PRESIDENT BUSH NOMINATES A CUBAN-AMERICAN FOR THE POSITION OF COMMERCE SECRETARY -  HE FLED COMMUNIST CUBA AS A CHILD

    Carlos M. Gutierrez, picked by President Bush to be Commerce secretary on Monday, rose to the top of one of America's biggest corporations after leaving Cuba more than four decades ago as a political refugee. Gutierrez, the chief executive of Kellogg Corp., was dubbed "the most important Hispanic in corporate America" after he helped revive the cereal giant's fortunes with a corporate and marketing overhaul.

    In an announcement ceremony at the White House, Gutierrez told Bush that he had been privileged to live the American dream since leaving Cuba with his parents and a brother in 1960 as political refugees one year after Fidel Castro came to power. Gutierrez, 51, said in his acceptance remarks that be began working at Kellogg by "selling cereal out of a van in Mexico City" in 1975. He rose from that job to become general manager of Kellogg's Mexican manufacturing operations in 1983, taking over a facility that came in last in the company's internal rankings of its plants around the world. Within two years, Gutierrez had transformed the facility into one of Kellogg's top-performing plants. He became chief executive of Kellogg in April 1999 at the age of 43 after having worked all over the world for the cereal maker.

    Since taking over, Gutierrez narrowed the company's primary focus to cereal and wholesome snacks, providing new life for such brands as Special K and winning admiration on Wall Street for reviving the fortunes of a flagging company. Kellogg's net sales rose from $6.2 billion in 1999 to $8.8 billion last year, a 43 percent increase, helping to drive earnings per share up by 131 percent. Bush's nomination of Gutierrez to succeed Donald Evans as head of the sprawling Commerce Department, must be confirmed by the Senate.

    CUBA RELEASES MORE DISSIDENTS FROM JAIL

    Cuba freed six jailed dissidents on health grounds on Monday and was preparing to release a dozen more in an apparent bid to clean up its human rights image. The men freed are Marcelo Lopez, Margarito Broche, Jesus Mustafa Felipe, Pedro Arguelles, Pablo Pacheco Avila and economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe. They were among 75 opponents of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist government arrested in a March 2003 crackdown and sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years for treason.

    Dissidents said the releases were timed to coincide with proposals by Spain's new Socialist government to restore political dialogue with Havana by dropping invitations to dissidents to National Day receptions, a policy that led Cuba to freeze diplomatic ties. "This is a present for Spain," said Elsa Morejon, wife of jailed dissident Oscar Elias Biscet. The European Union is also moving to mend its chilled relations with Havana and considering lifting measures adopted last year in response to the crackdown.

    In recent months, authorities freed seven of the 75 jailed dissidents on health grounds, including the only woman among them, Martha Beatriz Roque. On Friday and Saturday, authorities unexpectedly moved 18 dissidents to the hospital of the main Havana prison, Combinado del Este, for medical check ups. The transfer included Cuba's best-known jailed dissident, poet and journalist Raul Rivero, his wife said.

    CUBA TURNS TO ASIA FOR CAPITAL AND INVESTMENTS

    Short on cash and squeezed by U.S. sanctions, Communist Cuba is turning to Asia for trade, credit and friends and has received visits this week from the leaders of China, Vietnam and Malaysia. Chinese President Hu Jintao brought timely political backing for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and a delegation of 200 businessmen looking for investment opportunities on the Caribbean island nation. China's state-owned Minmetals Corp. agreed to invest $500 million in Cuba's nickel industry with Chinese government finance and investment guarantees.

    Hu was followed by Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is looking to expand cooperation with Cuba's biotech industry, which has joint ventures to produce low-cost vaccines in China, India and Malaysia. Vietnam's President Tran Duc Luong, whose country supplies Cuba with about 250,000 tonnes of rice a year on cheap terms, made two brief stopovers in Havana on his way to and from the APEC summit that gathered the Asian leaders in Chile a week ago.

    Help from Asia comes at a good time for Cuba. Relations with its largest trading partner, the European Union, are at a standstill over human rights issues and Latin American neighbors are more focused on other markets, with the exception of Venezuela. Western investment in the ailing Cuban economy has slowed to a trickle, while U.S. President George W. Bush this year stepped up enforcement of financial sanctions against Castro. "Cuba is feeling choked by Bush, and it was a relief that China extended a helping hand with its growing economic power," said an Asian diplomat in Havana.

    HAVANA°S SUDDEN TRANSFER OF DISSIDENTS HINTS AT RELEASE

    Cuban authorities have transferred 13 imprisoned dissidents, journalist-poet Raúl Rivero among them, from facilities around the island to Havana, a move the opposition hopes signals their imminent release. All were part of the ''Group of 75,'' peaceful dissidents who were sentenced to up to 28 years in prison after summary trials in the spring of 2003.

    The prisoners were told Friday that they would be transferred to Havana for medical checkups, a procedure usually undertaken prior to release, said Elizardo Sánchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Among the transferees is Raúl Rivero, who was serving a 20-year sentence at Canaletas, 280 miles from Havana, when he was taken to the hospital at Combinado del Este prison complex in Havana, his wife, Blanca Reyes, said.

    ''They called me from State Security and told me that Raúl is fine, he is being given a medical checkup in the hospital of the Combinado del Este'' prison, Reyes said. She added that she has been promised she will be able to visit him. 'I think it could be a step toward the prisoners' release, but if it's a fresh game by the government, it would be very painful,'' said Reyes, convinced Rivero's transfer is related to the Cuban government's decision to resume official contact with the Spanish government, which has pressed for the release of the dissidents.

    HUGO CHAVEZ SEES "HAND OF WASHINGTONî IN UKRAINE CRISIS

     Hugo Chavez seconded Russia on Saturday in accusing the West of meddling in Ukraine, saying that "the hand of Washington is obvious" in the crisis over the nation's disputed presidential election, the Interfax news agency reported. "If there were elections on the moon or on Mars, America would be there too," Interfax quoted Chavez as saying.

    "Nearly always, crises such as the current one in Ukraine (are) instigated from the outside because of geopolitics," Chavez said. He said that "one must respect the sovereignty of Ukraine and not interfere with its internal affairs." The United States and the European Union have refused to recognize the official results of Ukraine's Nov. 21 presidential runoff, a win for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, citing reports from international observers who say there were widespread violations following a campaign that appeared to give the edge to opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed the pro-Russian Yanukovych in the dispute, and Russian officials say the United States and Europe want to see Yushchenko, a pro-Western reformer, in power. Putin warned the West against interfering in comments at a Russia-EU summit Thursday.

    COLOMBIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS REBELS WANTED PRESIDENT BUSH ATTACKED DURING VISIT

    Defense Minister Jorge Uribe asserted that Colombia's main rebel group wanted to attack U.S. President George W. Bush during his four-hour visit to Colombia last week, but there was no evidence Saturday they even tried to organize an attack. The Colombian defense minister's comments did not sound any alarm bells at the White House.

    "We have full confidence in the fine work of the Secret Service and their work with security officials on the ground when the President travels," White House spokesman Jim Morrell said Saturday. Uribe told radio reporters late Friday that informants have said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, told their followers to attack Bush when he was in the seaside city of Cartagena last Monday, where he met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

    Some 15,000 Colombian troops and police, along with U.S. troops and Secret Service, provided a blanket of security for the trip. There was no indication Bush's life was ever in danger. The defense minister, who is no relation to the president, said security forces were on full alert during the visit to avoid any type of incident. "We showed the world that we are a peaceful country," Uribe said. He did not say who the "informants and various sources" were who said the FARC had wanted Bush attacked, nor where they got their information.

    CUBA FEARS NO LEADERSHIP CRISIS AFTER CASTRO°S DEATH

    Cuban ambassador in Mexico Jorge Bolaños said there was no truth in the propaganda that his country would slip into a leadership vacuum and socialism would suffer after Fidel Castro. "We have a collective leadership in the Communist Party. There are structures like the Politburo and the Central Committee which will take care of any situation," Bolaños told a meet-the-press here.

    "This is the kind of question often asked by our friends and foes. The Cuban people are confident of defending the country and socialism," Bolaños said. He also added the American economic blockade against Cuba had created some obstacles in the society building but the country had been able to march forward since the revolution 45 years ago.

    VENEZUELA PLANS TO BUY LARGE AMOUNTS OF RUSSIAN WEAPONS

    Venezuela plans to buy large amounts of arms from Russia, Hugo Chavez said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday. "We are modernizing and strengthening our armed forces against any form of aggression. We are talking about deliveries of 100,000 Russian machineguns," Chavez told a news conference. "We also told the president about our wish to acquire large quantities of anti-tank and anti-aircraft equipment," he added.

    Leftist former paratrooper Chavez is hoping Putin will help him diversify Venezuela's arms procurement away from the United States and the European Union. Putin said arms sales to Venezuela had doubled in the past year. Chavez has reduced Venezuela's military ties with Washington and forged a political alliance with communist Cuba, and says Venezuela needs to beef up security along its 1,400-mile (2,200 km) border with Colombia to stop a war there from spreading.

    Colombian military commanders have accused Chavez of collaborating with Colombian Marxist rebels, a charge he has angrily denied. Chavez did not mention warplanes, although Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, is evaluating Russian MiG-29 combat aircraft as a possible replacement for its U.S.-made F-16 jets. Venezuela has already agreed to buy $40 million worth of Russian helicopters, and Chavez said delivery would begin next year.

    CUBA AND SPAIN RE-ESTABLISHED FORMAL CONTACTS DESPITE EUROPEAN UNION MEASURES AGAINST THE ISLAND

    Cuba announced Thursday it had re-established formal contacts with Spain after a freeze in relations, despite European Union continued measures against the island and the new Spanish prime minister's recent criticism of Fidel Castro's communist government. The announcement by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque came shortly before he met with new Spanish Ambassador Carlos Zaldivar Thursday morning.

    "I have called in Spain's ambassador in Havana to inform him ... that we are re-establishing formal contact with the Spanish embassy in Havana," Perez Roque said in brief comments to reporters. After meeting with Perez Roque, Zaldivar said he still had to consult with Madrid and could offer no details. "As you know, there is a complex process used by Spain to create a more normal situation in EU-Cuba relations," Zaldivar told reporters. He said he explained the process to Perez Roque and answered his questions.

    Although diplomatic relations were never severed, formal contacts between the two governments ended after Cuba's spring 2003 roundup of 75 dissidents, and the firing-squad executions of three men who tried to hijack a ferry to the United States. Spain had joined the rest of the European Union, Cuba's most important source of trade and tourism, in condemning Cuba for the arrests and executions. But Spain's new Socialist government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, now says the EU sanctions have proved "ineffective" and that all Spanish political parties and the EU should work together to devise a new policy.

    CHÁVEZ BACKERS PASSED DISPUTED VENEZUELA ´GAG LAW°

    Venezuelan lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez Wednesday approved a media bill they said would improve broadcasting standards, but opponents and an international rights group condemned it as undermining press freedom. After weeks of intense debate, pro-government deputies used their slim majority in the 165-seat National Assembly to pass the Radio and Television Social Responsibility Law. The law prohibits the broadcasting of scenes of sex and violence during most of the day and evening.

    It also bans broadcasting events or statements that "incite disruption of public order" or are "contrary to national security". Broadcasters who break these rules will face heavy fines and suspensions and could have their licenses revoked. Supporters of left-winger Chavez defended the law as a necessary measure to protect children from scenes of sex and violence in broadcasting. Opponents said the government's real intention was to try to muzzle criticism by the media.

    They said the law aimed to restrict the power of private broadcasters -- most of which are fiercely anti-Chavez -- as part of a strategy by the president to tighten his political domination over the world's No. 5 oil exporter. "This law is punitive from start to finish ... it practically institutionalizes a policy of terror against the media," Jesus Garrido, a deputy of the opposition Accion Democratica party, said. Opposition leaders say the media law gives state regulators too much discretionary power to judge and control radio and television content, including news programming.

    CHÁVEZ: OPEC NEEDS A RAISE

    OPEC member Venezuela will ask the oil cartel to raise the bottom end of its official price target range to at least $30 per barrel, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday. Chavez said the current OPEC price corridor of $22 to $28 had been consigned to history because of sustained high oil prices. "It has been pulverized," he said, adding that the upper range should be determined by the market itself.

    "The discussion is already on the table and we believe that now the minimum should be $30 a barrel and the maximum whatever the market says," he said. "It [the oil price] is $48 to $50 per barrel right now and this is what the market is saying." Chavez reiterated that Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, had no plans to support a cut in oil production by OPEC.

     "There is lot of demand and oil production is almost at capacity. There is almost no capacity to increase production and demand continues to grow," he said. On a visit to non-OPEC Russia to promote energy cooperation with the world's No. 2 oil exporter, Chavez said earlier in a speech that Moscow had played a big part in helping bring about a rise in oil prices from lows of around $10 in the late 1990s.

    U.S EXPORTERS° PAYMENTS FROM CUBA BLOCKED  BY U.S. GOVERNMENT

    Some companies that sell food and agricultural products to Cuba are reporting that payments aren't being credited to their bank accounts in the U.S., according to a representative of a group that tracks business between the two countries. John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council Inc., said Tuesday that fewer than half a dozen companies have contacted his organization recently about such problems.

    He said banks have confirmed receipt of payments from Cuba but haven't credited the accounts of exporters on instructions from the U.S. government. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department said its Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces the economic embargo against Cuba, is looking into the matter. OFAC, she said, has been asked to clarify the government's policy regarding payments. She wouldn't say who requested the clarification.

    "We are taking a serious look at the issue and working with our germane counterparts in the U.S. government," the Treasury spokeswoman said, speaking on condition that she not be identified further. "We expect to issue guidance in the near future." Kavulich estimates that U.S. sales of food and agriculture products to Cuba in 2003 totaled around $256.9 million. He said about 15 companies in the U.S. account for roughly 90% of food and agriculture products that are sold to Cuba.

    NORTH KOREA°S ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF IN CUBA

    North Korea's army chief of staff, Vice Marshal Kim Yong-Chun, toured Cuban army units and observed training exercises during a five-day visit to Cuba, Cuban state media said on Wednesday. State television showed Kim watching Cuban soldiers firing rifles during infantry exercises. Cuba and North Korea are "in the front trench of the fight against North American imperialism and for the defense of socialism," Kim said in statements published by Granma, libel of Cuba°s Communist Party.

    Kim praised Cuba for its resolve in "resisting threats of aggression" from the Bush administration, Granma said. Washington last year stepped up enforcement of financial sanctions against Cuba and increased support for dissent, seeking to undermine dictator  Fidel Castro's government. The North Korean military chief, who will be in Cuba until Saturday, held meetings with his Cuban counterpart, Gen. Alvaro Lopez Miera, the deputy defense minister and army chief of staff, Granma said. North Korea and Cuba are two of the five last communist-run nations in the world, along with China, Vietnam and Laos.

    CONTENT LAW TO BE APPROVED BY VENEZUELAN CONGRESS 

    The National Assembly Wednesday at noon started what is expected to be the last discussion of a controversial Radio and TV Social Responsibility Bill, also known as "media gag law." Pro-government and opposition parliamentarians have taken the floor to express their allegations for and against this regulation, and specifically regarding article 32 -related to the steps to be followed for filing evidence once an administrative procedure has been started against any media.

    Pastor Heydra, a lawmaker for opposition AD party, said that today "is a mourning day for democracy" and that "in the National Assembly we are burying freedom of information, freedom of speech. We are founding a parapolice state where Venezuelans are not going to have the right to access veracious and timely information as the Constitution reads."

    SPAIN SOCIALIST FOREIGN MINISTER ACCUSES PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT OF BACKING FAILED COUP IN VENEZUELA

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's visit to Spain sparked a political feud Tuesday after Spain's Socialist foreign minister accused Madrid's previous conservative government of backing a failed coup against Chavez in 2002. Miguel Angel Moratinos said in a television program late Monday that Spain's ambassador to Venezuela during the coup attempt was instructed by the Popular Party government of then-Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to support the rebellion.

    "From Venezuela's point of view, I have no doubt that this is true," Chavez said. But members of the Popular Party, which was defeated in March elections by the Socialists, furiously demanded Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to formally retract his minister's comments and derided Moratinos as unfit to serve as Spain's chief diplomat.

    In a press conference with Chavez late Tuesday, Zapatero declined to comment on the matter but said Moratinos would address Parliament's foreign commission to explain his remarks. Venezuela's military briefly ousted Chavez in April 2002 after blaming him for the deaths of 19 people during clashes between security forces and pro- and anti-government demonstrators. Chavez regained power two days later amid widespread protests against an interim government that threw out the constitution and dissolved Congress.

    CHINESE PRESIDENT MEETS CUBAN DICTATOR

    Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Fidel Castro Monday for talks focusing on the broadening ties between Cuba and China, which has become the island's third-largest trading partner. The Cuban dictator, who shattered his left kneecap and broke his right arm in an accidental fall last month, sat in a wheelchair as he greeted Hu in Havana's Palace of the Revolution.

    Cuban officials didn't disclose the substance of their private meeting.  However, Hu ended his first day of a state visit by witnessing a marathon signing of 16 agreements with the Cuban government, including deals to buy nickel, build a nickel production plant and launch exploration projects for the mineral. He was also expected to discuss possible business in the telecommunications and tourism sectors. China now trails only Venezuela and Spain in volume of trade with Cuba, comprising 10 percent of the island's foreign commerce. Hu gave Cuba another 10 years to pay off four different interest-free loans received from China between 1990 and 1994.

    Hu°s visit to Havana coincided with a meeting of 400 or so Chinese and Cuban business leaders, whom Hu was expected to address Tuesday. In remarks opening the two-day business forum, China's vice minister of commerce said trade between China and Cuba reached $401 million in the first 10 months of this year - 36 percent more than in all of 2003. There are 13 Chinese companies operating in Cuba that have made investments of $50 million. Seven Cuban companies are working in China, with investments of $15 million.

    JET CRASHES EN ROUTE TO GET FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH

    A private jet on its way to pick up former President George Bush at a Houston airport crashed in bad weather on Monday, killing the three crew members on board, officials said. The Gulfstream jet was supposed to take Bush, the father of President George W. Bush, to Guayaquil, Ecuador, to make a speech to the chamber of commerce there, Bush aide Tom Frechette said.

    The trip was canceled after Bush, who lives in Houston, got word of the crash from the tower after arriving at William P. Hobby Airport, he said. "I was deeply saddened to learn of the plane crash this morning," Bush said in a statement. "I have flown with this crew before and know them well. I join in sending heartfelt condolences to each and every member of their families."

    The two pilots and a flight attendant on board died when the jet, owned by a Tulsa, Oklahoma, charter company, clipped a light tower on a Houston highway about 1 1/2 miles (1.6 km) from the airport and crashed. The cause of the accident had not been determined, but Houston airport system spokesman Roger Smith said visibility was low at the time due to bad weather. The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team from Washington to investigate the crash.

    CHINESE PRESIDENT TO BEGIN TWO-DAY VISIT TO CUBA 

    Chinese President Hu Jintao launched a two-day trip to Cuba on Monday to meet with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and discuss possible business deals in the nickel, telecommunications and tourism sectors. In a written message distributed to the press, Hu praised Cuba's socialist revolution and highlighted friendship between the two nations, saying "Chinese-Cuban ties have passed the test of changing and adverse international circumstances."

    Hu, who came to Cuba on a personal invitation from Castro, said in the statement that he would meet with the Cuban leader to discuss bilateral relations, international problems of mutual interest and current issues in both countries. The Chinese president flew in from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which concluded Sunday in Santiago, Chile. The trip was his first to Latin America since taking office March of 2003.

    Hu was received by Defense Minister Raul Castro and Vice President Carlos Lage. In remarks opening the two-day meeting Monday, China's vice minister of commerce, Ma Xiuhong, said business between Cuba and China has grown 36 percent this year. Ma said deals between the two countries reached US$401 million (euro307.5 million) between January and November of this year - 36 percent more than in all of 2003. "This reflects the disposition of Chinese business people to strengthen relations with Cuba," Ma said.

    CHÁVEZ LASHES OUT AT WASHINGTON AND NEOLIBERALISM 

    Hugo Chávez Monday again attacked the government of the United States, describing it as "the limitless capitalism that has worsened the evils of democracy" and "the most brutal imperialism." Before a number of students at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Chávez made a proposal to face such a situation: a new thought based on the return of the old humanism.

     "We are going to save the world from the destruction that is threatening us," he said. Chávez (50) attacked the U.S., and made fun of an editorial of The Washington Post that claimed that Venezuela is currently "a likely source of perturbation (for Latin American democracy)" and that referred to "the obstinacy of a former rebel military leader." "They are wrong again: I am not a former rebel, I am a rebel," he said. Chávez' speech took almost one hour and a half. Chávez claimed this is a time of "limitless capitalism, of neoliberalism that is a threaten for the planet."

    This is a time, he added "when the old imperialism, the most brutal imperialism has returned, without masks, without speeches, without diplomacy. It is a mere bloody claw," in an apparent reference to the United States. "We grew up with a dream, the Cuban revolution, Che Guevara. Now, our present is a fight; the future is yours," he concluded. Chávez left the auditorium amid stringent security measures, but before he invited the students to visit Venezuela and see "people who have resuscitated."

     THE WASHINGTON POST: THE U.S. SHOULD END PASSIVITY ON VENEZUELA

     The Washington Post urged the new U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "to end passivity on Latin America, and specially on Venezuela." In its editorial of November 21, the daily warned that George W. Bush administration should prevent the recent killing of prosecutor Danilo Anderson from being used as an excuse to continue sending President Hugo Chávez' opponents to jail.

    The Washington Post claimed that Bush administration has disregarded Latin America in the last four years, a time during which the political condition in the region has deteriorated significantly, specially in Venezuela, "a country of 25 million that supplies the United States with 13 percent of its oil."

     According to The Washington Post, after he survived a recall vote on August 15, Chávez, "a former military rebel leader," has intensified authoritarianism and deepened an alliance with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and other anti-democratic movements. "Chavez is using Venezuela's oil revenue to fund anti-democratic or populist movements in nations such as Bolivia."

    DINNER PLANS SCRAPPED AMID DISPUTE OVER SECURITY

    President Bush's hosts in Chile scrapped plans for an elaborate formal dinner last tonight in what local media say was a dispute over security. A Santiago newspaper reports the Secret Service insisted that the 200 invited guests go through metal detectors, but Chilean President Ricardo Lagos wouldn't agree. Instead, the event was a private working dinner for the two leaders and top aides. White House officials confirmed the change of plans but didn't say if security was an issue.

    The move came one day after Secret Service agents and Chilean security guards scuffled outside a dinner for Bush and other leaders at the annual Asia-Pacific summit. The Chileans had blocked Bush's bodyguards from entering the dinner with him. Bush ultimately reached across a crowd of Chileans, grabbed his lead agent and pulled him into the building.

 PRESIDENT BUSH INTERVENED IN A THRONG OF SQUABBLING BODYGUARDS AND RESCUED A SECRET SERVICE AGENT

    President Bush Saturday pulled a Secret Service bodyguard away from Chilean security officers after they stopped him from accompanying the president at a dinner. Chilean security stopped several agents and a pushing and shoving match ensued as Bush was entering the Mapocho Station cultural center for an official dinner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

    When the president noticed the confrontation, Bush stepped away from his wife, Laura, and Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and his wife, and hauled the lead agent away from Chilean security. For a second or so it appeared Bush met resistance from the Chilean officers. Bush was seen shaking his head as he walked away. "Chilean security tried to stop the president's Security Service from accompanying him. He told them they were with him, and they issue was resolved," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said." The president is someone who tends to delegate," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "But every now and then, he's a hands on kind of guy."

    PRESIDENT BUSH SEEKS UNITED FRONT ON KOREA, IRAN NUCLEAR THREATS

    Facing nuclear challenges on two fronts, President Bush warned Saturday that Iran's suspected weapons program is "a very serious matter," and he stood united with leaders of Asia and Russia in demanding North Korea's return to stalled disarmament talks. Iran and North Korea, two nations in what Bush has branded an "axis of evil," dominated the president's attention along with trade and economic issues at the opening of a 21-nation summit of Asian-Pacific leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with Bush on the need to maintain pressure on Iran and prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, the United States said.

    Although it boycotted talks in September, North Korea has told China in recent weeks that it is prepared to participate in the six-nation negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program, a senior administration official said. "When or how or who - they did not say," the official said, briefing reporters on Bush's discussions on condition of anonymity. The United States hopes to restart the talks by year's end or early next year.

    Fresh from his re-election, Bush met in rapid succession in his hotel with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, China and Russia, his partners in the talks with North Korea, which is led by the mercurial dictator, Kim Jong Il. Reporting on his discussions, Bush said that "the will is strong, that the effort is united and the message is clear to Mr. Kim Jong Il: Get rid of your nuclear weapons programs." Addressing business leaders, he urged nations to purge government corruption, support free trade and strengthen anti-terrorism efforts.

     ANTI-CUBA EMBARGO PROVISIONS REMOVED FROM FEDERAL SPENDING LEGISLATION  

    Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) today hailed the removal of anti-Cuba embargo provisions from the FY05 omnibus appropriations bill that passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives. Signifying a clear victory for those who oppose the totalitarian regime in Cuba and who support democracy for the people of Cuba, provisions remain in the legislation that are intended to accelerate a democratic transition in Cuba.  This legislation includes Congressman Diaz-Balart's request for $27.6 million in federal funding for Radio and TV Marti. 

    In addition, the bill includes $9 million for Cuba Program grants within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  As requested by the President and Congressman Diaz-Balart, this funding supports the essential work of the Cuba Program with the goal of strengthening the internal and external opposition to the Cuban dictator and accelerating a democratic transition in Cuba.

    "In stripping these anti-embargo amendments from the spending bill, Congress has again decisively moved to keep billions of U.S. dollars out of the hands of the Cuban dictatorship," said Congressman Diaz-Balart.  "Today's passage sends a clear message - the United States will remain committed to hastening the day when all Cubans will live in freedom. I thank President Bush and the Republican leadership in the House for their continued support for the Cuban people's right to be free."

    DIPLOMATS: IRAN IS READYING NUKE PROCESSES

     Iran is spending the last few days before it must stop all work related to uranium enrichment converting tons of ore into a dual-use gas that could then be processed to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Friday. Iran recently started producing uranium hexafluoride at its gas processing facilities in Isfahan. When introduced into centrifuges and spun, the substance can be enriched to low levels for use as fuel to generate electricity or to levels high enough to make weapons-grade uranium that forms the core of nuclear warheads.

    A diplomat familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency - said the Iranians apparently were in the process of converting 22 tons of uranium into gas before Monday's deadline. Iran was doing this either as a precursor to producing uranium hexafluoride or actually producing it. Iran is not believed to have enriched substantive amounts of uranium hexafluoride.

    Iran last week agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and all related activities in a deal worked out with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union. The deal, which takes effect Monday, prohibits Iran from all uranium gas processing activities. But the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tehran was exploiting the window until Monday to produce uranium hexafluoride at its Isfahan plant in central Iran. Asked about quantities, one diplomat said "it's not little," but he declined to elaborate.

    BOMB KILLS VENEZUELA PROSECUTOR LEADING COUP PROBE

    A car bomb killed a top Venezuelan prosecutor investigating opponents of President Hugo Chavez who were accused of backing a 2002 coup attempt against the leftist leader, officials said on Friday. The killing of prosecutor Danilo Anderson revived fears of renewed political violence in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, which until recently had been shaken by violent confrontation over Chavez's six-year presidency.

    Authorities said the yellow jeep destroyed in the remote-controlled blast in a Caracas suburb late Thursday belonged to Anderson, who was leading the case against several hundred opposition politicians, lawyers, businessmen and ex-military officers. Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said forensic tests on the badly burned body identified the driver as Anderson and an initial investigation showed an explosive had been placed near the driver's seat. "An explosive was placed on the vehicle, which was detonated by wireless remote control," Chacon said.

    Investigators found Anderson's two handguns and three cell phones strewn around the wreckage of his car. Officials said the prosecutor had received threats and had recently been physically attacked in a shopping mall. Some of those under investigation are opposition civic rights activists who face trial after receiving U.S. funds for pro-democracy work. The United States denies Chavez's charges that it is seeking to oust him.

    JANET RAY WEININGER SEEKS CUBA ASSETS AFTER WINNING LAWSUIT AGAINST CASTRO BROTHERS 

    Janet Ray Weininger, the daughter of a CIA pilot executed during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion plans to go after Cuban assets in the United States after winning an $86.5 million lawsuit against President Fidel Castro, her lawyer said on Friday. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ronald Dresnick on Thursday awarded the damages to Ray Weininger against Castro, his brother Raul and the Cuban army over the pain and suffering she suffered because of her father's death when she was six.

   The verdict was one of a handful of successful U.S. lawsuits against Cuba in recent years, none of which have collected all the damages awarded. The Cuban government has never defended itself in the trials. Attorney Spencer Eig said he and his client had identified Cuban assets in the United States, billions of dollars in Switzerland and money in other bank accounts around the world.

    Weininger's lawsuit skirted Cuban sovereign immunity by exploiting a 1996 law that allows victims of countries designated terrorist states to seek damages. Her father, Thomas Willard Ray, was flying air support for the botched Bay of Pigs invasion carried out by CIA-trained Cuban exiles when he was shot down near Castro's headquarters. He was executed on Castro's orders and his remains put on display in Havana for 18 years. The court found that the body would periodically be taken out to be desecrated.

    POWELL DENOUNCES IRANIAN°S NUCLEAR PLANS

    The United States has intelligence that Iran is working to adapt missiles to deliver a nuclear weapon, further evidence that the Islamic republic is determined to acquire a nuclear bomb, Secretary of State Colin Powell said. Separately, an Iranian opposition exile group charged in Paris that Iran is enriching uranium at a secret military facility unknown to U.N. weapons inspectors. Iran has denied seeking to build nuclear weapons.

    îI have seen some information that would suggest that they have been actively working on delivery systems… You don't have a weapon until you put it in something that can deliver a weapon,'' Powell said. "I'm not talking about uranium or the warhead; I'm talking about what one does with a warhead.''

   ''I'm talking about information that says they not only have these missiles, but I am aware of information that suggests that they were working hard as to how to put the two together,'' Powell said, referring to the process of matching warheads to missiles. ''There is no doubt in my mind -- and it's fairly straightforward from what we've been saying for years -- that they have been interested in a nuclear weapon that has utility, meaning that it is something they would be able to deliver, not just something that sits there,'' Powell said.

    SPAIN PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS IN CUBA ON EVE OF IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT

    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called for swift, firm democratic reforms in Cuba in remarks published Thursday as he prepares to travel to an Ibero-American summit. "Spain has an important commitment of economic investment in Cuba, and what we want to do is help the changes, encourage them and demand them if necessary from a political standpoint and from the conviction we have that that regime has to change thoroughly," Zapatero said in an interview with the national news agency EFE. The interview was Tuesday but the remarks were published Thursday, a day before the summit of Latin American leaders starts in Costa Rica.

    Zapatero urged Cuban President Fidel Castro to take "rapid, firm steps" toward democracy and greater respect for human rights and political liberties. "I want and hope for changes in the Cuban regime, especially for those persons who are deprived of freedom for exercising freedom of expression or for being dissidents," Zapatero was quoted as saying. Castro is not scheduled to attend the 21-country summit because he is recovering from a broken knee and arm.

    Bilateral relations were set back further in early 2003 when Spain and the rest of the EU condemned Cuba for cracking down on dissidents and the execution by firing-squad of three men who tried to hijack a ferry and take it to the United States. The European Union - Cuba's most important source of trade and tourism - unanimously agreed at the time to scale back high-level visits and participation in cultural events in Cuba.

    VLADIMIR PUTIN ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT OF NEW NUCLEAR MISSILE

    President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia is developing a new form of nuclear missile unlike those held by other countries, news agencies reported. Speaking at a meeting of the Armed Forces' leadership, Putin reportedly said that Russia is researching and successfully testing new nuclear missile systems.

    "I am sure that ... they will be put in service within the next few years and, what is more, they will be developments of the kind that other nuclear powers do not and will not have," Putin was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency. No details were immediately available, but Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said earlier this month that Russia expected to test-fire a mobile version of its Topol-M ballistic missile this year and that production of the new weapon could be commissioned in 2005.

    News reports have also said Russia is believed to be developing a next-generation heavy nuclear missile that could carry up to 10 nuclear warheads weighing a total of 4.4 tons, compared with the Topol-M's 1.32-ton combat payload. Topol-Ms have been deployed in silos since 1998. The missiles have a range of about 6,000 miles and reportedly can maneuver in ways that are difficult to detect.

    CUBAN DISSIDENTS ARRESTED IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF REGLA

    Five opponents, members of the Cuban Orthodox Party and The Social Pro Justice Association were detained in the morning of Wednesday, November 10, in the municipality of Regla in Havana. Zenaida Bárbara Ramos Becerra, Guyent Gantes Marín, Idanis  del Rosario Martínez Martín and José Manuel Tapanes Migeres were detained for several hours after they stood in front of the Police Unit #13 in the Regla neighborhood, in support of the president of the Social Pro Justice Association who was detained at said Unit by a captain of the State Security  that goes by the name of Eduardo.

    As soon as the above mentioned officer realized that the opponents were outside the Station he had them arrested.  They were released 5 hours later after being threatened with prison if they continued with their activities in the opposition. "We will continue with our pacific activities and we condemn  this repressive act of agents of the Cuban State Security" pointed out the source. The activists who celebrate every Wednesday the activity of the Candle could not do so due to their detentions.

    CORRUPTION BLIGHTS CENTRAL AMERICA°S SWITZERLAND

    Shaken by the jailing of two ex-presidents on corruption charges and frequent street protests, once orderly Costa Rica is struggling to maintain its image as the "Switzerland" of Central America. In a region scarred by civil wars, hunger and corruption, the small country long stood out as the exception to the rule. It has no standing army and enjoys some of the best social indicators in the Western Hemisphere -- including high literacy, widespread public health care and a large middle class.

    But behind the facade, the tropical paradise popular with U.S. eco-tourists may have been rotten to the core for years. Former president Miguel Angel Rodriguez, who briefly headed the Organization of American States, was jailed on Oct. 29 while prosecutors look into claims he accepted a $550,000 bribe from French telecommunications company Alcatel, which has fired two senior employees connected to the case.

    A week earlier, Rafael Angel Calderon, who governed from 1990-94, was put behind bars for questioning about a $39 million loan from Finland to Costa Rica in 2001. Then a third ex-ruler, Jose Maria Figueres, was forced two weeks ago to quit his job as head of the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum for failing to declare income. He is now facing calls to go back to Costa Rica and answer questions about his behavior.

    PRESS RIGHTS GROUP URGES SUMMIT ACTION AGAINST CUBA

    A French-based press rights group on Wednesday demanded leaders at the Ibero-American Summit in Costa Rica to seek the freedom of 26 journalists imprisoned in Cuba. Reporters Without Borders issued a news release calling Cuba "a nightmare for journalists" because of government restrictions or violence. It said that over the past year, 11 reporters have died, 24 have been arrested and at least 336 have been threatened in the 21 member states of the Ibero-American community, which includes Spain, Portugal and 19 Latin American nations. Leaders of those countries are meeting here Friday and Saturday.

    Summit organizers said last week that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who broke a kneecap and arm in October, was not expected to attend the summit. The press rights organization asked the summit leaders to press Castro "to release 26 journalists he has imprisoned." The statement repeated earlier criticisms, particularly of Cuba. Reporters Without Borders has been among the most prominent European critics of Castro, particularly after the journalists were arrested in March 2003 and were sentenced to long prison terms.Summit organizers said last week that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who broke a kneecap and arm in October, was not expected to attend the summit. The press rights organization asked the summit leaders to press Castro "to release 26 journalists he has imprisoned." The statement repeated earlier criticisms, particularly of Cuba. Reporters Without Borders has been among the most prominent European critics of Castro, particularly after the journalists were arrested in March 2003.

    IN EUROPE, DR. RICE IS CONSIDERED "A WOMAN OF CHARACTER" 

    In Europe, it's hard for some to think of Dr. Condoleezza Rice - Colin Powell's expected replacement as U.S. secretary of state - without recalling the low points in trans-Atlantic relations that grew out of the war in Iraq. After all, it was Rice who raised eyebrows last year with her Machiavellian suggestions for how Washington should treat European opponents of the U.S.-led invasion.

    "Punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia," Rice was widely quoted as telling associates in the spring of 2003. Trans-Atlantic ties have since improved to some extent. But Rice's reputation still precedes her. "Condie Rice is a woman with character, that's the least we can say," French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Tuesday of President Bush's trusted national security adviser.

    But Barnier underlined French hopes of rebuilding ties with the United States no matter who holds the post of chief diplomat. "If she is named ... we will continue to have the same relations," Barnier told Europe-1 radio. "With the United States, the moment has come, looking ahead of us, to rebuild, to renew this trans-Atlantic relationship."  Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Palestinian officials had dealt with Rice on several occasions and found her to have an "analytical and systematic" mind. "I believe she's committed to President Bush's vision of a two-state solution and I hope that the second Bush administration will exert every possible effort in order to realize this vision," Erekat said.

    EUROPEAN UNION AGREES TO RETHINK POSITION ON CUBA

    The European Union agreed on Tuesday to rethink its practice of inviting Cuban dissidents to diplomatic receptions in Havana after the invitations soured relations between Cuba and the bloc. The EU policy of asking political opponents to National Day cocktails has so incensed the Cuban government that it has shut its doors to European diplomats. Ambassadors are shunned and telephone calls not returned.

    Representatives of the EU's 25 member states have reviewed policy towards the Caribbean Communist island at the request of Spain's new Socialist government, keen to end the row. One suggestion to stop holding National Day receptions at all was quashed, diplomats said. "The concrete result this morning is that chiefs of mission in Havana have been asked to come up with proposals to make this dialogue with dissidents and civil society in Cuba more effective," the spokesman for the presidency said. Envoys will report back next month and the recommendations will have to go to EU foreign ministers for any policy change.

    One Brussels diplomat said the EU was divided between a group including Spain, France, Britain and Italy which wanted to take the initiative to improve ties with Havana, and others such as Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic which argued Cuban leader Fidel Castro should make the first move by releasing political prisoners. Some former Communist new EU member states from eastern Europe took a tough line on Cuba, diplomats said.

    MIRTA VILLANUEVA ALMEIDA COURAGEOUSLY ACCUSES HER AGGRESSOR

    In a letter titled "I Accuse," written on November 11 by Mirta Villanueva Almeida, a 68 year old activist, she denounces the brutal beating she received at the hands of the former agent of the Cuban State Security Luis Rolando Batista Tamayo. Such barbarism left her with a fractured rib, pelvis, hip and clavicle, injuries that led to her admission at the Fructuoso Rodríguez hospital in the residential zone of el Vedado in Havana.

    îI am forced to write from my bed- states Mrs. Villanueva- after being victim of a beating at the hands of a member of the paramilitary groups of the communist regime of Fidel Castro. I, Mirta Villanueva Almeida, accuse: "The dictatorial, militaristic and totalitarian regime that governs our country against the will of the people, thereby violating its own laws.

    "I accuse all those who wear the uniform of the political police, which without previous investigation released in less than 36 hours the aggressor who severely injured me, Batista Tamayo, a member of SEPSA, an organization of the Cuban Interior Ministry… "I Accuse Captain Dionisia, Unit Director, First Lieutenant Helmer, officers Despaine, Miguel and all others at Police Units at Fraternidad and Capri, all of whom support and protect paramilitaries such as Batista Tamayo, who continues celebrating his victory (immoral) over the body of a defenseless old woman, [...] who demands liberty for all the political prisoners and those of conscienceî.

    SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL RESIGNS; PRESIDENT BUSH NAMES CONDOLEEZZA RICE TO REPLACE HIM

    Secretary of State Colin Powell and three other Cabinet members submitted their resignations on Monday, as the shake-up of President Bush's second-term team escalated. ''I believe that now that the election is over, the time has come for me to step down,'' Powell wrote.

    To replace Powell as secretary of state, President Bush has chosen national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. Powell, a retired four-star general who often clashed with more hawkish members of the administration on Iraq and other foreign policy issues, resigned in a Cabinet exodus that promises a starkly different look to President Bush's second-term team.

    The White House released the letter Powell sent to the president on Friday as well as those written by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, confirming their departures. Stephen Hadley, Rice°s deputy, will replace Rice as the national security advisor.

    FORTY-FOUR CUBAN ARTISTS SEEK POLITICAL ASYLUM IN LAS VEGAS

    In what appears to be the largest mass defection of Cuban performers to date, 44 dancers, singers and musicians, here to stage a revue, sought political asylum in the United States. Most of the artists delivered their applications for asylum this morning at the federal building here, the performers said in interviews at the Stardust Resort and Casino, where their ''Havana Night Club'' revue is to have a three-month run.

    Seven other members of the ensemble have already sought asylum from United States officials in Berlin. Those performers were scheduled to travel to Las Vegas in time for a benefit show tonight. ''The only thing we regret is that our families in Cuba may suffer,'' Puro Hernández, 31, the troupe's musical director, said. ``But the Cuban government left us no choice. They put us between the sword and a wall.''

    Members of the cast said they had defied Cuban officials' orders in early summer not to seek U.S. entry visas. But once the visas were granted, Cuban officials eventually allowed the troupe to leave Cuba. They did so, the cast members said, because the issue had received media attention in the United States and because the government of Fidel Castro did not want to be seen as impeding the flow of culture. In October 2003, five dancers with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba defected while on tour in the United States.

    TRIAL BEGINS TODAY IN MIAMI AGAINST DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO

    Janet Ray Weininger was only 6 years old when her father -- piloting a CIA plane during the Bay of Pigs invasion -- was shot down on April 19, 1961, and then killed. Thomas ''Pete'' Ray's body was frozen and kept in a Havana morgue for 18 years before it was shipped home to his family.

    This week, Ray Weininger, of Palmetto Bay, is hoping to win ''justice'' for her father. A trial begins today in Miami-Dade County in a wrongful-death lawsuit she filed against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl and the Republic of Cuba. ''I think Fidel Castro has to answer,'' Ray Weininger said. "My father was never given the opportunity to go into a court of law. I've given the Cuban government and Fidel Castro and Raúl the opportunity to come into a court of law. I just want to meet on an equal playing field.''

    ''Ray's plane was heavily damaged during the invasion, but he survived the crash landing, the suit says. "His plane went down near Fidel Castro's headquarters. He made it out of the plane alive, was injured in a gun battle and then executed at point blank range.''

    U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD RUMSFELD HONORS SIX SALVADORAN HEROES 

     U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday awarded bronze stars to six Salvadoran soldiers who defended a convoy in Iraq, and he praised El Salvador for being the only Latin American country to have kept troops in the wartorn nation. The Salvadoran soldiers helped fight off an ambush on March 5, and they were credited with saving the lives of six Coalition Provisional Authority personnel.

    The Salvadoran soldiers honored by Rumsfeld on Friday were 1st Sgt. Fredy Adolfo Castro Urbina, the group's leader; Carlos Enrique Echeverria, Luis Evelio Mejia, Victor Manuel Gonzalez Chanta, Jose Daniel Oporto and Juan Francisco Cordoba. "They risked their lives so that others might live, and so that a people long brutalized might live in freedom," Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld recognized El Salvador as a "staunch" ally of the United States whose work in Iraq has been "recognized around the world."

    Earlier Friday, Rumsfeld thanked San Salvador president for his "close, cooperative relationship with the United States." "The countries and the coalition are in irak to be helpful, but they have no desire to stay any longer than is necessary," he said. Three other Latin American contingents - from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras - returned home early from Iraq or left as scheduled and didn't send replacement troops.

    CHILDHOOD FRIENDS DIE TOGETHER IN IRAQ

     Childhood friends who enlisted in the Marine Corps together and died together in Iraq were buried side by side. Jeremiah Baro and Jared Hubbard, who played together, wrestled each other in high school and toughed it out together through boot camp, died November 4, after a roadside bomb exploded. They were in Iraq's Anbar province, where the military was preparing to attack the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

    Members of the armed forces, classmates from the nearby high school, more than 700 friends and family members packed the church pews and stood pressed against the walls at Thursday's memorial.  "You couldn't say anything about Jared without saying something about Jeremiah, and you couldn't say something about Jeremiah without saying a little something about Jared," said the Rev. Tim Rolen.

    "You can't have one without the other," said Bert Baro, Jeremiah°s father. "If one or the other survived, I don't think they would have been the same people." Hubbard, 22, and Baro, 21, enlisted in December 2001, acting on an idea they'd had since high school, but motivated by the terrorist attacks that September. The two men were dedicated athletes with a close group of friends -- among them the dozens of high school classmates who attended the memorial. It was their second tour in Iraq. They returned home during the summer and trained together as snipers when they returned to their unit.

    U.S. TROOPS FIND IRAQ ´HOSTAGE SLAUGHTERHOUSE°

    U.S. and Iraqi troops battling their way through Fallujah stumbled on a horrific find - a small, windowless room with blood-soaked mattresses and straw mats on the floor that U.S. commanders are calling a "hostage slaughterhouse." The room is in a small, concrete house is believed to have been used by militants who captured and possibly killed hostages here.

    Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, who is commanding the offensive to retake the insurgent-held city, gave grim details of the "slaughterhouse" Thursday after paying a visit there. "The room was small. There were no windows, just one door. Inside, the flag was on the wall. There were two thin mattresses and straw mats covered in blood," he said. "There was also a wheelchair, which we believe was used to move the prisoners around in. We believe they were bound and moved around the complex in the wheelchair."

    Hanging on the wall of the small room was a black banner reading, "The Islamic Secret Army" with a logo showing a sword and a Kalashnikov rifle flanking a Quran. U.S. and Iraqi forces seized the abandoned concrete home in a small courtyard in the city's northern Jolan district on Wednesday.

    THERMO ELECTRICAL PLANT "ANTONIO GUITERAS" UP AND RUNNING AGAIN -- THE BLACKOUTS WILL CONTINUE

    Cuba's most important thermo electrical plant, which suffered a severe mechanical problem that led to frequent blackouts this summer, is operational again, authorities said Thursday.

    The state has ''normalized productive activity and service'' at the Antonio Guiteras plant in the Matanzas province east of Havana, according to a message from the state electric company printed in Thursday's edition of the Communist Party daily newspaper, Granma. Nonetheless, complete recovery will take several months, the message said, and Cubans were urged to continue following energy-saving measures. Of course, the prolonged blackouts will continue.

    PRESIDENT BUSH HONORS ´HIDDEN HEROES° IN THE MILITARY

    President Bush paused on Veterans Day to honor the "hidden heroes" in America's military who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan during his presidency and in wars past. He also paid tribute to soldiers he said are waging a winning battle against insurgents west of Baghdad. "Some of tomorrow's veterans are in combat in Iraq at this hour," Bush said Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery, where he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

    "They have a clear mission: to defeat the terrorists and aid the rise of a free government that can defend itself. They are making us proud," Bush added. "They are winning." Joining President Bush at the ceremony were his wife, Laura, and several members of his Cabinet. His motorcade entered the grounds of the vast cemetery, where more than 260,000 military dead are buried, through a phalanx of bayonet-wielding honor guard members and to the sounds of cannon blasts.

    "Twenty-five million veterans walk among us and, on this day, our nation thanks them all," the President said in a somber address. "These are the hidden heroes of a peaceful nation." Honoring particularly those who have died, Bush said their sacrifice has made America the "greatest force for good" among the nations of the world. "Our whole nation honors every patriot who placed duty and country before their own lives," the president said. "They gave us every day that we live in freedom."

    PALESTINIAN LEADER YASSER ARAFAT DEAD AT 75 

    Yasser Arafat, revered as the leader of Palestinian statehood but reviled as a sponsor of terrorism by many others, died Thursday at the age of 75. His passing marked the end of an era in modern Middle East history, and prompted calls from President Bush and other world leaders to seize the moment to spur new efforts at Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

    The death of Arafat, who ruled firmly over squabbling Palestinian factions for four decades, left Palestinians without a strong leader for the first time. It raised concern that the scramble to claim Arafat's mantle could fragment the Palestinian leadership or spark chaos and factional fighting in the streets. In a hurried effort to project continuity, the PLO elected former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as its new chief, virtually ensuring that he will succeed Arafat as leader of the Palestinians, at least in the short term.

     Arafat was flown to a French military hospital in Clamart, outside of Paris, on Oct. 29 after his health began deteriorating last month. It was the first time in nearly three years that he left his compound in Ramallah, where he was held a virtual prisoner by Israel. Palestinian officials initially insisted he had a lingering case of the flu, but they grew increasingly concerned when he did not recover. Neither his doctors nor Palestinian leaders would say what killed him.

    VERMONT WANTS TO SELL AGRICULTURE PRODUCTS TO CUBA 

    Vermont's agriculture secretary has returned from a successful trade mission to Cuba. Steve Kerr says he hopes to work out a contract this week to sell Cuba two-thousand bushels of Macintosh apples valued at 40-thousand dollars. He also says he has made progress in a deal to sell up to six million dollars of powdered milk to Cuba.

    Last week, Cuba signed a contract to buy 100 registered cows from Vermont. Before the cows, apples or milk are shipped, Cuba will send officials to Vermont on an inspection tour. Kerr expects the visit to take place next month.

    NEW HAVANA EXCHANGE OFFICE TO TRADE YENS, OTHER CURRENCIES

    Cuba will open a currency-exchange window to trade Japanese yen, and Canadian, European and Latin American currencies for the convertible peso -- the local currency the government is using to replace the U.S. dollar, the communist party daily Granma announced Tuesday. The special exchange office will open next week in Havana, the report said.

    The convertible peso, which has no value on international markets, on Monday became the only currency accepted for transactions in communist-ruled Cuba, after more than a decade in which the U.S. currency was used in transactions involving imported goods. Most Cubans have traded in greenbacks for convertible pesos, and many have opened U.S.-dollar denominated savings accounts; if they receive transfers from abroad into these accounts they will not be charged the 10-percent tax. Cubans can still keep a limited amount of dollars at home, as well as hold U.S. dollar bank accounts.

    PRESIDENT BUSH NAMES ALBERTO GONZALEZ ATTORNEY GENERAL 

    With a hug and words of high praise, President Bush named Alberto Gonzales as attorney general on Wednesday, elevating the administration's most prominent Hispanic to a highly visible post in the war on terror. "His sharp intellect and sound judgment have helped shape our policies in the war on terror," Bush said of the man who has served as the White House's top lawyer over the past four years.

    If confirmed by the Senate, the 49-year-old Texan would replace John Ashcroft, who announced plans on Tuesday to step down after four stormy years in the post. Gonzales, 49, has long been rumored as a leading candidate for a Supreme Court vacancy if one develops. Speculation increased after Chief Justice William Rehnquist announced he has thyroid cancer. Gonzales would be the first Hispanic attorney general.

    Gonzales' career has been linked with Bush for at least a decade, serving as general counsel when Bush was governor of Texas, and then as secretary of state and as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court. Gonzales would be the first Hispanic attorney general. After a National Security Council meeting, Bush was sat down Wednesday with Secretary of State Colin Powell, another figure being closely watched.

    GENERAL CRADDOCK ASSUMES THE LEADERSHIP OF THE SOUTHERN COMMAND 

    Surrounded by the brightly colored flags of 30 Latin American and Caribbean countries, Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock on Tuesday assumed leadership of the Pentagon's Miami-based Southern Command, pledging to give "110 percent effort all day, every day, and to lead by example from the front.'' Craddock spent the past two years as senior military aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who presided over the command transfer in front of about 500 U.S. and hemispheric leaders at SOUTHCOM headquarters in Doral.

    ''Gen. Craddock is the right man to continue to strengthen the bridges of trust and cooperation with our important friends and allies in Latin America and the Caribbean,'' Rumsfeld said. Craddock succeeds Army Gen. James ''Tom'' Hill as overall commander of U.S. military operations across a 15-million-square-mile swath of Latin America and the Caribbean -- a post that oversees everything from anti-insurgency training in Colombia to humanitarian missions in Haiti.

   Rumsfeld said President Bush put Latin American relations ''at the top of his list'' when he took office and that Bush continues to place a high priority on the hemisphere. ''Latin America and the Caribbean play a key role in global security,'' Rumsfeld said. "Our coalition in Iraq has benefited greatly from the participation of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. "Of course, we also value and appreciate the participation of so many Latin American nations in other theaters of the world, in peacekeeping and in the global war against extremism.''

    PRESIDENT BUSH VISITS SOLDIERS WOUNDED IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN

    President George W. Bush, paying a bedside visit to soldiers wounded in Iraq, said Tuesday that U.S. troops leading the assault against insurgents in Fallujah were doing "the hard work necessary for a free Iraq to emerge.'' The president and his wife, Laura Bush, spent about two hours at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, visiting with more than 50 troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. He offered his best wishes and prayers for the forces he said were still "in harm's way'' in Fallujah.

    "Coalition forces are now moving into Fallujah to bring to justice those who are willing to kill the innocent, those who are trying to terrorize the Iraqi people and our coalition, those who want to stop democracy,'' he said. "They are not going to succeed and we wish our troops all the best.''

    The U.S. toll in Iraq has surpassed 1,100, and 11 Americans died on Monday alone. Three more were killed Tuesday in Fallujah. "We are forever grateful to the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of freedom,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "They are serving for an important cause and a free Iraq will help transform a dangerous region of the world and make America more secure. We mourn the loss of all of our fallen.''

    PRESIDENT BUSH DID NOT RETURN ZAPATERO°S TELEPHONE CALL

    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Monday they hoped to have "positive relations" with U.S. President George W. Bush, but demanded he respect differences in opinion over international issues, like Iraq.

    "The Spanish government strives to have positive relations with the United States, with President Bush," Zapatero told reporters after a summit with his German counterpart. "We want positive relations but with respect for each country's positions on problems concerning international order, where we can have coincidences in many aspects and discrepancies in others," he said. "That is what has happened lately, such as with Iraq."

    Spain's Socialist government angered the United States when it complied with terrorists' demands and withdrew its Spanish troops from Iraq. Shortly after Zapatero assumed power in April, he called the war in Iraq a military occupation and a disastrous mistake. Zapatero telephoned Bush to congratulate him following the election victory, but the U.S. president didn't come to the line or returned his call. Zapatero said he was still hopeful that someday the president returns his call.

    U.S., IRAQIS ENTER FALLUJA°S CENTER

    The Pentagon reported that 10 U.S. troops and two Iraqi soldiers had been killed in the fighting, along with 22 others wounded, as of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.  "So far, we have achieved our objectives on or ahead of schedule," Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz told reporters from Iraq. He described the number of "friendly" casualties as "light," but said insurgent casualties appear "significantly higher than I expected."  Military sources said they were unsure whether they had intercepted the core of the insurgency.

    "I think we're looking at several more days of tough urban fighting," Metz said. "The fight for Falluja is far from over."  Nevertheless, U.S. and Iraqi forces have faced less resistance than expected, said Lt. Col. Pete Newell with Task Force 2-2 of the Army's 1st Infantry Division. Soldiers said they have dodged sniper fire and destroyed booby traps, but not as many as anticipated.

    Insurgent casualty numbers have mounted. Newell said his unit has killed or wounded 85 to 90 insurgents. "Thirty hours into the fighting, Task Force 2-2 and the attached Iraqi intervention force have sustained minimal casualties," Newell said. The insurgents' outer forces have been destroyed, Metz said, and they are fighting in small groups "without much coherence," using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

    GOOD BYE BELOVED GREENBACK!  WELCOME WORTHLESS CHAVITO!  

    The almighty U-S dollar is no longer welcome in Cuba. The greenback was eliminated from circulation yesterday under a change ordered by the communist government last month. Everyone from Cuban residents to tourists must now use a local currency tied to the dollar.

    The decree issued on October 25th prompted people to flood banks and exchange houses to trade dollars for convertible pesos or "chavitosî as they are called by the Cubans. The huge demand caused the government to delay imposing a ten percent conversion surcharge scheduled to take effect today.

    The worthless chavitos will be the only money accepted at most businesses across the island of 11.2 million people. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Cuba was a major client of Moscow, Havana was not nearly as reliant on the U.S. dollar or other convertible currencies because it engaged in barter trade with other countries.  But after Cuba lost Soviet and other East Bloc trading partners with the end of the Cold War, the country increasingly relied on dollars to finance needed imports. By removing the U.S. currency from circulation, Castro is effectively and symbolically switching his hard currency base to that of other foreign currencies, including the European Union's euro, the British sterling pound and the Canadian dollar.

    U.S.: REPRESSION INCREASES IN CUBA

    The U.S. State Department said last week that Cuba was continuing to repress dissidents by beating opposition leaders already in jail, harassing those that have been freed and a beating up a union official, Lázaro González Adán, and then throwing him in jail for showing "disrespect.'' Some dissidents like Oscar Elías Biscet and Luis Enrique Ferrer García have gone on hunger strikes to protest their detention, Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman said in a statement.

    Ferrer and Nelson Aguiar Ramírez have been repeatedly beaten in prison and other dissidents released because of poor health have been subjected to daily harassments, rearrests and interrogations. Last month the Cuban government took the ''extraordinary step'' of expelling three members of the European national parliaments because they were planning to meet with members of the Cuban opposition, Boucher said. ''We call on the regime to cease its repression and release all political prisoners,'' he added.

    U.S. FORCES LAUNCH ASSAULT ON FALLUJAH

    Thousands of U.S. troops, backed by armor and a stunning air barrage, attacked the toughest strongholds of Sunni insurgents in Fallujah on Monday, launching a long-awaited offensive aimed at putting an end to guerrilla control of the Sunni Muslim city. After nightfall, U.S. troops advanced slowly on the northwestern Jolan neighborhood, a warren of alleyways where Sunni militant fighters have dug in.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said he gave the green light for international and Iraqi forces to launch the long-awaited offensive against Fallujah, aimed at re-establishing government control before elections set for January. He also announced a round-the-clock curfew in Fallujah and another nearby insurgent stronghold, Ramadi. ''The people of Fallujah have been taken hostage ... and you need to free them from their grip,'' he told Iraqi soldiers.

    'Marine commanders have warned the new offensive could bring the heaviest urban fighting since the Vietnam war. Some 10,000 U.S. Marines, Army soldiers and Iraqi forces are around Fallujah, where commanders estimate around 3,000 insurgents are dug in. More than half the civilian population of some 300,000 people is believed to have fled already. All roads into the two cities were closed, and residents were barred from carrying weapons.

    CUBAN TV SHOWED THE CUBAN DICTATOR IN A WHEEL-CHAIR 

    Cubans saw dictator Fidel Castro in a wheel-chair on Sunday in television images. News broadcasts showed Castro holding an eight-hour meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Saturday night, while sitting in a wheel-chair with his plastered leg extended and his arm in a sling. Castro was wearing a red shirt and dark pants. Since his fall, Castro, 78, had previously been seen only once on television, which showed him from the chest up.

    Chavez, who briefed Castro on the results of a summit of Latin American presidents held in Rio de Janeiro, was the first foreign leader to visit the Cuban president since his fall. "Comrade Fidel summed up the meeting saying it was the best night he had spent since his accidental fall," Chavez told a Cuban television reporter. "We've spent some time soul-sharing," he said after the meeting that lasted until dawn.

    Chavez, a fire-brand populist, is Castro's closest ally in Latin America. Their friendship has annoyed the U.S. government which fears Chavez may introduce Cuban-style communism to Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter. Cuba has sent 13,000 doctors to work in Venezuelan slums, as well as several thousand sports trainers and teachers to conduct literacy programs there.

    MEL MARTÍNEZ: "TO REPRESENT ALL FLORIDIANSî

    Republican Mel Martinez, fresh off winning a U.S. Senate seat to become the legislative body's first Cuban-American member, vowed Thursday "to represent all Floridians." Martinez succeeds Democratic Sen. Bob Graham, who is retiring. "This is like slapping Castro in the face - that a Peter Pan grows up to be a senator," said a Floridian.

    Martinez said the nature of the Senate campaign prevented his new constituents from getting to know him as a person, and he promised to reach out to Democrats and others who did not support him. "I'm a pretty good guy and I want people to get to know that good guy but I also want people to know that no matter who they voted for, that I'm going to be their senator," Martinez said. "That no matter who they supported that Florida gets to have only two senators and I'm one of them and I'm going to represent all Floridians."

    Martinez said he would push for reforms of the nation's intelligence service and Social Security, two proposals expected to be addressed in President George W. Bush's second term agenda, while seeking additional funding for the state's highways and the restoration of the Everglades. "We'll find ways in which we can reach out, issues in which we can bring people together, because I think that's important," he said.

    U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCUSES CUBA OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

    "The United States condemns the Cuban regime's abuse of advocates of peaceful change and reform," the U.S. State Department said Thursday, referring to the March 2003 roundup of 75 dissidents that Cuba accused of being mercenaries for the American government. "We call on the regime to cease its repression and release all political prisoners," said the U.S. statement. "Only a Cuba where fundamental freedoms are respected and independent civil society flourishes will be positioned to make a peaceful transition to democracy."

    Communist Cuba struck back at the United States on Saturday, calling it the world's worst human rights offender two days after the U.S. State Department criticized the island nation for continuing to imprison scores of dissidents rounded up more than 1 1/2 years ago. "The government of the United States doesn't have the minimum moral authority to accuse Cuba," the island's Foreign Ministry said in an official note published in the Communist Party daily Granma. The foreign ministry also said the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba "is a cruel inhuman and genocidal blockade that over more than four decades has violated the human rights of all the Cuban people."  

    HUGO CHAVEZ URGES PRESIDENT BUSH TO REPAIR RELATIONS BETWEEN THEIR COUNTRIES

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged President George Bush Saturday to focus more on Latin America and improve relations with Venezuela during the U.S. president's second term. "I sincerely hope that Bush's second administration is a new government in its relations with Latin America, and especially Venezuela," Chavez said while in Santo Domingo to sign an agreement to sell up to 50,000 barrels a day of oil to the Dominican Republic with preferential financing.

   The agreement signed by Chavez and Fernandez will give the Dominican Republic a two-year grace period to pay for up to 25 percent of oil it buys from Venezuela each year. The Caribbean nation will also be able to pay back the oil bought on credit at a 2 percent annual interest rate over 15 years. Chavez said Venezuela would soon sign a similar agreement with Paraguay. Fernandez has pushed for an agreement with Venezuela since taking office Aug. 16, saying that cheaper oil could help the Dominican Republic come out of its worst economic crisis in decades.

    The Dominican Republic had previously received subsidized oil from Venezuela and Mexico under the San Jose Pact. But Chavez last year halted oil exports to the Dominican Republic, demanding Dominican authorities investigate allegations that exiles there are plotting his assassination. Fernandez set out to smooth over the rift, contacting Chavez soon after winning the election May 16 and visiting Venezuela in October.

    PRESIDENT BUSH WAS ALSO REELECTED IN HAVANA

    About 100 Cuban dissidents invited to the home of the top U.S. diplomat in Havana voted in a symbolic ''U.S. election'' and picked President Bush by a broad margin. Bush got 83 percent of the vote, while Sen. John Kerry received 16 percent in a paper-ballot election held Tuesday night at the home of James Cason, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

    Along with the choice of president, the ballot also asked what kind of political party they would favor in a post-Castro Cuba. Sixty-eight people favored a Christian Democratic Party, traditionally seen as center-right in Latin America. Eleven favored a Communist Party.

    The announcement that 11 voters had chosen a Communist Party was greeted by booing. But dissident leader Vladimiro Roca, of the All United movement, said: ``They have the right to be represented. That's democracy. Anything else is what they're doing to us.''

    CUBA TV:  BUSH WON BY CULTIVATING FEAR AMONG U.S.

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's television stations said Wednesday that George W. Bush won the U.S. presidential election by manipulating voters' fears of future terrorist attacks. On the island's nightly televised "Round Table" discussion program, host Randy Alonso said Bush's win was due to a successful strategy "to cultivate fear among (U.S.) citizens" and "present himself as the great leader of the fight against terrorism."

   Though Kerry had expressed support for the four-decade-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, he also said he favored a full review of American policies toward the island, leading some Cubans to believe trade and travel restrictions strengthened under Bush's administration might be eased with Kerry in the White House. Cubans attending an international trade fair in Havana Wednesday were disappointed that Kerry didn't win, according to American fair participant Chris Aberle. "They're apprehensive," said Aberle, of the Des Moines, Iowa company FC Stone. "They certainly would have liked to see Kerry win."

    PRESIDENT BUSH PLANNING SECOND TERM

    His second term secured, President Bush is reaching out and asking the 55 million people who voted to oust him from office to get behind the ambitious agenda he's laid out for the next four years. The work of making good on a raft of tough-to-keep campaign promises begins Thursday, when Bush sits down with his Cabinet for their first such meeting since Aug. 2.

    In a quietly jubilant victory speech Wednesday that came a full 21 hours after the polls closed, the president outlined the goals he plans to start work on immediately and pursue in the next four years, a period he termed "a season of hope." He pledged to keep up the fight against terrorism, press for stable democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan, simplify the tax code, allow younger workers to invest some of their Social Security withholdings in the stock market, continue to raise accountability standards in public schools and "uphold our deepest values and family and faith."

    The disputed 2000 election left Bush without a mandate, but he governed as if he had one. The White House made clear Wednesday that it believes that mandate did not elude Bush this time, when he became the first presidential candidate since 1988 to win a majority of the popular vote, 51 percent. "President Bush ran forthrightly on a clear agenda for this nation's future and the nation responded by giving him a mandate," Vice President Dick Cheney said, introducing Bush.

    PALESTINIAN OFFICIAL SAYS ARAFAT IN COMA

    Yasser Arafat has lapsed into a coma in a French hospital, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday, a day after the Palestinian leader was rushed to intensive care following a sharp deterioration in his health.  The official would not say when Arafat lost consciousness. Two Arafat aides denied he was in a coma, but the senior Palestinian with close access to the medical team insisted Arafat was comatose.

    "Last night, several blood and bone marrow tests were done that required the president to be in an isolation unit for several hours, and there is no truth to any of the reports that he is in a coma," Rashid said in Paris. Earlier Thursday, Palestinian officials said Arafat had lost consciousness repeatedly and described his condition as extremely serious. Efforts to reach Leila Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France, were unsuccessful Thursday. Arafat's condition worsened Wednesday and he was rushed into intensive care. Doctors do not know the cause of the blood and digestive disorders uncovered over the past few days.

    COMMUNIST CUBA GIVES PEOPLE ANOTHER WEEK TO CHANGE U.S. DOLLARS FOR LOCAL CURRENCY

    The Central Bank said Thursday that people will have an extra week to exchange their American money for a local currency tied to the dollar. The previous deadline was this coming Sunday. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has said the elimination of the dollar from circulation in Cuba is necessary to protect the island nation from an increasing U.S. crackdown on foreign banks sending American cash to Cuba.

    Banks will open Saturday and the weekend of Nov. 13-14 to help Cubans change their U.S. dollars into convertible pesos before the deadline, it added. The Cuban currency has no value outside the country. But Cuba relies heavily on imported goods that must be purchased with dollars or other convertible foreign currencies. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, with which Cuba conducted barter trade, Havana's need for hard currency grew.

    The currency switch appeared aimed at eliminating Cuba's dependence on the money of its No. 1 enemy - the United States - for hard currency reserves, building up new sources of convertible foreign funds and reasserting centralized control over the economy. The United States has recently moved to restrict the flow of American currency into Cuba, with severe limits on the amount Cuban exiles can send relatives on the island and Federal Reserve fines imposed on international banks sending U.S. dollars here.

    LITTLE CHEER IN CUBA OVER PRESIDENT BUSH°S U.S. ELECTION WIN

    The prospect of another four years of President Bush in the White House brought sadness and anxiety Wednesday to Cubans feeling the pinch of tightened U.S. sanctions. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's government said it was unfazed by the re-election of Bush, who has vowed to keep up pressure to free the island of the leader he has called a "tyrant."

    "We expected this. It's all the same, Bush or Kerry. We will continue forward," Industry Minister Yadira Garcia, a member of the ruling Communist Party political bureau, said. But on the streets of Havana, Cubans who depend on dollar remittances from relatives living in the United States had pinned their hopes on Democrat John Kerry relaxing restrictions. "It means another four years of tensions. We are tired," said a Cuban teacher who receives money from family in Miami. Bush in June cut back visits by Cuban Americans to once every three years.

    Only leading opponents of Castro welcomed Bush's victory, hoping his policy of tightening a four-decade economic embargo will bring the Cuban government to its knees. "Cuba's economic crisis has no solution. The government is in the corner of the boxing ring gasping for air and Bush will deprive it of all the air he can," said dissident economist Martha Beatriz Roque. "For the opposition, this is the best thing that could have happened," she said.

    A SUPPORT GROUP FOR THE LADIES IN WHITE WAS ORGANIZED IN HAVANA 

    In an executive meeting at the provincial headquarters in Havana of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba affiliated to the Andrei Sajarov Foundation which took place on October 20, 2004, it was approved the creation of a Group in Solidarity with the Ladies in White.

    In the meeting it was approved by all present to dedicate one day to each of the Cuban political prisoners so that the population can be aware as to the situation with each one of them. Not only with the situation of the group of the 75 prisoners of conscience recently sentenced but with the more than 300 political prisoners, presently serving time in the Cuban jails.

    This project is planned to be extended to the 19 municipalities in the County Of Havana, in an effort to have it expanded to the rest of the Island. It was agreed to start the work for the month of December remembering the political prisoners Doctor Oscar Elías Biscet and also Ricardo Silva. The Support Group leaders are: Delfín Rodríguez Hernández, president; Luis González Medina coordinator; Luz María Barceló Padrón,  heading attention to political prisoners and as Executive Secretary Laura Jucino Fernández.

    PRESIDENT BUSH'S VICTORY OVER SENATOR KERRY 

    President George W. Bush's campaign declared victory over Democratic Sen. John Kerry and claimed re-election to a second term in the White House, but Kerry refused to concede until all ballots were counted in Ohio. In a dispute that evoked memories of the prolonged election recount in Florida in 2000, questions about provisional and absentee ballots in the potentially decisive state of Ohio delayed the outcome of a contested presidential election.

    Bush captured a decisive victory in Florida -- where he won the White House in 2000 only after a chaotic, 36-day legal struggle that was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. But in Ohio, regarded with Florida as a critical swing state, the returns were agonizingly suspenseful. The count was slowed by a massive turnout that had voters still crowding polling places long after they were to close, and ballots were still being counted as midnight came and went. Ohio Gov. Bob Taft said it probably would be very late before results could be determined there.

    MEL MARTINEZ, THE FIRST CUBAN-AMERICAN SENATOR IN THE NATION'S HISTORY

    Mel Martinez declared victory early today and claimed the mantle of the first Cuban-American senator in the nation's history. With almost all precincts reporting, Martinez led Betty Castor by about 1 percent -- a margin that's a nose outside the threshold requiring a recount. But the tally didn't include what Castor said were ''one-quarter of a million'' absentee ballots not yet counted. And Castor said her campaign will monitor vote canvassing boards today.

   If Martinez's victory is clear after all absentee ballots are counted, it would be a devastating blow to the Democratic Party, which now holds only one statewide office in Florida, occupied by Sen. Bill Nelson. Not since Reconstruction have Republicans so dominated the state. Martinez, the White House's hand-picked man, emerged from his Orlando hotel room about 1 a.m. today, just 25 hours after wrapping up his campaign in Miami-Dade.

    It was in Miami, early Tuesday, that Martinez stood beneath a banner that summed up his campaign: "Hagamos historia.'' There's a reason it didn't say ''Let's make history'' in English. The gravity of the phrase would have been lost in translation. Martinez could thank heavy support from Hispanics, who responded viscerally to his ethnicity, his immigrant success story and his skill at telling it. Martinez, 58, came to the United States without his parents from Cuba when he was 15 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, a movement spearheaded by the Catholic Church to bring children to the United States from Cuba.

    BELIEVE IT OR NOT, MILLIONAIRE JOHN PARKE WRIGHT OF NAPLES, FLORIDA, THREW BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR CUBAN DICTATOR°S BROTHER

    Wealthy Florida businessmen who export to Cuba threw an 80th birthday party for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's elder brother, Ramon, on Monday and wished Fidel good health and a long life. Between rum mojitos, daiquiris and cigar, the capitalist executives hobnobbed with Cuban Communist Party officials, all hoping a victory of Senator Kerry on Tuesday's U.S. presidential election will put an end to four decades of trade and travel restrictions against Cuba.

    "It's his 80th birthday. He is my best friend down here, and I thought I would do the right thing," said Castro sympathizer John Parke Wright IV, a rancher from Naples, Florida. He sells cattle to Cuba and organized the party for Ramon, the farmer in the Castro family. Ramon Castro said his brother Fidel, 78, was recovering from a fall two weeks ago in which he broke his knee and had to have his left leg put in a plaster cast. The Castro brothers have "good genes," he joked, noting their Spanish father died at 83.

    More than a third of the 250 Americans attending this week's annual trade fair in Havana are from Florida, the U.S. state that stands to gain most from open trade with Cuba. However, while trade sanctions were eased by U.S. Congress in 2000 to allow the sale of food and agricultural products, the Bush administration has sought to undermine Castro -- in power since 1959 -- with new travel restrictions and curbs on financial flows to Cuba. Wright hopes Kerry, if elected, will not only end sanctions but restore diplomatic ties with Havana broken off by the Eisenhower administration in 1961.

    TRADE FAIR PARTICIPANTS PREDICT IMPROVED RELATIONS BETWEEN CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES IF KERRY WINS IN TODAY°S GENERAL ELECTIONS

    On the eve of the U.S. presidential election, Cubans and Americans signing deals for new U.S. food sales projected to reach US$150 million expressed hope for improved relations between the two countries. Some Floridians, including a Castro°s sympathizer from Naples, rancher John Parke Wright IV of J.P. Wright & Co., voted early in the United States to arrive in time for the fair's opening Monday. Wright signed one of the first contracts, to sell Cuba 100 head of dairy cattle from Vermont worth US$300,000.

    "Hopefully it will be a new day for relations between Cuba and the United States," Wright said at a news conference announcing the first deals of the current round. Also announced Monday was a contract with Louis Dreyfus of Georgia to sell the island wheat, chicken and pork worth US$10 million. More deals were expected at the weeklong International Fair of Havana, where American companies were playing a starring role.

    "We're all committed to cooperation," Wright said. "What we represent here are good relations, fellowship and free and open trade." Other U.S. companies with stands at the fair were Archer Daniels Midland of Illinois, Tyson Foods of Arkansas, and Cargill Inc., of Minnesota, Marsh Supermarkets of Indiana and White Rose Foods of Nueva Jersey. Supporters of the sales on both sides of the Florida straits were closely watching the lead-up to today°s U.S. presidential elections for clues about future trade. If Kerry wins, according to Wright, "There'll be open trade and travel, there'll be peace and tranquility in the Caribbean, and for Cuba there will be prosperity."

     SOCIALIST VÁZQUEZ ELECTED TO PRESIDENCY IN URUGUAY 

    Socialist Tabaré Vázquez won a majority of votes for president in Uruguay on Sunday, adding his nation to South America's political swing to the left and potentially denying the United States an important ally in the region. Vázquez declared victory Sunday night.

    Vázquez spoke from the balcony of the Hotel Presidente in front of an estimated half-million people swarming the streets and said, "Celebrate, Uruguayans, celebrate! This victory is yours!'' Vázquez then held a brief news conference announcing his transition team would begin work today, because "we don't have any time to waste.''

    No official results were released Sunday night, but the two main polling groups gave nearly identical figures of 51 percent for Vázquez of the Broad Front leftist coalition and 34 percent for runner-up Jorge Larranaga of the National Party. The exit polls did not give a margin of error. Because Vázquez appeared to win more than 50 percent of the vote, he avoided a runoff. If it had gone to a runoff, conservatives could have united and denied him the presidency, as in 1994 and 1999.

    CHAVEZ CONSOLIDATES HIS REVOLUTION 

    Hugo Chavez vowed to push forward with his left-leaning "revolution" on Monday, hours after pro-government candidates swept all but two of 23 governorships in regional elections, according to preliminary results. "The revolution is here forever, there is no turning back," Chavez told a crowd of supporters waving Venezuelan flags outside Miraflores Presidential Palace in downtown Caracas.

    Staunch government foes, including incumbent Manuel Rosales, the governor of oil-rich Zulia state, and Morel Rodriguez, an opposition candidate in Nueva Esparta state, popularly known as Margarita Island, were victorious. But several government adversaries, such as incumbent candidate Enrique Mendoza in Miranda state, refused to accept results showing they were defeated. "We can demonstrate that the democratic forces in Miranda won," Mendoza told the Globovision television channel.

    Chavez said that the triumph by Tabare Vázquez, a socialist opposition leader who won Uruguay's presidential election, along with the victories by his hopefuls in Venezuela showed that the region is gradually shifting to the left.  "The victory of Vázquez, of the Uruguayan people is also a victory for Latin America," emphasized Chavez.

    SCHILLING MAKES SURPRISE APPEARANCE WITH PRESIDENT BUSH " WORLD SERIES HERO ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO VOTE TUESDAY

    Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling made a surprise appearance Monday morning with President Bush, limping to the stage to give Bush a strong endorsement. Schilling won Game 2 of the World Series and Game 6 of the American League championship series with his ankle stitched to protect a torn sheath around a tendon. He was expected to undergo surgery this week, and had canceled an appearance with Bush on Friday.

    Monday morning, he wore a protective boot over the ankle as he and his wife made their way to the stage inside an airplane hangar. The ace pitcher said Bush was a commander in chief who will ensure troops "have everything they need to get the job done, a leader who believes in their mission and honors their service, a leader who has the courage and the character to stay on the offense against terrorism until the war is won."

    Bush stood next to him, and they embraced afterward. "On Tuesday, we need you to get out and vote. We need you to get your friends and neighbors out to vote -- tell them you're voting for President Bush and get them on board, too," Schilling said. "I know everybody wants to be on a winning team, and there's plenty of room on this bandwagon." In Burgettstown, Pa., just west of Pittsburgh, Schilling hobbled on stage with his wife, Shonda, and at Bush's side said he was proud to be a member of the championship team. Then he added: "I'm proud to be on a team with a more important mission -- the team that's going to get George Bush re-elected."

    U.S. ARMY EXTENDS IRAQ TOURS FOR 6,500 TROOPS

    The Army has extended by two months the Iraq tours of about 6,500 soldiers, citing a need for experienced troops through the Iraqi elections scheduled for late January. No official statement was released, but the Pentagon's public affairs office posted an article on its Web site Saturday that said 3,500 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, and 3,000 from the 1st Infantry Division headquarters will remain in Iraq at least two months longer than planned. There are approximately 135,000 American soldiers deployed in Iraq.

    The Army had scheduled those units for 10-month deployments, rather than the usual 12-month tours, to stagger the rotation of forces in and out of Iraq this winter to avoid overburdening transportation systems. Instead they will remain to provide security through the elections. The Pentagon article spoke of "the troops' frustration" over having their tours extended. It said some of the soldiers had been told they would be leaving Iraq as early as November. Instead they will stay through January.

    Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, requested the extensions in late September, and his immediate superior, Army Gen. John Abizaid, made the decision Oct. 16, the Pentagon article said. The decision appeared to mark the second time in recent weeks that soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, have had their Iraq deployments extended.