Key, a mangrove island in the Upper Keys. Investigators believe the Monday group was smuggled to Florida.

    The migrants were being taken to Krome Detention Center Tuesday afternoon, where their paperwork and sponsors were to be arranged.  ''We assume that the 11 Cubans who arrived at Big Pine Key came in a go-fast boat,'' said Cameron Hintzen, a Border Patrol agent.

    He said they are typically brought across the water in ñ30-foot outboard motor boats in a fishing style, with an open cockpit to accommodate more people and two large outboard motor for speed.'' The smugglers generally charge between $8,000 and $11,000 per person, said Hintzen.

    CNE APPROVES THE REFERENDUM QUESTION

    Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by chavistas,  has decided the wording of the question that the Venezuelans will answer in the August 15 presidential recall vote, although it skirts around the use of the controversial verbs "to revoke" and "to ratify." The precise question is: "DO YOU AGREE WITH LEAVING WITHOUT EFFECT THE POPULAR MANDATE GIVEN THROUGH DEMOCRATIC AND LEGITIMATE ELECTIONS TO MR. HUGO RAFAEL CHÁVEZ FRÍAS AS PRESIDENT OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA FOR THE CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL TERM?î The possible answers are, in the order established by the electoral authority, NO and YES.

    "The board thought of a question that was sufficiently clear and could be answered either yes or no and had the effect of revoking established in the Constitution. The rest was a matter of synonyms," said Jorge Rodríguez, member of the board. The CNE also adopted the resolution to close the electoral rolls for new voters on July 10. Until now, the national voters' registry includes 12,404,187 names, but this number is expected to grow when the citizens registered after March this year are included to vote for the first time in August.

    U.S. ARMY DESIGNS NEW COMBAT UNIFORMS

    The Army revealed on Monday a redesigned combat uniform with a digital camouflage pattern that looks strikingly different from soldiers' current battle dress uniforms. It marks the first major change in the Army uniform since 1981. He said recruits will be issued the redesigned uniform starting October 2005, and the entire Army will be outfitted by December 2007.

    The uniform is being produced in a single, universal pattern to replace the two camouflage versions in current use: tan-brown for desert use and green-brown-black for woodland settings. The pattern for the new camouflage coat and trousers is a mix of light green, tan and gray. The uniform was designed to allow soldiers to blend into urban, desert and forest environments; it is similar to the Marines' digital camouflage uniform except that it has no black in the pattern.

    Soldiers also will get a new, no-shine, tan combat boot. The new uniform makes more use of Velcro, and the coat fastens in front with a zipper instead of buttons. Cuffs and pockets are fastened with Velcro, and the coat collar can be turned up and fastened Mandarin-style. The uniform is roomier and made with a no-wrinkle fabric. The coat-trousers combination costs $88, compared with $56 for the current battle dress uniform.

    OSWALDO PAYÁ CLAIMS GOVERNMENT HARASSMENT

    Oswaldo Paya accused Fidel Castro's government of harassing activists participating in a new project aimed at sparking discussion about democratic reform. Paya, head of the Varela Project democracy drive, said Cuban state security agents had visited the homes of activists and tried to persuade them not to take part in the National Dialogue project launched last month.

   In a statement faxed to news organizations in Havana, Paya maintained the project was "persecuted because of the well-founded fear that the people will support it." The Cuban government has not publicly commented on the National Dialogue project, which calls for small groups of citizens to discuss a draft document about possible changes in Cuba's socialist systems.

    Authorities long ago rejected Paya's earlier proposal, the Varela Project. Project volunteers had submitted 25,000 signatures to Cuba's parliament petitioning for a referendum on whether voters favor civil liberties such as freedom of speech and the right to business ownership. Many of the 75 dissidents arrested and sentenced to long prison terms in a crackdown last year were Varela Project volunteers, accused of working with U.S. diplomats to undermine the island's government. They denied the charges.

    REPSOL ESTIMATES FEWER THAN 20% THE POSSIBILITY OF FINDING CRUDE OIL IN CUBAÍS SHORES

    A Norwegian deep-water oil rig, hired by Spain's Repsol, was moving into position this week off Cuba's north-west coast to sink two wildcat wells in the island's virgin Gulf of Mexico waters. Success could turn Cuba into an oil exporter, transforming the economic outlook for Fidel Castro's bankrupt Communist regime.

    Cuba's share of the Gulf was fixed by agreements signed with the United States and Mexico in the late 1970s, before new technologies made deep-water oil development possible. It was parceled into 59 blocks for foreign exploration in 1999. Only Repsol and Sherritt International, a Canadian firm, have signed exploration agreements; other companies are said to be watching how they get on„and the reaction of the United States.

    Many experts say there is lots of oil under Cuba's Gulf waters, as under those of Mexico and the United States. Repsol's geologists are said to be confident they have found some, though they are unsure of its quality. Any commercially viable deposit would take five years and $1.5 billion to develop, according to a study by Lloyd's Register, a consultancy.

    U.S. ACCUSED CUBA IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING 

    Ten countries could face U.S. sanctions because their governments are not making significant efforts to stop trafficking in humans, according to a State Department report to be released Monday. The countries are Cuba, Bangladesh, Burma, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, North Korea, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Venezuela.

    The report contains analyses of trafficking and government efforts to combat it in 140 countries. The report analyzes the origin, transit or destination of victims of "severe forms of trafficking." Secretary of State Colin Powell planned formal release of the report later Monday. As a minimum standard, the United States believes that governments around the world "should prohibit trafficking in persons and punish acts of such trafficking." Fifteen countries were listed last year as subject to sanctions.

    A GREAT VICTORY FOR DEMOCRACY: SUPREME COURT DISMISSED PLEDGE CASE

    The Supreme Court at least temporarily preserved the phrase "one nation, under God," in the Pledge of Allegiance, ruling Monday that a California atheist could not challenge the patriotic oath while sidestepping the broader question of separation of church and state. The decision leaves untouched the practice in which millions of schoolchildren around the country begin the day by reciting the pledge.

    Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist agreed with the outcome of the case, but still wrote separately to say that the Pledge as recited by schoolchildren does not violate the Constitution. Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas agreed with him. The high court's lengthy opinion overturns a ruling two years ago that the teacher-led pledge was unconstitutional in public schools. The reference is an "official acknowledgment of our nation's religious heritage," similar to the "In God We Trust" stamped on coins and bills, Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued to the court.

    The court said the atheist could not sue to ban the pledge from his daughter's school and others because he did not have legal authority to speak for her. The father, Michael Newdow, is in a protracted custody fight with the girl's mother. He does not have sufficient custody of the child to qualify as her legal representative, eight members of the court said. Justice Antonin Scalia did not participate in the case.

    MASS HELD IN HAVANA IN MEMORY OF THE LATE PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN 

    Representatives of 16 dissident organizations attended a requiem for Ronald Reagan in Havana June 9. Monsignor Ricardo Santana, the highest-ranking prelate of the Orthodox Church in Cuba, officiated at the Mass. According to an announcement read during the ceremony, another Mass has been scheduled at the time of the former U. S. President's burial.

    VENEZUELA UNDER OEAÍS OBSERVATION

    Although the latest General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), held in Quito, Ecuador, had to be focused on social development, democracy and the impact of corruption, Venezuela and the upcoming revoking referendum against President Hugo Chávez was at the center of the debate. Venezuela's situation was in the conversations of the organization's recently elected Secretary General Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who talked about it with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim

    Significantly, Venezuela, a divided country, was the only one to attend the event with two missions: The government on the one hand, and the political opposition and the civil society on the other. Foreign Minister Jesús Arnaldo Pérez and Ambassador Jorge Valero, who headed the government's delegation, fruitlessly tried to remind the rest of the attendants that Venezuela was not part of the event's agenda. Instead, they promoted the Social Charter of the Americas, but other diplomatic missions were not interested in the project.

    The opposition managed to meet with the heads of most missions. Favorable statements from main players in the region about the continuation of the international observers of the OAS and the Carter Center in Venezuela. The efforts of the opposition must have had some success during the Assembly, considering that members of the Venezuelan official delegation pushed to see them expelled from the sessions' rooms. But the hardest blow came from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which included Venezuelan in its report, side by side with Cuba and Haiti. 

    CUBAN COMMUNIST PARTY OFFICIAL CONSIDERS  IMMORAL TO ACCEPT TOURIST CONTRIBUTIONS 

    The head of the Religious Affairs department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Caridad Diego, told the more than 60 evangelical pastors and ministers present at a meeting in Santa Clara on Tuesday that it is "immoral" to accept contributions from tourists.

    These contributions, usually in dollars or euros, make up a substantial part of the revenue these churches depend on for their maintenance and programs. Last month, the local Catholic Church was notified it could not continue distributing free medicines to the population, as it had been doing.

    HUGO CHÁVEZ: BUSH IS MY GREATEST RIVAL IN THE RECALL REFERENDUM

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Saturday that his greatest rival is President Bush, who he says is supporting a recall referendum against him so that he can take over the country. ''The rival we have to triumph over is George W. Bush,'' said Chávez during the opening of a tomato-processing plant in his hometown of Sabaneta, in western Venezuela.

    Chávez said that if the opposition wins the referendum on Aug. 15, and the following elections, the United States would take over Venezuela, imposing its products and forcing all Venezuelans to speak English. Chávez said the opposition and the U.S. government wanted to create chaos in Venezuela so they could justify welcoming the United States ``and let's all talk English, and turn the dollar into the official currency, and turn Venezuela into a big Miami.'' The opposition ''wouldn't govern; Washington would govern,'' Chavez said.

    CUBAN INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST AWARD PRIZES

    Six independent journalists received Free Expression Prizes awarded for the first time by the Foundation for Free Expression headed by independent journalist Lucas Garve.

    The winners were Tomás González Coya, for "El benjamín," Luis Cino, for "Algunas noches hablo con Nelson, ".Tania Díaz Castro, for "Conversación con una turista española," Adrián Leyva, for "La pedigÙeña"and "El gordo Fabián y un motivo para reflexionar," Oscar Mario González, for "Los niños pioneros," and Miriam Leyva, for "Libertad es el derecho que cada hombre tiene a ser honrado, a pensar y hablar sin hipocresía."

    The winners received a briefcase and flowers. The jury, composed of Garve and fellow independent journalists José Antonio Fornaris, Fara Armenteros, Asela Vega and Beatriz del Carmen Pedroso, weighed 123 submissions.

    CLANDESTINE SOFT DRINK OPERATION RAIDED IN CUBA

    Five police agents last week raided a house where soft drinks were being made clandestinely. The police, who arrived in two patrol cars and a truck, took away 20 boxes of empty bottles, two tanks of carbon dioxide, a sack of sugar and a bottling machine.

    The fate was not known of the owner of the house, a man nicknamed "El Boby." The police have been cracking down on clandestine factories which supply the island's informal economy.

    ORGANIZERS OF SAILING RACE FACE CHARGES

    The organizers of a sailboat race from Key West to Cuba have been indicted on two counts of providing unlicensed travel services to the Communist island nation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Thursday. Peter Goldsmith and Michele Geslin ran the race in violation of the Trading With The Enemy Act, federal officials said. The most serious count of the indictment carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

    Crews competing in the Key West Sailing Club Conch Republic Cup departed May 22, 2003, for Havana and several Cuban shore communities after receiving pre-race warnings they would be violating U.S. Department of Commerce licensing regulations. About 20 boats took part in the race, which was then in its third year. Participants brought Cubans humanitarian aid, including medicine, educational supplies, books and food.

    Geslin said last year that when the sailboats returned to Key West, customs officials confiscated crew members' cameras, trophies and paperwork. She contended the boats were covered by a humanitarian license held by an aid group that takes medical supplies to Cuba. Prosecutors contend Goldsmith and Geslin "organized, administered and operated" the races despite being notified that they needed a license to provide travel services to Cuba from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

    YOUNG CUBAN BASEBALL STAR DEFECTS TO U.S. 

     Kendry Morales, considered Cuba's most promising young baseball player, has defected to the United States to pursue his dream of playing in the major leagues, his family said on Wednesday. The 20-year-old switch-hitting slugger had been suspended earlier this year by Cuba's National Baseball Commission after several foiled attempts to leave the island.

    "On Friday he left home with some friends and never came back," said his stepfather, Henry Nunez, at their home in Las Guasimas on the outskirts of Havana. "He called yesterday from Miami to say he arrived fine. His dream is to play in the big leagues and now the doors will open for him," Nunez said. Morales crossed the Florida Straits on Saturday night on a boat with 18 other Cubans, including former baseball coach Orlando Chinea.

    U.S. immigration authorities released the two men on Monday afternoon from Krome Detention Center in South Florida. A Cuban official said Morales had been caught five times trying to leave Cuba clandestinely. MoralesÍ departure was the latest in Cuba's steady loss of talent lured by stardom and multimillion-dollar contracts to major-league baseball in the United States. In communist-run Cuba, baseball players earn meager wages no higher than $20 a month.

    EZEQUIEL ZAMORA DENOUNCES PLANS TO COMMIT FRAUD IN THE UPCOMING PRESIDENTIAL RECALL REFERENDUM

    Ezequiel Zamora, Vice President of the National Electoral Council (CNE), claims that he has received a list of 117 officials that could be removed from the electoral body as part of a plan to commit fraud at the presidential recall referendum.

    "If the list were true, if these dismissals were completed, I would denounce that a fraud is being prepared at the CNE," Zamora said. "If any of those included in the list were fired, then the (electoral) organization would be preparing a fraud." The list includes key staff in charged of the organization of the recall vote.  Zamora added that the 117 officials belong to the opposition and are known for their experience and good performance.

    URGENT APPEAL: DR. OSCAR ELÍAS BISCET ISOLATED 

    The Lawton Foundation for Human Rights calls for an URGENT appeal to the international community to denounce the continued isolation of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, prisoner of conscience, at the maximum security prison Kilo 8, Pinar del Rio, Cuba.

    Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is currently isolated without being permitted to receive visits from his wife and family members.  According to the Cuban penal code, Dr. Biscet is entitled to a visit every two months, of which none have been granted up to this date, in violation of the Cuban penal code. This state of isolation extends to  the prohibition of regular mail and phone calls, in flagrant violation of his human rights.

    Concurrently, his wife Elsa Morejon Hernandez is the subject of harassments and threats by the Cuban authorities. We make an urgent appeal to the international community to denounce the abuses and violation of Dr. Biscet`s human rights and for a call to raise our voices for the protection and physical integrity of his wife, Elsa Morejon Hernandez.

    THE DICTATOR FREES FIVE JAILED DISSIDENTS

    Cuba unexpectedly released five opponents of President Fidel Castro, including a dissident suffering heart problems and four who were held for more than two years without trial, dissidents said on Wednesday. Miguel Valdes Tamayo, 47, freed on Wednesday morning, was the second of 75 opponents jailed last year in a crackdown on dissents to be released on health grounds.

    Authorities on April 14 set free human rights activist Julio Antonio Valdes so he could undergo a kidney transplant. "This took me by surprise. I did not expect to be freed," Valdes Tamayo, who was serving a 15-year term for sedition, said at his Havana home.

    Leonardo Bruzon Avila, Emilio Leyva, Lázaro Rodriguez and opposition journalist Carlos Alberto Dominguez were released on Tuesday after 27 months in prison without trial. The four were arrested on Feb. 22, 2002, and charged with inciting public disorder for trying to hold memorial ceremonies honoring four Florida-based Cuban exiles killed when Cuban fighter jets shot down their two small planes in 1996.

    ANTENNAS INSTALLED ON HIGH BUILDING IN HAVANA TO INTERFERE WITH RADIO/TV MARTI

    The installation of big antennas on the roofs of several tall buildings in the city has raised speculation that they might be used to block signals of Radio Martí and TV Martí which the U.S. government recently announced would be transmitted from a plane.

    Transmission from the plane would overcome the blocking of radio and TV signals currently transmitted from the Florida Keys. "We can't reject the possibility that the response of the government will be to increase the levels of interference and overcome the signals from the airplane," said Raul, who studied electronics.

    MOVING FAREWELL TO A GREAT PRESIDENT

    The nation's capital began saying goodbye to Ronald Reagan Wednesday, citizens celebrating the 40th president's common touch, Congress marking his achievements and all engaged in the high and rare pageantry of America's first presidential state funeral in three decades. Reagan's body, escorted by his wife Nancy and his children, was flown from California to close the first chapter in a slowly unfolding week of remembrance. More than 100,000 people paid respects to Reagan in his presidential hilltop library, in advance of his lying in state at the Capitol beginning Wednesday night.

    A Boeing 747 from the White House fleet carried the former president across country as crowds assembled in Washington's uncomfortable heat to witness the polished spectacle of his early-evening funeral procession to the Capitol. Among the ritual's elements: a horse-drawn caisson for his casket, a solitary drummer and a roaring flyover of 21 Strike Eagle fighter planes just 1,000 feet off the ground. Washington last staged these presidential rites in 1973, for Lyndon Johnson, less than a decade after John Kennedy's assassination produced the state funeral carved most deeply in America's memory.

    President Bush planned to come back from the Group of Eight meeting in Georgia on Thursday and, with his wife Laura, call on Mrs. Reagan at Blair House, the official guest residence across the street from the White House. Aides said Bush would visit the casket Thursday evening. Bush and his father, who was Reagan's vice president and succeeded him in the White House, will be among the eulogists Friday.

    ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES SCHEDULE VENEZUELAN REFERENDUM FOR AUGUST 15

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will face a recall referendum on Aug. 15 that could open the way for an election for a new president within 30 days if the leftist leader is defeated, National Electoral Council Vice President Ezequiel Zamora said on Tuesday. "It was agreed for August 15," Zamora told reporters after a meeting of the council's directors.

    The opposition, which has battled to hold a vote for more than a year, feared delays in holding the August referendum could block their chances of ousting Chavez's left-wing government at the ballot box. According to Venezuela's constitution, if Chavez had lost a recall held after Aug. 19, his vice president would take over until presidential elections in December 2006. If Chavez loses the Aug. 15 referendum, the constitution dictates elections must be held in 30 days.

    Political confrontation has rattled the world's No. 5 oil exporter since Chavez survived a coup more than two years ago. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter last year helped broker a deal that put forward the recall referendum as the best solution to the bitter crisis.   ChavezÍs opponents say the populist leader's self-styled revolution for the poor has failed and pushed Venezuela closer to a Cuban-style communist state. They say his firebrand style has driven off investors and sharpened tensions between the social classes.

    U.N. ENDORSES IRAQ SOVEREIGNTY TRANSFER

    The U.N. Security Council gave resounding approval Tuesday to a resolution endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's new government by the end of June. President Bush said the measure will set the stage for democracy in Iraq and be a "catalyst for change" in the Middle East. The unanimous 15-0 vote came after a last-minute compromise allowed France and Germany to drop their objections to the U.S.-British resolution, which underwent four revisions over weeks of tough negotiations. Diplomats on the council, which was deeply divided over the war, welcomed the Americans' flexibility.

    The compromise gives Iraqi leaders control over the activities of their own fledgling security forces and a say on "sensitive offensive operations" by the U.S.-led multinational force - such as the controversial siege of Fallujah. But the measure stops short of granting the Iraqis a veto over major U.S.-led military operations. The resolution spells out the powers and the limitations of the new interim Iraqi government that will assume power on June 30. It authorizes the multinational force to remain in Iraq to help ensure security but gives the Iraqi government the right to ask the force to leave at any time.

    Bush claimed victory before the vote, telling reporters at the Group of Eight summit in Sea Island, Ga., that a unanimous approval would tell the world that the council nations "are interested in working together to make sure Iraq is free, peaceful and democratic." "These nations understand that a free Iraq will serve as a catalyst for change in the broader Middle East, which is an important part of winning the war on terror," Bush said. 

    HUGO CHÁVEZ: ñI WILL LEAVE AFTER YEAR 2021î

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said in a nationally broadcasted speech that his opponents "have spent several years trying to oust me, and I think they will spend many more years trying to do it, but they will not be able to take me out of power, I am sure of it because I know we are carrying out God's mandate to fight together with the poor, the most needed people."

    Chávez, who will face a recall vote on his tenure in August, said that "I will leave after year 2021." The President made an appeal to his supporters, asking them to be united in the "Florentino Mission," launched to carry out the campaign strategy, and to fight a new Battle of Santa Inés (originally fought in 1859 in Venezuela's Federal War) in order to defeat the country's oligarchy.

    However, he asked his followers not to think that the battle has already been won. Chávez announced that on Wednesday he would swear in the Comando Maisanta, which would be in charge of developing the campaign to ratify him in the presidency "with five million votes, maybe more."

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO: "REAGAN SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN"

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, probably drunk, harshly criticized former President Ronald Reagan and his policies on Monday.  In his first reaction to Mr. Reagan's death, the dictator issued a statement, broadcasted by the communist government Radio Reloj, in which he said: "As forgetful and irresponsible as he was, he forgot to take his worst works to the grave."  "He, who never should have been born, has died," the tyrant statement's emphasized.

    The dictator did not mention Cuba's relationship with the United States under the former president, a staunch foe of communism. It also did not mention Reagan's decision to order U.S. forces to invade the tiny Caribbean country of Grenada on Oct. 25, 1983, because Washington feared the island had grown too close to Cuba. Castro's statement lambasted Reagan's military policies, especially the "Star Wars" anti-missile program. The initiative, launched when the Soviet Union still existed, rejected a long-standing doctrine built on the idea that neither superpower would start a nuclear war out of fear of annihilation by the other.

    Castro also criticized Reagan's policies in Central America, where Washington backed a counterrevolutionary rebel army that fought against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The United States also supported a conservative government that battled Marxist guerrillas during El Salvador's civil war. "His apologists characterize him as the victor of the Cold War," the decrepit dictator said. "Those in the know knew that the reality was not so, but rather (he was) the destroyer of policies of detente in the overall quest for peace."

    AGRICULTURAL WORKERS IN CUBA HAVE NOT BEEN PAID IN THREE MONTHS

    The members of the Ernesto "Che" Guevara agricultural cooperative, in the La Guanábana neighborhood, Media Luna, Granma province, have not received their salaries in three months, said Jesús Guerra from that territory. The coop members receive credits to buy food, and the net is deducted from their salaries. In some cases, the monthly pay remaining after deductions has been as little as 15 pesos, less than a dollar at the current exchange rate, said Guerra.

    Coop members Ángel Guerra, a mule driver, and Frank Domínguez, who shoes the mules, complain that they are obligated to participate in the so-called Day of Defense under threat of punishment.

     IF ELECTED PRESIDENT, KERRY WILL EXPAND TRAVEL TO CUBA AND PROVIDE MORE DOLLARS FOR THE DICTATORSHIP

    Denouncing President Bush's crackdown on Fidel Castro as election-year politicking that ''punishes and isolates the Cuban people,'' John Kerry said that he would encourage ''principled travel'' to the island and lift the cap on gifts to its people. In his first detailed remarks on Cuba policy since clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, Kerry embraced the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and support for dissidents, but criticized Bush's restriction of travel and cash gifts to Cubans on the island as a ñcynical and misguided ploy for a few Florida votes.''

    Kerry said that Bush's new hard-line policy restricting travelers to a single visit every three years ñpunishes and isolates the Cuban people and harms the Cuban Americans with relatives on the island while leaving Castro unharmed.'' ''Selective engagement, not isolation, is the best way for the American people to send real, not just rhetorical, hope for a better future to the Cuban people,'' he said.

    Kerry said he would also lift the restriction on remittances to allow gifts to ''households and humanitarian institutions.'' Bush has restricted gifts to only ''immediate family members,'' but Kerry said the money can be a ''powerful tool'' to help Cubans on the island start small businesses ñand thereby gain a measure of autonomy.'' And he accused the Bush administration of failing to better engage the international community to oppose Castro, Kerry has said has damaged U.S. credibility. ''If we were more effective,'' he said, ``we would have a little more goodwill in the bank to be able to effectively move the international community with respect to Cuba.''

    WORLD LEADERS COMMEMORATE D-DAY IN FRANCE

    Standing among the dead and before the dwindling number of living World War II veterans, President Bush on Sunday saluted U.S. soldiers who gave their lives on D-Day and proclaimed, "America would do it again for its friends." He promised the white-haired veterans who 60 years ago stormed the beaches of Normandy, turning the tide of the war: "You will be honored ever and always by the country you served and the nations you freed."

    Bush stood beside French President Jacques Chirac at the Normandy American Cemetery above Omaha Beach. They joined in a wreath-laying at a memorial, which was followed by a 21-gun salute, a somber rendition of taps and a flyover by four fighter jets. "America is our eternal ally, and that alliance and solidarity are all the stronger for having been forged in those terrible hours," Chirac said.

    To aging veterans interspersed in the audience, some of them in military uniforms and others in wheelchairs, Bush said, "America honors all the liberators who fought here in the noblest of causes, and America would do it again for our friends." Leaders from more than 15 countries gathered at this year's Normandy commemoration, which included for the first time heads of state from Germany and Russia. Chirac invited both Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

    CONDITIONS IN CUBAN HOSPITALS ARE DEPRESSING

    Getting sick, for the average Cuban, may mean being pushed to the hospital in a wooden wheelbarrow because there is no fuel for a proper ambulance. Once there, having taken his or her own bed linens and maybe a fan to help hope with the stifling heat since there is typically no air conditioning in the wards, the patient finds generally dirty surroundings, cockroaches, lack of running water and stopped-up or broken toilets. There have been reports of intruders stealing the patients' personal belongings, such as fans and radios, sometimes at knifepoint.

    The food, if it is provided, is so poor that relatives usually bring something from home. Laboratory tests requiring imported reagents will more than likely not be performed, and many of the medicines prescribed by the doctors are not available, either in the hospital or in the pharmacy. Not surprisingly, patients often choose to follow a course of treatment at home, if at all possible.

    FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN DIED SATURDAY AT HIS HOME IN LOS ANGELES. HE WAS 93

    Former President Ronald Reagan led a conservative revolution that set the economic and cultural tone of the 1980s, hastened the end of the Cold War and revitalized the Republican Party. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease since at least late 1994. At least two of his children and his wife, Nancy, were at his bedside, according to the former president's Los Angeles office. Maureen Reagan, his daughter from that marriage, died of brain cancer in 2001.

    Michael Reagan released a statement soon after his father's death. "I pray that as America reflects on the passing of my Dad, they will remember a man of integrity, conviction and good humor that changed America and the world for the better," Michael Reagan said. "He would modestly say the credit goes to others, but I believe the credit is his." President Bush was informed of Reagan's death while in Paris, where he is on tour to honor the heroes of World War II on the weekend of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. The White House lowered its flag to half-staff after the news.

    At 69, Reagan was the oldest man elected president when he was chosen on November 4, 1980, over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter. On March 30, 1981, Reagan was leaving a Washington hotel after addressing labor leaders when John Hinckley fired six gunshots at him. A bullet lodged an inch from Reagan's heart, but he recovered fully. In 1984, he defeated Democrat Walter Mondale. Reagan has also undergone a 1985 colon cancer operation and 1987 prostate and skin-cancer surgery. He fell and broke his hip in 2001, less than a month before his 90th birthday.

    U.S. RULES EXPECTED TO CAUSE HUGE DROP IN TRIPS TO CUBA

    New U.S. travel restrictions could cut travel by Cuban Americans to the island by as much as 40 percent - despite new Cuban rules making it easier for them to visit relatives here, a Foreign Ministry official said. Under new U.S. rules taking effect June 30, Cubans living in the United States will be able to legally travel to the island only once every three years, rather than annually.

    The rules also limit which relatives Cuban Americans can send financial assistance to. Now, Cuban Americans will only be able to help their children, parents, grandparents and siblings on the impoverished island - but not their cousins, aunts and uncles. The tougher new rules, aimed at forcing a change in Cuba's socialist system, are seen here as a move aimed at gaining electoral support for U.S. President George W. Bush among Cuban emigres who oppose Cuban President Fidel Castro.

    CUBA ANNOUNCES ANOTHER DISAPPOINTING SUGAR HARVEST

    Cuba's latest sugar harvest came in at about 2.75 million tons, larger than last year but still tiny and less than officials had projected, the communist government announced Friday. The Communist Party daily Granma quoted Vice President Carlos Lage as saying that the 2003-2004 harvest that ended this spring was 2.9 percent smaller than previously forecast.

    The 2002-2003 harvest was about 2.4 million tons, according to government figures announced in late December. The previous two harvests were around 3.9 million tons. As usual, Lage blamed a drought in the island's east for the production of less sugar than hoped.

    Cuba's sugar industry has been undergoing a major restructuring over the past several years as officials struggle to improve production and make a once-crucial industry more relevant. Before de revolution, Harvests were commonly 7 million to 9 million tons a year, but they slowly declined over the las forty years. The Soviet Union's collapse erased what was once Cuba's most lucrative sugar market.

   POPE MEETS PRESIDENT BUSH, RENEWS CRITICISM OF WAR

    Pope John Paul II reminded President George W. Bush on Friday of the Vatican's opposition to the war in Iraq. "It is the evident desire of everyone that this situation now be normalized as quickly as possible with the active participation of the international community and, in particular, the United Nations organization, in order to ensure a speedy return of Iraq's sovereignty, in conditions of security for all its people," said the pope.

    In an indirect reference to U.S. troops' abuse of Iraqi prisoners and grave events, such as the decapitation of American Nicholas Berg, the pope said, "In the past few weeks, other deplorable events have come to light which have troubled the civic and religious conscience of all." He said those events "made more difficult a serene and resolute commitment to shared human values. In the absence of such a commitment, neither war nor terrorism will ever be overcome."

    On Saturday, Bush travels to Paris to meet French President Jacques Chirac, another war opponent, before heading to Normandy Sunday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in 1944 that dealt a decisive blow to Nazi Germany. While in France, Bush will also meet German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who joined Chirac in opposing the Iraq war.

    HUGO CHAVEZ ACCEPTS RECALL VOTE

    Hugo Chávez on national television Thursday night, putting on a somber face, vowed to defeat the opposition. ''It is not good to claim victory before it happens,'' Chávez said, during a speech in which he invoked Jesus Christ and Venezuelan liberator Simón Bolívar. ñI've seen sectors of the opposition claiming victory and that I have been defeated. I have something to tell them. I have not started playing. The game starts now.''

    Venezuelan electoral authorities had tentatively scheduled the referendum for early August. They did not say when a final tally would be announced.  During his speech, Chávez said he would accept the council's decision but repeatedly cautioned that it had not reached a final tally.

    Venezuelan opposition leaders immediately claimed victory -- and announced their own projections, showing a margin of more than 100,000 signatures. They promised to carry Thursday's momentum to ''This is a victory of unity and we will conserve this unity to guarantee a win in the referendum so we can build a better Venezuela,'' said Miranda state Gov. Enrique Mendoza, often mentioned as a possible opposition presidential candidate.

    CIA DIRECTOR RESIGNS

    CIA Director George Tenet, buffeted by controversies over intelligence lapses about suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has resigned. President Bush said Thursday that Tenet was leaving for personal reasons and "I will miss him."

    Tenet, 51, came to the White House to inform Bush about his decision Wednesday night. "He told me he was resigning for personal reasons. I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people," the president said. Tenet will serve until mid-July. Bush said that deputy, John McLaughlin, will temporarily lead America's premier spy agency until a successor is found.

    "He's been a strong and able leader at the agency. and I will miss him," Bush said of Tenet as he got ready to board Marine One for a trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and on to Europe. "George Tenet is the kind of public servant you like to work with," the president added. "He's strong, he's resolute. He's served his nation as the director for seven years. He has been a strong and able leader at the agency. He's been a strong leader in the war on terror." "I send my blessings to George and his family and look forward to working with him until he leaves the agency," Bush said. Tenet is the son of Greek immigrants who grew up in Queens, N.Y.

    CNE ANNOUNCES THERE ARE ENOUGH SIGNATURES TO TRIGGER A PRESIDENTIAL RECALL VOTE 

    In a stunning blow to President Hugo Chavez, Jorge Rodríguez, a director of the National Electoral Council (CNE), announced that according to preliminary figures of the top electoral body there are enough signatures to trigger a presidential recall vote. So far there are 2.569,584 valid signatures, while 2,438,083 signatures were required to convene the popular vote.

    Rodríguez said the National Electoral Board (CNE) considered important to present preliminary figures from the automated transmission from the signature verification centers, that "set a clear tendency about the final fate" of the presidential recall vote. He said that so far 40 percent of the minutes has been transcribed, 35 percent has been certificated, and just a few details have been found in the minutes checked up until now.

    Chavez himself announced he would speak before followers this evening from the balcony of the Miraflores presidential palace, though it was unclear what he would say. In upscale neighborhoods, Venezuelans honked their horns and cheered in the streets, while near the presidential palace, the president's supporters lit trucks ablaze and turned them into flaming barricades. Venezuela is bitterly divided by Chavez's leftist populist administration. His opponents accuse him of trying to impose a Castro-style authoritarian regime. 

    OPEC AGREES TO RAISE DAILY CRUDE OUTPUT BY 2 MILLION BARRELS 

    OPEC agreed Thursday to jack up crude oil output by 2 million barrels a day over the current combined output of 23.5 million bpd from July, OPEC officials said. The 11-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached the agreement at a formal meeting in the Lebanese capital. The accord also calls for considering adding a further 500,000 bpd in August.

    The officials said OPEC will meet again on July 21 to examine the appropriateness of adding the extra 500,000 bpd. The deal on the combined output boost is the first accord to hike output since June 2003. With the latest deal, OPEC is trying to give the impression to the global community that it is making efforts to stabilize crude oil prices, industry observers said.

    Regardless of official policy, Saudi and the United Arab Emirates confirmed to reporters they would deliver about a million barrels daily of real extra oil in June. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi confirmed he was pumping up to 9.1 million barrels, an increase of about 700,000 barrels, while the UAE is adding 400,000 barrels daily. Others in OPEC are at, or close to, full capacity. 

    CHAVISTAS ATTACK ANTI-CHAVEZ CARACAS MAYORÍS OFFICE

    Chavistas fired machine guns Thursday at the office of the Caracas mayor, an opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, as tensions flared before a decision on whether Chavez must face an August referendum on his rule, police said. Witnesses said the assailants fired automatic weapons and handguns at the building in downtown Caracas, where Mayor Alfredo Pena was holding a news conference.

    One police officer was slightly hurt by flying glass. Windows and lights were shattered as journalists and city officials threw themselves to the floor. "We were having a news conference when the firing started, both single shots and bursts," Caracas fire chief Rodolfo Briceno told Reuters. Pena blamed the violence on government supporters who oppose holding a referendum against the left-wing Chavez. A small group of rioters earlier set fire to a bus and a truck in downtown Caracas, not far from the headquarters of the National Electoral Council.

    The Metropolitan Police Department (PM), which at the moment of the attack was offering a press conference on the security operation planned for the Friday march announced by the opposition umbrella organization Democratic Coordinator, lost control of the situation and asked the Ministry of Interior and Justice support to face the violent group, which initially created disturbances in front of the National Electoral Council. Lázaro Forero, chief officer of the PM, said that the group is using automatic weapons and machineguns.

    PRESIDENT BUSH LIKENS WAR AGAINST TERRORISM TO WWII

    President Bush compared the fight against terrorists to the struggle against tyranny that forced World War II, telling new Air Force officers Wednesday that the United States and its allies can win the battle by bringing freedom and reform to the Middle East. "Our goal, the goal of this generation, is the same" as it was in World War II, Bush said. "We will secure our nation and defend the peace through the forward march of freedom."

    Bush told 981 graduates of the Air Force Academy that they will be joining a war whose central front is Iraq and the broader Middle East. "Just as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War," he said, "events in the Middle East will set the course of our current struggle." "If that region is abandoned to dictators and terrorists, it will be a constant source of violence and alarm, exporting killers of increasing destructive power to attack America and other free nations," Bush said.

    "If that region grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the terrorist movement will lose its sponsors, lose its recruits and lose the festering grievances that keep terrorists in business." Bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq, Bush has argued, will undercut the stagnation and despair that feeds the extremist ideologies of al-Qaida and its terrorist allies. The new Air Force officers will enter a military strained by an occupation of Iraq that has become increasingly violent in the past two months. Bush and other administration officials say they expect the violence to continue, even after the caretaker government takes over in July.

    CUBANS HAPPILY WATCH AMERICAN TELEVISION PROGRAMS

    Cubans turning on their television sets in recent days have picked up programming rarely seen on the communist-run island: U.S. President George W. Bush defending his Iraq policy, American cartoons, news programs from Tampa Bay, Florida. No, this isn't a U.S. government propaganda effort.

    It's a regular atmospheric phenomenon that occurs for several days or weeks at the start of each summer, allowing Cubans in some coastal areas -- especially those living in tall buildings -- to tune in to regular TV and radio programming from Florida, 90 miles (about 145 kilometers) to the north. "They're coming in a lot," Luis Batista said of the American signals picked up by his television set in the Alamar neighborhood east of Havana. "The clarity is magnificent, the transmission constant."

    Batista said his family starting detecting the American signals last week, offering an option to Cuba's state-run political discussion shows and homegrown soap operas. Although much of the programming has been in English, viewers also have picked up some Spanish language broadcasts, allowing them to watch the hugely popular Sabado Gigante variety show on Saturday. Just as popular as the shows have been the television commercials -- unknown in this socialist society -- advertising everything from shampoo to kitchen knives.

    RANGEL: THE TRUTH OF THIS POLITICAL PROCESS IS NOT IN THE VERIFICATION BUT IN THE REFERENDUM

    Vice President José Vicente Rangel said during a speech that the truth of Venezuela's ongoing political process is not in the signature ratification process but "in the day of the referendum." "That day, (the opposition) is not going to have three days to collect signatures but only one day, and we are going to bury them," Rangel told the attendants of the Third Social Debt and Integration Summit.

    Answering to the government sympathizers in the event, who were shouting: "They did not collect (the signatures), now they are fucked off!," Rangel said: "If they did collect them, they are also fucked up." Speaking with reporters of the state television channel VTV after his speech, Rangel said that 600,000 persons did not respond to the call of the opposition to ratify their signatures. This means, in his opinion, that in a recall election, which takes one day and involves all the voters, the government's foes have no choice. "They are lost," he said.

   PRESIDENTIAL RECALL PETITION'S SIGNATURE COUNTING MARKED BY CONTROVERSY

    Serious doubts have begun to surround the counting of the signatures that a substantial number of citizens ratified or withdrawn from the presidential recall petition last weekend. The situation with the remarkable differences between the preliminary results alluded by the electoral agency and pro-government and opposition groups became more serious Monday when Ezequiel Zamora, vice president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), complained that the verification process was more than 12 hours behind schedule.

    Additionally, Jimmy Carter and César Gaviria, president of the Carter Center and secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), respectively, expressed their surprise for the delay in the delivery of information to the mission of international observers. In a short visit to the CNE building, Carter said that the international observers "have been concerned about the slow delivery of (minutes)." "So we came to the CNE to see the reasons for the delay," he added.

    In Zamora's opinion, the CNE wasted one of the three days it has available to announce the results of the verification. Meanwhile, Jorge Rodríguez, president of the CNE's National Electoral Board (JNE), said that Zamora's complaints about the delay in the counting process were unfounded. "I want to clarify that the counting of the ratification (minutes) is being performed normally, and any other information is only intended to create confusion on the process," he said.

    EACH SIDE CLAIMS VICTORY IN THE PRESIDENTIAL RECALL PETITION

    Although official results from a signature verification process for a presidential recall petition against Hugo Chávez are days away, both government supporters and the opposition claimed victory Monday. Preliminary estimates from the three-day process that allowed voters to ratify or withdraw their signatures for the August referendum seemed to favor the opposition, whose leaders asserted they were well above the 500,000 signatures needed to force the referendum.

    If the referendum proceeds, Chávez could be voted out of office before his six-year term expires in January 2007.  ''The government has to accept that it lost,'' Enrique Mendoza, leader of the opposition Democratic Coordinator coalition, said in a written statement. ñThe signatures can't be dismissed, they are there and we will not abandon the path to the referendum.'' Government supporters, meanwhile, rejected that assertion.

    ''The information I have is that they did not reach the magic figure,'' said Chavist legislator and former president of congress William Lara, a leading member of the government's electoral wing, known as the Comando Ayacucho. National Elections Council Vice President Ezequiel Zamora said results would be announced by Friday. If the preliminary estimates are accurate, the referendum will be held Aug. 8. If in august voters determine Chávez should leave office, he would be required to vacate the presidential palace of Miraflores within days. A new election would be called within 30 days after the referendum.

    POLICE INVESTIGATE FIRE AT TOURIST ATTRACTION

    Police and officers from the Technical Investigations Department cordoned off a
tourist attraction on the outskirts of Morón May 19 after an early morning fire caused thousands of dollars worth of damage.

    The attraction, Rancho Palmas, has a small zoo, and offers rides in a steam engine and food service. Peasants in the vicinity complain that police are hampering them in their daily chores by constantly stopping them to question them.