BELIEVE IT OR NOT, CUBA AND RUSSIA AGREE TO CONDEMN TERRORISM

    The top diplomats for Russia and Cuba condemned all forms of terrorism Tuesday and renewed Russia's call last week to expand the war against the global scourge. Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov of Russia and Felipe Perez Roque of Cuba said in a statement after private talks that they "condemn terrorism in all forms and manifestations, wherever, and against whomever, such acts are committed and independent of their motives."

    Relations between the two had been chilly for nearly a decade until a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin nearly four years ago began to warm things somewhat. Russia, still reeling from the killing of more than 330 hostages at a school in the nation's south, denounces Western countries for granting asylum to Chechen leaders it has linked to violence.

    Cuba, meanwhile, complains that the United States ignores its worries about violent exiles opposed to communist leader Fidel Castro who have targeted the island in the past. The statement also recognized international law and the United Nations as key for resolving conflicts among nations and ensuring security around the world.

    US BOOSTS VENEZUELA ANTI-DRUG AID DESPITE STRAINS 

    U.S. aid for Venezuela's fight against drug-trafficking will more than triple over the next 12 months, surviving political tensions between the two countries, U.S. diplomats said on Tuesday.

    Washington will provide $4.4 million to Venezuela under its Andean Counter-Drug Initiative, compared with $1.2 million last year, Alan Smiley, director of the U.S. embassy's anti-narcotics section, told reporters. Ties between the United States and Venezuela, a major oil supplier to the U.S. market, have been strained by Washington's criticism of left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and of his friendship with Cuban President Fidel Castro.

    But cooperation to fight narcotics trafficking in Venezuela, considered a major drug-transit nation, has continued, the U.S. diplomats said. "Obviously we've had our differences ... but we've tried to maintain our cooperation and advance in the areas where we agree," said Stephen McFarland, Deputy Head of the U.S. embassy.

    NORTH KOREAN GROUP ENTERS CANADIAN EMBASSY IN BEIJING

    Forty-three men, women and children using ladders clambered over a spiked fence around the Canadian Embassy on Wednesday in what appeared to be the biggest recent bid for asylum by North Koreans. One other man was stopped by police. The group, which reportedly included two former political prisoners, was an embarrassing reminder of the dismal conditions in North Korea, whose isolationist, Stalinist dictatorship is officially China's ally.

    There was no immediate indication whether the incident might hinder Chinese diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to attend a new round of six-nation talks on Washington's demand that the North up its nuclear weapons program. China is obligated by treaty to send home fleeing North Koreans, but hasn't done so in cases that become public.

    Tens of thousands of North Koreans fleeing famine and repression at home live in hiding in China's northeast. Hundreds have been allowed to leave for South Korea over the past three years after gaining refuge by dashing into embassies and other foreign offices in China.

    NORTH KOREA WARNS OF WAR ON PENINSULA

    North Korea has turned the enriched uranium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons to serve as a deterrent against a possible nuclear strike by the United States, a North Korean minister said Monday. Warning that the danger of war on the Korean peninsula "is snowballing," Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon blamed the United States for intensifying threats to attack the communist nation and destroying the basis for negotiations to resolve the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear program.

    Without specifying what kinds or the number of weapons it has, Choe said North Korea has been left with "no other option but to possess a nuclear deterrent" because of U.S. policies that he claimed were designed to "eliminate the DPRK by force while designating it as part of an `axis of evil' and a target of pre-emptive nuclear strikes."

    When asked if the fuel had been turned into actual weapons, not just weapons-grade material, Choe said: "We declared that we weaponized this." In Washington, a State Department official noted that the administration has long believed North Korea has at least one or two nuclear weapons.

    A VERY ALARMING SITUATION: FORMER U.S. SOLDIERS REFUSE TO REPORT TO THEIR UNITS

     Fewer than two-thirds of the former U.S. soldiers being reactivated for duty have reported on time, prompting the Army to threaten some with punishment for desertion. The former soldiers, part of what is known as the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), are being recalled to fill shortages in skills needed for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Of the 1,662 ready reservists ordered to report to Fort Jackson, S.C., by Sept. 22, only 1,038 had done so, the Army said Monday. About 500 of those who failed to report have requested exemptions on health or personal grounds. "The numbers did not look good," said Lt. Col. Burton Masters, a spokesman for the Army's Human Resources Command. "We are tightening the system, reaching the people and bringing them in."

    Masters said most of the requests for exemptions are likely to be denied: "To get an exemption, it has to be a very compelling case, such as a severe medical condition." The figures reflect the challenges the Pentagon faces in trying to find enough troops for ongoing operations and show resistance among some service members who returned to civilian life. With a force that generals say is "stretched thin," the Army is considering $1,000-a-month bonuses to ex-soldiers who volunteer to return for overseas duty.

    NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL VICE-PRESIDENT RESIGNS OVER REFERENDUM

    A top Venezuelan electoral official resigned on Monday to protest irregularities in last month's recall referendum but said he had no proof of opposition claims President Hugo Chavez won by fraud. National Electoral Council Vice President Ezequiel Zamora, known as an opposition sympathizer, said he stepped down to criticize political bias, the lack of a fair audit and delays during the Aug. 15 vote on Chavez's government.

    "I hope my resignation makes people stop and think and that things change," said Zamora. "I can't talk about fraud because I have no proof. It is up to politicians to show and prove that." Chavez opponents claimed the populist president won the recall though massive vote rigging. But international observers, led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, endorsed the referendum and said they saw no evidence of foul play.

    Zamora often clashed with other directors in the months before the referendum. He will likely be replaced by substitute director Miriam Kornblith, a former electoral council member and attorney who is also seen as pro-opposition. The resignation is unlikely to shift the political makeup of the council leadership before regional elections next month because pro-Chavez officials hold a majority on the five-member board of directors.

    CHAVEZ PROPOSES A NEW MILITARY AND ECONOMIC ALLIANCE WITH THE CUBAN DICTATOR

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday proposed joining forces with communist Cuba to bring "free health and education programs" to poor Caribbean nations. Chavez, a political ally of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, has been accused by domestic foes and Washington of working with Havana to export his left-wing "revolution" to Latin America and the Caribbean.

    "I've proposed to Cuban President Fidel Castro that Venezuela and Cuba pool resources to offer the governments of these people, if they consider it appropriate, these programs for literacy ... and medical attention," he said at La Guaira port near Caracas. The Venezuelan leader was at the port to supervise the loading of navy ships that would carry food, water and building materials to Cuba, Grenada, Jamaica and later, Haiti, as part of an aid operation to the storm-hit islands.  Oil-rich Venezuela has promised $3 million in assistance to the Caribbean and plans to send 400 troops and aid workers to help in rebuilding the battered region.

     More than 20,000 Cuban doctors, military advisers, teachers and sports experts are working in Venezuela, part of a broad cooperation accord between Havana and Caracas that also involves Venezuelan oil deliveries to Cuba. Since his 1998 election, Chavez has presented himself as a regional voice against what he says is U.S. dominance in Latin America. Supporters say he is a champion for the poor, but critics say he is a dangerous autocrat trying to copy Castro's communist.

    CARTER APPROVED VENEZUELA'S FRAUD  BUT DISAPPROVES FLORIDA ELECTION CONDITIONS

    Former President Jimmy Carter says that despite changes designed to eliminate voting problems in Florida - where the disputed 2000 presidential election was decided by only a few hundred votes - conditions for a fair election in that state still don't exist. "The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely," Carter wrote in an opinion piece published Monday in the Washington Post.

    Carter, citing the experience of his Carter Center in monitoring international elections, said "some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida." Most significant, he said, were requirements that a nonpartisan electoral commission or official organize and conduct the electoral process and that voting procedures be uniform for all citizens.

    He said Florida's top election official in 2000, Secretary of State Katherine Harris, was "highly partisan" and that Harris' successor, Glenda Hood, has shown "the same strong bias." He said Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, had done little to "correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment." A Hood spokeswoman, Alia Faraj, said Monday she was "disappointed that a statesman like former President Carter would submit such a letter" to the newspaper "without even reaching out to the Florida secretary of state" for comment.

    PRESIDENT BUSH INCREASES HIS CRITICISM OF KERRY

    In new attacks on the campaign trail, President Bush took some liberties with Sen. John Kerry's remarks on the Iraq war. President Bush opened several new scathing lines of attack last week against Sen. John Kerry, assertions that made Kerry appear supportive of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein. Campaigning by bus through hotly contested Wisconsin on Friday, Bush sought to counter recently sharpened criticism by Kerry about his Iraq policies:

    He stated Kerry had said earlier in the week ''he would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today.'' ''I just strongly disagree,'' the president said. Bush attacked Kerry for calling 'our alliance ‚the alliance of the coerced and the bribed.' '' ''You can't build alliances if you criticize the efforts of those who are working side by side with you,'' the president said in Janesville, Wis. But Bush mischaracterized Kerry's criticism, which has not been aimed at the countries that have contributed a relatively small number of troops and resources, but at the administration for not gaining more participation from other nations.

    Bush also suggested Kerry was undercutting an ally in a time of need, and thus unfit to be president, when he ''questioned the credibility'' of Iraqi interim leader Ayad Allawi. ''This great man came to our country to talk about how he's risking his life for a free Iraq, which helps America,'' the president said in Janesville, Wis. "And Sen. Kerry held a press conference and questioned Prime Minister Allawi's credibility. You can't lead this country if your ally in Iraq feels like you question his credibility.''

    DEEP CONCERN FOR NEW IRANIAN  "STRATEGIC MISSILE"

    Iran added a "strategic missile" to its military arsenal after a successful test, and the defense minister said Saturday his country was ready to confront any external threat. The report by state-run radio did not say whether the test involved the previously announced new version of the Shahab-3 rocket, capable of reaching Israel and U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East, or a different missile. "This strategic missile was successfully test-fired during military exercises by the Revolutionary Guards and delivered to the armed forces," Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani was quoted as saying.

    The announcement in Tehran came amid a war of words between Iran and Israel this week as Iran faces increasing international pressure over its nuclear energy program. The United States - which once labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and prewar Iraq - and other nations suspect Iran is developing atomic weapons. The United Nations' atomic watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has demanded that Iran freeze its uranium enrichment program - a demand that Iran has termed "illegal."

    Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Iran was a worldwide threat whose missiles can reach London, Paris and southern Russia. In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor before the reactor could begin operating and the smart bombs are believed to be capable of destroying Iranian nuclear facilities. Earlier this month, Israel said it was buying from the United States about 5,000 smart bombs, including 500 1-ton bunker-busters that can destroy 6-foot-thick concrete walls. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has warned that Tehran would react "most severely" to any Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.

    CUBA AND VENEZUELA TO INCREASE COOPERATION

    Cuba and Venezuela will increase their already significant economic and social cooperation, which has provided discounted oil to Cubans and free medical care to Venezuelans, Cuban media said Sunday. "There are many plans and ideas under way, and many possibilities to develop," Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was quoted as stating Saturday night as he closed a three-day planning meeting between the two countries.

    Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister Rafael Ramirez and Cuban Foreign Investment and Cooperation Minister Marta Lomas presided over the closed-door Havana gathering of 280 specialists and officials from both countries. The state-run daily Juventud Rebelde said 116 projects in 15 sectors were being worked on, but gave few details except that they included Cuban exports of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

     PÉREZ ROQUE: PRESIDENT BUSH  ‚HANDCUFFSç UNITED NATIONS

     Cuba accused President George W. Bush on Friday of "handcuffing" the United Nations. In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the United Nations was living through the worst moment in its 59 years, in part because of the U.S. invasion of Iraq without the world body's approval.

    "It pales, it pants, it feigns but it does not work," Perez said. "Who handcuffed the United Nations named by President Roosevelt? President Bush," he said. Perez said 1,000 young Americans were sacrificed in Iraq to serve the "spurious interest of a clique of cronies and buddies, following the death of more than 12,000 Iraqis," one reason the troops should be withdrawn. He spoke shortly after Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, who called on nations to put differences behind them and help his country rebuild its institutions and enhance security.

    Perez called on developing countries to build a common front in and outside of the United Nations because major powers would not relinquish their privileges, such as veto power in the 15-member U.N. Security Council. At the same time, he said, the 191-member General Assembly was largely ignored.

    CHAVEZ ANNOUNCES PURCHASE OF RUSSIAN MILITARY HELICOPTERS

    Venezuela will buy military helicopters from Russia to reinforce its borders, but it will not help neighboring Colombia's government to wage war against left-wing guerrillas and rightist paramilitaries, Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday. Chavez announced the planned $40 million purchase of the Russian helicopters while visiting a southwest sector of the border with Colombia where unidentified gunmen killed five Venezuelan soldiers and an oil engineer on Friday.       

    Chavez said the Russian helicopters would be delivered next year, but he did not specify the type or the number. The former paratroop officer said the reinforced security along the border meant his armed forces would repel any illegal armed groups, Colombian or Venezuelan, that tried to operate inside Venezuelan territory. But he rejected Bogota's calls for joint military operations against Marxist guerrillas waging a decade-old war in Colombia, or against right-wing paramilitaries. "Don't ask us, Colombia, for military help for a war ... there will be no military alliance," Chavez, who wore army uniform, said.

    Chavez has repeatedly denied Colombian and U.S. charges that he supports the Colombian left-wing rebels. He said Venezuela was still investigating whether the killers of its six nationals in Friday's border ambush were Colombian guerrillas, paramilitaries, drug-traffickers, or members of a Venezuelan armed group.  

    ELIÁN REMARK PROVOKES FURY 

    Calling the federal agents who seized Elián González ''armed thugs,'' the campaign of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mel Martinez chided Democratic opponent Betty Castor on Friday for campaigning with the U.S. attorney general who sent the shipwrecked boy back to Cuba four years ago.

    Castor said that Martinez's comments sounded "like a partisan political thing. I have a lot of support for Janet Reno and her work over the years.'' Reno, attending an event with Castor in Miami Friday, defended her decision in the Elián case, saying it had nothing to do with "an election issue.''

    While Martinez's comment may resonate with some Cuban-American voters, it could cost him support among moderate Democrats and Republicans. Friday evening, Martinez spokeswoman Jennifer Coxe backed away from the ''armed thugs'' comment used in an e-mail to reporters, and called it a "regretful term.'' "We have the utmost respect for the law enforcement community.''

     THE CUBAN DICTATOR SIGNS DEALS WITH U.S. TRADE GROUPS AND POLITICIANS TO EVADE THE EMBARGO

    The Dictator Fidel Castro is using his checkbook as leverage to get U.S. firms, trade groups and politicians to sign formal pledges agreeing to work for changes to U.S. laws that restrict travel and trade with Cuba. Castro's use of so-called advocacy agreements has prompted anti-Castro lawmakers to accuse signers of illegal lobbying. It also has forced at least one company to rethink its interest in selling to Cuba. Last month, Sysco, the country's largest food-service provider, notified Cuban authorities it was tearing up an agreement signed a week earlier by one of its subsidiaries.

    The original deal called for Cuba's state-owned purchasing arm, Alimport, to buy Sysco products. For its part, Sysco agreed to act as an advocate for changes in the United States' hard-line policies toward Cuba, including the 45-year-old economic embargo. The Houston-based company tore up its agreement with Alimport because the executive who signed it "wasn't authorized to make a political statement," a spokeswoman says.

    Others that have signed advocacy agreements: the Indiana Farm Bureau; Tampa's Port Manatee (it also rejected its agreement); economic development officials from Des Moines; and elected officials from Idaho, Montana, California, South Carolina and Kansas. The agreements are "a corruption of the commercial process" and a setback for efforts to expand trade with Cuba, says John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, based in New York.

    PÉREZ ROQUE: IF KERRY IS ELECTED PRESIDENT, IT IS NOT ENOUGH THAT HE LIFTS THE EMBARGO

    Despite U.S. efforts to topple Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, Cuba is certain its communist government will be preserved and is optimistic that Cubans and Americans can be friends once the U.S. embargo is lifted, Cuba's foreign minister said on Thursday. In an interview during his visit to the U.N. General Assembly, Felipe Perez Roque made a sharp distinction between the U.S. government's hard-line toward the Cuban dictator and the American public's and Congress' support for easing the sanctions.

    "We rely on the nobility and the sense of justice of the American people," Pérez Roque said. "We don't hold them accountable for our suffering. We believe that just like us they have fallen victims to a policy that has been designed to serve the interests of a small minority."  Perez Roque said if Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry defeats President Bush in November and "lifts some of the blockade measures that would be positive, but it would not be enough."

    "What needs to be done is to lift the blockade completely because it is rejected by the United Nations, both houses of the U.S. Congress, by the American people - and it affects the interests and the rights of all the Cubans living in the United States," he said. Perez Roque said the new measures were having a "tremendous impact," especially on Cuban families in both countries. However, Pérez Roque did not say that until recently, his government violated those rights because it considered a crime any type of relationship between the Cubans living in the island and their families living abroad.

    PRESIDENT BUSH BYPASSES KERRY IN FLORIDA POLL; IN THE SENATE RACE, CASTOR AND MARTINEZ ARE IN DEAD HEAT

    Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan may count as some of the biggest political contributors to President Bush's reelection campaign, according to a poll. The post-hurricane survey shows Bush surging ahead of his Democratic challenger by 49 to 41 percent -- an about-face from August, when Bush trailed Sen. John Kerry 41-47 percent, Quinnipiac University reported Thursday. The poll of 819 registered voters was conducted Sept. 18 to 21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll scheduled for late release Thursday shows Bush at 49 percent and Kerry at 46 percent among likely voters. The error margin is 3.4 percentage points.

    Democrat Betty Castor and Republican Mel Martinez are in a dead heat, according to the poll, the first major survey since the candidates emerged from their bruising Aug. 31 primary fights. Castor, a former state education commissioner, nurses a minuscule lead over the former Bush housing secretary, leading him 43 percent to 42 percent. The CNN poll shows a wider race: Castor leads 51 percent among likely voters to Martinez's 45 percent. Still, after factoring in the polls' error margin, the race is basically dead even. A Martinez spokeswoman said the poll numbers suggest that he isn't hurt by the fact that he hasn't been a statewide office holder, while Castor has.

    HOUSE BACKS LIFTING SOME CUBA TRAVEL LIMITS

    The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday defied the White House and backed a measure that would allow Cuban American families to visit Cuba more frequently. The Bush administration, in a statement, had asked lawmakers not to make any changes to its Cuba travel policy saying that limiting its ability to enforce the policy would help the "desperate and repressive" regime of Fidel Castro.

    Cuba policy is extremely sensitive in Florida, a key swing state in the presidential race where Cuban Americans form a crucial voting bloc. The House voted 225 to 174 to support the amendment which was tacked onto a spending bill funding the Departments of Transport and Treasury in 2005.

    The measure, introduced by Florida Democrat Rep. Jim Davis, would allow Cubans living in the United States to visit Cuba every year, rather than the once every three years that the new travel restrictions allow. If approved, that measure would have ended the U.S. travel ban on Cuba. The Bush administration had threatened to veto the bill if it contained such language.  

    RUDI GIULIANI GIVES "A HAND" TO MEL MARTINEZ 

    New York's former mayor made a campaign stop in Miami on behalf of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mel Martinez. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani rallied hundreds of Republicans in Miami on Wednesday evening, capping a day of campaigning in Florida for U.S. Senate nominee Mel Martinez. Speaking largely to Cuban exiles packed into a one-time car dealership on LeJeune Road -- the new Bush-Cheney Miami headquarters -- Giuliani was greeted with chants of "Rudy! Rudy!''

    The popular mayor urged the enthusiastic crowd to elect the "first Cuban American to the Senate.'' Martinez, of Orlando, is in a tight race with former Education Commissioner Betty Castor, who is scheduled to campaign in Miami on Friday and in Broward County on Sunday.  

     IRAQ'S PRIME MINISTER SAYS SADDAM ASKED HIM FOR MERCY 

    Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said in an interview published Monday that a ''depressed and broken in spirit'' Saddam Hussein had appealed to him for mercy, saying his regime had meant no harm during the years it was in power. Allawi also told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that he's been the target of four assassination attempts since becoming leader of Iraq but he insisted his homeland's chaos would be controlled.

    ''Saddam sent me a verbal message asking for mercy,'' Allawi told Al-Hayat. Saddam said in the message that his regime had been ''working for the general good and they didn't aim to harm.'' Allawi said the message was carried by a member of the current government. He didn't say who or when was the message relayed. ''My answer was these are things the court will determine,'' Allawi was quoted as saying.

    Allawi also said that Saddam and his lieutenants would go on trial soon. ''Roughly speaking, I think October,'' he said, adding that the evidence against Saddam was ''overwhelming.'' The death penalty has been restored in Iraq after it was suspended during the U.S. administration of Iraq. It is not clear if Saddam would be executed if convicted.

    TROPICAL STORM JEANNE BLAMED FOR MORE THAN 700 DEATHS IN HAITI 

    Massive flooding from Tropical Storm Jeanne has claimed the lives of more than 700 people in Haiti, and forecasters say the now hurricane-strength storm could threaten the storm-battered U.S. Southeast, including Florida, as early as this weekend.

    In Gonaives, Haiti, bodies lay outside morgues as U.N. peacekeepers planned the first major distribution of food and water Wednesday. The death toll exceeds 700, Haitian officials said, with more than 600 of them in Gonaives alone. More than 1,000 others were declared missing. Carcasses of pigs, goats and dogs still floated in muddy waters slowly receding from the streets in Gonaives, Haiti's third-largest city with some 250,000 people. Not a house escaped damage.

    Flies buzzed around corpses piled high at the city's three morgues. The electricity was off, and the stench of death hung over the city. Relatives waited outside a morgue set up in the flood-damaged General Hospital all day to identify and bury victims. But vehicles to carry bodies to the cemetery never arrived. Most bodies remained unidentified. "We're going to start burying people in mass graves," said Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.  

     VERY GOOD NEWS FOR PRESIDENT BUSH, NATO ALLIES OK INCREASE IN IRAQ MILITARY TRAINING 

    NATO allies agreed Wednesday to expand the alliance's training mission for Iraqi armed forces after allaying French concerns which had delayed the plans for a week. NATO is expected to send about 300 officers into Iraq to set up and run a military academy outside Baghdad, broadening the mission that began last month with the deployment of 40 NATO instructors.

    While most allies accepted the plan Friday, France and Belgium insisted on more guarantees that costs of the operation would be mostly borne by countries that participate in the mission. Belgium dropped its objections Tuesday. As expected, France, Belgium, Germany and Spain already have said they will not send instructors to Iraq.

    The NATO mission will be headed by U.S. Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who also heads the much bigger U.S. operation to rebuild Iraq's armed forces. Diplomats played down the significance of the French delays and rejected parallels with the NATO crisis in 2003 when France, backed by Germany and Belgium, led opposition within the alliance to the war in Iraq. France incurred U.S. wrath then by delaying the dispatch of NATO reinforcements to guard Turkey's border with Iraq.

    IRAN DEFIES U.N. NUCLEAR WATCHDOG 

    Shrugging off an ultimatum from the U.N. nuclear agency, Iran revealed Tuesday that it started converting tons of raw uranium as part of a process that could be used to make nuclear arms. The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors unanimously adopted a resolution Saturday demanding that Iran freeze all uranium enrichment - including conversion - and warned it faced being taken before the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.

    Describing his country as a victim of "pressures imposed by the United States," Iranian Vice President Reza Aghazadeh said that of the more than 40 tons of uranium being mined for enrichment "some (already) has been used." Enrichment can be used to produce uranium for generating electricity or to create highly processed uranium needed to make nuclear bombs.

    Iran said it was determined to exercise its right to peaceful nuclear technology - even at the risk of severing ties with the IAEA, thereby removing all international oversight. "We will continue along our path even if it leads to an end to international supervision" of Iran's nuclear activities, Khatami said at a military parade in Tehran.

    SECOND AMERICAN HOSTAGE BEHEADED IN IRAQ

    For the second time in as many days, a terrorist group claimed to have killed an American hostage. According to the statement, Tuesday's victim was American Jack Hensley, 48, one of three construction contractors - the others were Eugene Armstrong, 52, and Briton Kenneth Bigley, 62 - who were kidnapped last Thursday from their home in Baghdad. Armstrong's body was found in Baghdad on Monday.

    A terrorist group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi called Tawhid and Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War) claimed responsibility for beheading Armstrong and Hensley. U.S. intelligence officials suspect that Armstrong, Hensley and Bigley were kidnapped by a criminal gang who may have sold them to al-Zarqawi's group.

    On Saturday, al-Zarqawi's group demanded the release of all female prisoners from Abu Ghraib and another Iraqi prison within 48 hours in exchange for the release of Armstrong, Hensley and Bigley. That demand was repeated - with a 24-hour deadline extension - in the videotaped killing of Armstrong distributed Monday night.

    AMERICAN HOSTAGE BEHEADED IN IRAQ

   A militant group in Iraq led by al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi beheaded American Eugene Armstrong and posted a video of the killing on the Internet on Monday. The hostage's body was later recovered and identified, a U.S. official in Washington said. It was not immediately clear where or when it was found. The United States has offered $25 million for information leading to the death or capture of Zarqawi, a Jordanian.

    The video, broadcast on an Islamist site, showed a masked man sawing the construction contractor's head off with a knife. Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group said they had killed Armstrong because U.S. authorities had failed to free women prisoners in Iraqi jails. They had set a 48-hour deadline on Saturday for the releases. They gave the United States another day to meet their demands or Armstrong's fellow hostages, American Jack Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley, would also face death.

    The U.S. military says no women are being held in the two prisons specified, but that two are in U.S. custody. Dubbed "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax" by U.S. forces, they are accused of working on Saddam Hussein's weapons programs and are in a special prison for high-profile detainees. In the video, five armed and masked men stood around the hostage, who was blindfolded and dressed in orange overalls typical of U.S. jails and associated around the world with images of Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay. 

 
     PORTER  GOSS GETS SENATE PANEL'S OK FOR CIA POST  

    A Senate panel on Tuesday approved the nomination of Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., to head the CIA, overcoming Democrats' objections that Goss was too political for the job. In a closed meeting, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted 12 to 4, with three Democrats joining the committee's nine Republicans in approving the nomination and one Democrat making no recommendation.

    Goss' nomination could go before the full Republican-led Senate as early as this week. Goss served as House Intelligence chairman for nearly eight years. He would be only the second CIA director who served in Congress, after former president and House member George H. W. Bush.

    KERRY FUND-RAISERS MET WITH SOUTH KOREAN INTELLIGENCE AGENT

    A South Korean man who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this presidential  election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials sid that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service.

    A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid ''speculation'' he became involved with the Kerry campaign and Democratic Party through contacts with fund-raiser Rick Yi and that his identity couldn't be discussed further. ''According to international tradition, we cannot identify, we cannot say who he is, because he is intelligence people,'' spokesman Min Ryu said.

    The State Department said it has discussed Chung's reported activities with the South Korean government and has no reason to doubt Seoul's representations he was an intelligence agent. The department believes Chung's contacts with donors and fund-raisers, if accurately described in reports, were ''inconsistent'' with the 1963 Vienna Convention that prohibits visiting foreign officials from interfering in the internal politics and affairs of host countries, a spokesman for its legal affairs office said. Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said the campaign did not know Chung was an intelligence agent. Chung works for South Korea's NIS, the country's CIA equivalent.

    CUBANS AT GUANTÁNAMO LAUNCH HUNGER STRIKE

    A group of Cubans who tried to make it to Florida aboard a boat made from a 1959 Buick have started a hunger strike to protest the limbo they've fallen into since being sent to Guantanamo Bay where they are waiting on their asylum claims. The Cubans - 13 of the some 38 - began the hunger strike on Saturday after being held at the U.S. outpost in eastern Cuba for months.

    "What they're asking for is to be granted political asylum in the United States or for the United States to expedite political asylum, or for the minimum a third country, but to not keep them in Guantanamo any longer because that violates international law on political asylum and because the stay there is unbearable," said Sanchez.

    "A small number of Cuban migrants at Guantanamo Naval Base who are waiting third country resettlement by the State Department are conducting a hunger strike to highlight their desire to be resettled rapidly," said Darla Jordan, U.S. State department spokeswoman. "The State Department is in active discussion with several potential resettlement counties with the goal of resettling all eligible migrants at Guantanamo as rapidly as possible." No details were offered as to what countries might accept the Cubans.

    DAN RATHER APOLOGIZES FOR 'MISTAKE IN JUDGMENT' 

    CBS apologized Monday and said it was misled about the authenticity of documents used to support a "60 Minutes" story that questioned President Bush's Vietnam War-era National Guard service, after several experts denounced them as fakes. "We should not have used them," CBS News President Andrew Heyward said. "That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."

    The White House said the affair raises questions about the connections between CBS's source and Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign. CBS's concession was a major blow to the credibility of the news organization and anchor Dan Rather, who reported the story and issued his own apology Monday. "We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry," Rather said.

    A White House spokesman said the whole affair raises questions about the connections between CBS's source and Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign. The documents were said to have been written by Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, indicating he was being pressured to "sugarcoat" the performance ratings of a young Bush, then the son of a Texas congressman, and that the then lieutenant George W. Bush failed to follow orders to take a physical. Killian died in 1984.

     SENATOR JOHN McCAIN SAYS U.S. MADE ‚SERIOUS MISTAKESç AFTER THE INVASION

     Leading members of President Bush's Republican Party on Sunday criticized mistakes and "incompetence" in his Iraq policy and called for an urgent ground offensive to retake insurgent sanctuaries. In appearances on news talk shows, Republican senators also urged Bush to be more open with the American public after the disclosure of a classified CIA report that gave a gloomy outlook for Iraq and raised the possibility of civil war.

     "The fact is, we're in deep trouble in Iraq ... and I think we're going to have to look at some recalibration of policy," Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "We made serious mistakes," said Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who has campaigned at Bush's side this year after patching up a bitter rivalry. McCain, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," cited as mistakes the toleration of looting after the successful U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and failures to secure Iraq's borders or prevent insurgents from establishing strongholds within the country.

    McCain said a ground offensive was urgently needed to retake areas held by insurgents, but a leading Democrat accused the administration of stalling for fear of hurting Bush's reelection chances. A ground offensive was essential to clearing insurgents out of strongholds such as Falluja, McCain said. He joined other lawmakers from both parties who said Iraqi elections scheduled for January would be impossible unless this were done. Sen. John Kyl, like McCain an Arizona Republican, said, "Allowing the Iraqis to make the decisions not to go into some of these sanctuaries, I think, turns out to have not been a good decision, which we're going to have to correct now by going in with our Marines and Army divisions."

    CONGRESSMAN DENNIS HASTERT SAID AL QAEDA WANTS KERRY TO BE ELECTED PRESIDENT 

    House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Sunday that al Qaeda leaders want Sen. John Kerry to beat President Bush in November. At a campaign rally Saturday in his Illinois district with Vice President Dick Cheney, Hastert said al Qaeda "would like to influence this election" with an attack similar to the train bombings in Madrid days before the Spanish national election in March.

    When a reporter asked Hastert if he thought al Qaeda would operate with more comfort if Kerry were elected, the speaker said, "That's my opinion, yes." His spokesman, John Feehery, said also on Sunday that the speaker's comments "were consistent with the speaker's belief that John Kerry would be weak on the war." "If John Kerry is perceived as being weak on the war, then of course, his election would be perceived as a good thing by the terrorists," Feehery said in a written response to questions about Hastert's remarks. "The fact that John Kerry can't make up his mind about the war only strengthens that perception."

    Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, said: "Let me just say this in the simplest possible terms," Edwards said at a rally in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. "When John Kerry is president of the United States, we will find al Qaeda where they are and crush them before they can do damage to the American people." Neither the Bush campaign nor the White House had any comment on Hastert's remarks, but Bush has accused Kerry of repeatedly changing his position on the war in Iraq.

    PRESIDENT BUSH AHEAD OF KERRY IN SWING STATES

    President Bush has pulled ahead of John Kerry in six closely contested swing states that he carried in 2000, shifting the electoral landscape rightward and making it more difficult for challenger Kerry to win the White House, according to a new Knight Ridder-MSNBC poll.  Bush leads in six of the seven battleground states he won four years ago and which were considered among the most competitive this year.

    Bush leads Kerry in Arizona 50 percent to 39 percent; in Missouri by 48-41; in Nevada by 50-45; in New Hampshire by 49-40; in Ohio by 49-42; and in West Virginia by 45-44. A seventh swing state from the Bush column, Florida, couldn't be surveyed accurately this week because of the disruption caused by three hurricanes. The seven states are critical. Assuming they're the most vulnerable of the states that voted for Bush in 2000 Ê as Democrats, Republicans and independent analysts agree Ê winning them all would likely ensure that Bush would win at least the same states he carried in 2000 and another majority of the Electoral College, and thus re-election.

    The Knight Ridder-MSNBC survey of 625 likely voters in each of the six states was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research on Sept. 13-16 and had an error margin of plus or minus four percentage points. Nevada's poll was conducted in conjunction with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Review-Journal.com.

     SPAINçS EX-LEADER BLASTS CASTRO

    Dozens of political prisoners in Cuba should be freed, former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar said Friday at an international conference examining ways to support resistance to Fidel Castro's regime. Aznar said he was ''not going to remain silent,'' while "in Cuba people are held prisoner simply because they have a different opinion from the official line.''

    He addressed the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, which opened a three-day meeting here Friday. The group aims to unite opponents of Castro's regime. Participants highlighted the case of Raúl Rivero, a jailed Cuban dissident journalist and author. ''There's nothing to justify that people like Raúl Rivero should be imprisoned just because they wrote a critical poem against a dictator,'' Aznar said.

    Rivero was arrested in March 2003 along with 74 others in a crackdown on the opposition. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of working with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist system -- allegations both he and Washington have denied. The group was formed as a response to Castro's crackdown.

    UKRAINE ARMS CUBA AND VENEZUELA

    Ukraine's arms exports last year stood at US$530-550m, an increase on the year before when they were officially recorded at $440m. This year's figures for military exports will be heavily boosted by the establishment of two new markets namely Cuba and Venezuela. Sources involved in preparing the contracts have said that the first shipments of military equipment to Cuba and Venezuela are scheduled to take place sometime during September and October.

    The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has recruited officers with Spanish language fluency. These experts have been promised additional increments on their low salaries in return for traveling with the shipments to Cuba and Venezuela. The officers who are set to accompany the shipments will include language experts and interpreters, as well as specialists able to train the Cubans and Venezuelans in the use of the military equipment being supplied.

    During September and October it is expected that the military equipment will be installed on site in both countries. The volume of equipment to be sent  will be equally divided between both countries. The bulk of the military equipment being sent to Cuba and Venezuela is light to medium equipment. This includes light infantry weapons coupled with small and medium sized military vehicles. Negotiations are underway for Ukraine to supply more sensitive and strategically important military equipment to both Cuba and Venezuela.

     ANNAN SAYS IRAQ WAR IS ILLEGAL  

    Britain, Australia and a former U.S. official, stung by criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, insisted on Thursday that their countries' military action in Iraq was legal. All three governments face elections in the near future and have had to grapple with varying degrees of public disquiet about their decision to wage war against Saddam Hussein. Annan said the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was illegal as it violated the U.N. Charter.

    Not so, said Australian Prime Minister John Howard, on the campaign trail ahead of an Oct. 9 election. "The legal advice that we had, and I tabled it at the time, was that the action was entirely valid in international law terms," he told Australian radio. Howard's view was echoed by the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair. "We spelt out at the time our reasons for believing the conflict in Iraq was indeed lawful and why we believed it was necessary," British Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt said.

    In the United States, where President Bush faces Democrat John Kerry in November elections, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth said that if he had been Annan's public relations adviser, "I would have advised him not to say it at all, and if he was going to say it at all, not to say it now." Poland, another staunch backer of U.S.-led military action in Iraq but where legislative elections are not due until the end of next year, insisted the invasion was legal, listing U.N. resolutions relating to Iraq.

    PUTIN THREATENS PREVENTIVE TERROR ACTIONS

    President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia was preparing to take preventive action against terrorists, the Interfax news agency reported. Putin said that "now in Russia, we are seriously preparing to act preventively against terrorists."

    Putin said that the steps would be "in strict accordance with the law and norms of the constitution, relying on international law." Recalling the attempts to appease Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, Putin said there could be no "bargaining" with terrorists. "Every concession leads to a widening of their demands and multiples the losses," Putin was quoted as saying.

     CLEAR RECEPTION FOR RADIO MARTI

    As an unintended result of preparations for hurricane Ivan, residents of Villa Clara province, in central Cuba, were able to tune in U. S. based Radio Martí, when Cuban government civil defense crews took down antennas that normally interfere with the signal. Reportedly, the only frequency that remained affected was 1180 in the AM band, shadowed by Cuban station Radio Rebelde broadcasting in the same frequency.

   Listeners reported, however, that by the afternoon of Monday 13, when the hurricane had drifted west, interference became a factor again. Many listeners report that Radio Martí broadcasts are a welcome relief from Cuban government stations regular fare, saying that lately the U.S. based station broadcast hurricane updates every half hour whereas the Cuban stations issued historic and didactic screeds on hurricanes as well as lengthy reports on government preparations for the hurricane.

    CUBAN AMERICAN CONGRESSMEN CELEBRATE HISTORIC VICTORY ON HOUSE FLOOR 

    The Four Cuban American Members of Congress, Rep. Menendez (D-NJ), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, today celebrated a historic victory for freedom and democracy in Cuba on the floor of the House. Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) publicly withdrew his amendment to unilaterally allow unrestricted U.S. tourism and the billions of dollars it would provide to communist Cuba.  Flake's withdrawal acknowledged the fact that he did not have the votes to win today. 

    Immediately following the victory, the Congressmen offered the following comments:

    Rep. Robert Menendez:  "Our constant education campaign with our colleagues achieved a majority of votes to defeat the Flake Amendment for unilateral tourism to Cuba."
    Rep. Robert Lincoln Diaz-Balart: "I thank all of my colleagues in the House of Representatives who had made it clear that they were going to oppose Flake's attempt to unilaterally provide billions of dollars in U.S. tourism to the Cuban dictatorship,"
    Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: "Today's was an extraordinary victory."
    Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart: "It was Castro who lost today, not just Flake." 

 
    DAN RATHER BASED HIS REPORT AGAINST PRESIDENT BUSH ON FAKE DOCUMENTS 

    Acknowledging questions raised about documents suggesting lapses in President Bush's National Guard service, CBS promised a full-court effort to determine their authenticity while standing by its story. ''We will keep an open mind and we will continue to report credible evidence and responsible points of view as we try to answer the questions raised about the authenticity of the documents,'' anchor Dan Rather said on ''60 Minutes'' on Wednesday.

    ''If we uncover any information to the contrary, rest assured we shall report that also,'' the embattled anchor said. His report came after a day of political heat Wednesday, when top Republicans tried to tie the Kerry campaign to the disputed documents, called for a congressional investigation and for CBS to retract its story.

    In question are memos purportedly written by Bush's late squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, indicating that he had been pressured to sugar coat Bush's performance and that the future president had ignored an order to take a physical. CBS on Wednesday flew Killian's former secretary, Marian Carr Knox, 86, from Texas to New York for an interview. In the interview, Knox said she believed the documents were fake but their content accurately reflected Killian's opinions.

    CHAVEZ WANTS TO AMEND THE VENEZUELA CONSTITUTION 

    Opposition leaders deemed as a provocation a constitutional amendment draft proposed by pro-government congressman Luis Velásquez Alvaray, which would allow president Hugo Chávez to be reelected without any time restrictions, reported DPA.

    Assemblyman Pastor Heydra (opposition AD party) said the proposal is aimed at "entangling"  even more the political environment and misleading the opposition with excessive debates in the National Assembly. He said the proposal is being advanced by pro-government deputy Cilia Flores.

    U.S HOUSE DROPS DEBATE ON CUBA TRAVEL VAN 

    A measure that would end the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba was dropped Wednesday by its chief House sponsor, who said he could not get "meaningful debate" in an election year on legislation that has attracted bipartisan support for several years. Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, withdrew his measure, saying "with elections so close and politics so raw, this debate would not receive the thoughtful deliberation it deserves."

    Cuba policy is extremely sensitive in Florida, a key swing state in the presidential race where Cuban-Americans form a crucial voting bloc. Both the House and the Senate in the past have backed altering the trade embargo to allow legal travel to Cuba. But the measure always has been stripped from final versions of bills and never been signed into law.

    IVAN "THE TERRIBLE" BRUSHES CUBA WITH WIND ... IT COULD HAVE BEEN FAR WORSE IF THE CUBANS HAD NOT PRAYED -- SOME FOR THE FIRST TIME 

    "It's still premature to know the damage and loss,'' Civil Defense Lt. Angel Macareno said Tuesday night on a state-run television program focusing on the hurricane's aftermath. Macareno credited Cuba's evacuation program for ensuring no one died. He said nearly 1.9 million of the nation's 11.2 million people were evacuated before Ivan "The Terrible" struck the island. Evacuations in Cuba are widespread and mandatory. Civil defense plans are highly developed,  with preparedness education programs for the entire population.

    "The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions, and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does,'' Salvano Briceno, director of the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, said in Geneva. However, the question we ask ourselves is: If the Communist Government of Cuba takes care of its people so well, why millions of Cubans want to leave the Island, even at the risk of their lives?

   DEMOCRATIC COORDINATOR REQUESTS ANNULMENT OF PRESIDENTIAL RECALL VOTE 

    The opposition alliance Democratic Coordinator requested the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), through a constitutional appeal, to declare null and void the results of the presidential recall vote.

    Delsa Solórzano, legal adviser for the opposition umbrella group, submitted the TSJ the legal action against the August 15 vote because according to them it was plagued with wrongdoings, which are listed in an account presented to the Electoral Power last week.

    The opposition alliance would also request the TSJ "to define the current legal status" of president Hugo Chávez, because they say it is not clear if he was recalled.

    AT LEAST FIFTY-NINE KILLED BY A CAR BOMB IN BAGHDAD 

    A car bomb Tuesday ripped through a busy market near a Baghdad police headquarters where Iraqis were waiting to apply for jobs on the force, and gunmen opened fire on a van carrying police home from work in Baqouba, killing at least 59 people total and wounding at least 114.

    Despite U.S. claims that Iraqi forces are showing more resolve to fight, insurgents have only grown stronger and have shown they can strike at will, particularly in Baghdad. Tuesday's attacks came only two days after a surprise insurgent offensive in the capital that saw mortars pounding downtown Baghdad and left 60 dead.

    Tuesday's car bomb exploded by a bustling row of shops and cafes and left a gaping 10-foot crater in Haifa Street - the same central avenue where much of Sunday's violence took place. The blast devastated buildings and gutted cars near the western Baghdad police headquarters. Though the attack apparently targeted police, many of the 47 dead were people who had been shopping or having a morning meal. 

     IVAN "THE TERRIBLE" BEGINS RECEDING FROM CUBA AFTER NIGHT-LONG POUNDING 

    Hurricane Ivan began loosening its hold on Cuba this morning after bombarding the nation's western provinces with the full fury of a Category 5 killer storm. No casualties were immediately reported, though the storm's trailing effects still rocked the region and little news emerged from the area. By early yesterday, Ivan already had damaged hundreds of homes with crushing winds, crashed 15-foot waves into the Isle of Youth and swamped at least two towns.

    The hurricane seemed to mushroom in size Monday night even as it maintained its deadly power. It was so vast that its clouds simultaneously covered Cuba, the Florida Keys, the entire Florida peninsula and portions of the Bahamas, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. And it was heading toward Florida. Forecasters posted a hurricane watch Monday night on the entire Florida Panhandle and as far west as Morgan City, La., including New Orleans.

    On Monday, the weather station in Sandino, a town in Pinar del Río, reported 125-mph sustained winds and 160-mph gusts from Ivan. After arousing hope that its fierce inner core would bypass Cuba, Ivan veered closer, striking the island's western tip with the eastern edge of the catastrophic eye wall, rocking it with wind and rain. Still, it appeared that the nation at large was granted a reprieve and would not be savaged.

    INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS PUBLISH A DIGITAL NEWS BULLETIN IN CUBA --  http://www.puenteinfocubamiami.org

    Breaking with the internet censorship of the government a group of independent journalists and collaborators of The Independent Cuban News Agency of Information and Press LUX-INFO-PRESS, are publishing a Digital News Bulletin from Cuba, announced a source of the group.

    According to the information, the collaborators of Lux-Info-Press in Havana, D.S.Burton, Orlando Carlos García Pérez, Rolando S. Calvet, Maytee M. López, Héctor Alonso Santos and Mercedes Toledo.  Under the direction of journalist Gilberto Figueredo Álvarez, they are generating a news report edited for the digital international  press, with reports from their investigative unit, and other news  provided by their permanent collaborators.

    In the communist Island, citizens do not have private access to the internet.  Most non-official channels are controlled and monitored by the Cuba State Security Apparatus and the e-mails are being monitored and read by government intelligence services.  There is a Department within the Ministry of  Technological Information of the Cuban Government whose only task is to persecute those who use the internet through non-official channels considered "illegal" .  Once the so called illegal internet user" is located, he is turned over to the Ministry of the Interior who in turn decides that person's fate.

     HUGO CHÁVEZ GOVERNMENT REJECTS U.S. SANCTIONS 

    Bernardo Alvarez, Hugo Chavez's Ambassador to the U.S., accused president George W. Bush of "politicizing" the discussion to limit the economic support to Venezuela because of its alleged lack of effort in the fight against the international trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation.

    Alvarez made public a communiqué in Washington rejecting the U.S. sanctions against president Hugo Chávez' government. "We are extremely disappointed that the U.S. government has politicized such an important international issue."

    The U.S. is to limit the support granted to the Venezuelan government for considering it is not playing a sufficient role in the control of the trafficking of people. Washington announced it would limit its economic support to Venezuela for the fiscal year 2005, beginning on October 1, "until the government respects the minimum rules or makes a significant effort to enforce them."

    HURRICANE IVAN "THE TERRIBLE"  LASHES CUBA WESTERN REGION

    Hurricane Ivan "The Terrible" unleashed its powerful wind and driving rain Monday on Cuba. With sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph), the Category 5 storm's eye was about 70 miles (110 km) south-southeast of the western tip of the island nation, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.  "Depending on the exact motion ... the center could miss the western tip of Cuba and could even move near the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, during the next 24 hours," the hurricane center said. The  winds extended outward up to 105 miles (165 km) from the center, and tropical storm force winds extended up to 205 miles (335 km). Projections indicate Ivan will head into the Gulf of Mexico and toward the Florida-Alabama border by Wednesday night.

    In Jamaica, authorities raised the death toll from the storm to 17, including eight people believed to have been swept away by a tidal surge in a town on the island's south coast when the storm hit. The deaths of 37 people in Grenada were blamed on Ivan, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency. Venezuela and the Dominican Republic each reported four deaths blamed on the storm. The storm's westward shift takes the center of the storm farther from Havana, but the capital city was still at risk. The majority of the capital city's 2.5 million residents live in dilapidated housing which have not been repaired during the last 45 years.

    NEW POLLS CONFIRM A CLEAR LEAD OF PRESIDENT BUSH

    President Bush has a clear lead over Democrat John Kerry in a new Associated Press poll, but the president has a greater advantage on protecting the country - the issue voters say they care about most.  Seven weeks before Election Day, Bush is considered significantly more decisive, strong and likable than Kerry, and he has strengthened his position on virtually every issue important to voters, from the war in Iraq and creating jobs - two sources of criticism - to matters of national security and values.

    Since the Democratic National Convention ended in late July, the president has erased any gains Kerry had achieved while reshaping the political landscape in his favor:  Nearly two-thirds of voters think protecting the country is more important than creating jobs, and Bush is favored over Kerry by a whopping 23 percentage points on who would keep the United States safe. Among those most likely to vote, the Republican ticket of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney holds a lead of 51 percent to 46 percent over Kerry and Sen. John Edwards, with independent Ralph Nader receiving 1 percent.  

    POWELL: IRAQ ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD IN JANUARY AS SCHEDULED 

    Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday the insurgency in Iraq, which has wrested several cities from U.S. control, will not go away soon but will be sufficiently quiet by January for elections to be held on schedule. "I can say to you right now that the prime minister, Mr. (Ayad) Allawi, is determined to go forward with these elections," Powell said.

    "Our strategy for the next several months, our political and military strategy, will be to recover each of these places and put them firmly back ... under the control of the Iraqi interim government so that elections can be held," Powell asserted: "When that insurgency is put down, what the people of the world will see are Iraqis in charge of their own destiny, moving forward toward an election that will provide for a representative form of government. It's going to be something that we'll be able to be proud of."

     Powell acknowledged the U.S.-led coalition faces difficulties but said the Bush administration is committed to making Iraq stable. "This is not the time to get weak in the knees or faint about it, but to drive on and finish the work that we started," he said.

    WHERE IS TV MARTI C-130 HIDING?

    People in central Cuba expressed frustration over the missing TV Martí broadcast last Saturday. The station broadcasts from the U. S. through a C-130 transport flying over the Florida Keys, and due to the proximity of Hurricane Frances, it did not go on the air September 4.

    On the previous Saturdays, August 21 and 28, many viewers reported receiving the signal primarily in Cienfuegos and Villa Clara provinces.

    PRESIDENT BUSH ORDERS SANCTIONS AGAINST HUGO CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT

    President Bush on Friday ordered a partial cut in U.S. assistance to Hugo Chavez government because of its alleged role in the international trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation. The action means the United States will not support $250 million in Venezuelan loan requests expected to come before international lending institutions during the next fiscal year, a State Department official said.

    If Venezuela secures sufficient support from other governments, its loan requests could be approved without U.S. backing. Bush took the action under legislation that calls for sanctions against countries that fail to crack down on international trafficking in persons. The legislation is designed to encourage countries to take decisive action against the practice.

    President Bush's decision was announced in a White House memorandum to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Left intact were programs designed to monitor Venezuelan elections and to support political party development, part of U.S. efforts to promote democracy worldwide. It is official U.S. policy to carry out these activities on a nonpartisan basis, but Venezuela complained this year that the U.S. program in that country favored groups that supported the recall of Hugo Chavez.

    CUBANS WILL USE TUNNELS TO HIDE FROM IVAN "THE TERRIBLE'S" WORST... BUT THEY ALSO HAVE TO PRAY ...

    Still reeling from Hurricane Charley's havoc last month, Cuba girded for Hurricane Ivan (The Terrible) by evacuating 40,000 people from flood-prone areas and directing some of them to a network of tunnels dug under Havana during the 1980s and 1990s in preparation for a possible U.S. attack. ''Me, underground? No way. It's very disagreeable,'' a resident said. "I couldn't take it.'' The head of the Cuban Patriotic Political Counsel said, "The hurricane in Cuba is Fidel Castro, and he has lasted 45 years.''

    ''People are panicking,'' a senior resident of a Soviet-built apartment complex in Havana's Playa neighborhood said.  "I've never seen anything like it.'' The woman added that other complex residents planned to stay home despite a ''mandatory'' evacuation order, out of fear of losing their belongings to thieves and a reluctance to move to the tunnels. In Miami, one warehouse had already been packed with more than 225 boxes of food, medicine, clothing and children's school supplies, ready to be shipped as soon as Cuba gives the OK. But other Cuban exiles said that they will not even try to help because they have no trust in the government of dictator Fidel Castro.

    There was no advance word of U.S. economic aid, if any,  to Cuba because of Ivan. However, Castro already said he won't accept it. ''The only thing we can allow is a total end to the blockade and the economic aggression of our country!'' Castro said. A well-known dissident said Castro's defiance had not gone down well among some of his Cuban acquaintances. ''Many people are indignant because they know that the government here does not have the ability to prevent damage that might occur,'' he said.

    NATION REMEMBERS SEPTEMBER 11 CRIMINAL TERRORIST ATTACKS

    Vigils are being held today across the world to remember the victims of the September 11 attacks. The 2,749 killed three years ago are being formally honored at the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania on Saturday. Across the nation, bells tolled, firefighters and policemen will stand at attention, and in many places, moments with no words at will be held for the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

    At the White House, President George W. Bush said: "On September 11, 2001, America was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty. We remember the tragedy of that day. We remember the images of fire, and the final calls of love, and the courage of rescuers who saw death and did not flee (CAMCO'S Note: As the Russian commandos did in the Beslan School where 340 persons --including 156 children-- were killed by terrorists). We remember the many good lives that ended too soon. We remember the families left behind to carry a burden of sorrow; they have shown a courage of their own. During this year's National Days of Prayer and Remembrance, Americans join together to pray for those who were lost, and for their loved ones."

    "Since that day, our Nation has waged a relentless war against terror and evil. We pray for the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces who are serving our country on the front lines of this war. They have answered a great call, and our Nation is grateful for their courage, love of country, and dedication to duty. We recognize the sacrifice of military families and pray that they find comfort in faith and in knowing that their loved ones are serving an historic cause - defending our country and advancing peace and freedom in the world. On this third anniversary of September 11th, we feel the warm courage of national unity - a unity of grief and a unity of resolve. And we pray that God will continue to watch over and bless America."

    CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO: WE WILL NOT ACCEPT HUMANITARIAN AID FROM THE UNITED STATES 

    Cuban dictator Fidel Castro warned residents to brace for the storm. ''Whatever the hurricane does, we will all work together'' to rebuild, he said on Cuban television Thursday night, making clear his government would stick with its position of not accepting humanitarian aid from the U.S. government.

    Cuba continues to monitor the trajectory of category 5 hurricane, Ivan (The Terrible), and six provinces are now on hurricane watch. The high intensity hurricane is moving west-northwest at 15 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph and a minimum central pressure of 921 mb, according to a Meteorology Institute advisory. The eastern Cuban provinces of Camagéey, Las Tunas, Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo are on alerts go up, but the nation is closely following Ivançs evolution. About 28,000 people are being taken to safe places in the eastern province of Holguín.

     AUTHENTICITY OF PRESIDENT BUSH TEXAS GUARD MEMOS QUESTIONED 

    Questions are being raised about the authenticity of newly unearthed memos which asserted that George W. Bush ignored an order from a superior officer in the Texas Air National Guard and lost his status as a pilot because he failed to meet military performance standards and undergo a required physical exam.

    CBS, which reported on the memos on its "60 Minutes" program, said its experts who examined the documents concluded that they were authentic. They ostensibly were written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, one of Bush's commanders in 1972 and 1973. But Killian's son, one of Killian's fellow officers and an independent document examiner questioned the memos. Gary Killian, who served in the Guard with his father and retired as a captain in 1991, said he doubted his father would have written an unsigned memo which said there was pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's performance review.

    The personnel chief in Killian's unit at the time, Rufus Martin, also said he believes the documents are fake. "They looked to me like forgeries," said Martin. "I don't think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years." Killian died in 1984. Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft Word software. "I'm virtually certain these were computer generated," Lines said. She produced a nearly identical document using her computer's Microsoft Word software.

    CÉSAR GAVIRIA RECEIVES FRAUD REPORT

    Venezuelan opposition representatives Governor Enrique Mendoza, Timoteo Zambrano, Tulio Alvarez and Asdrúbal Aguiar Thursday met  with the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), César Gaviria, to discuss the opposition alliance's latest findings on an alleged vote fraud during the August 15 recall referendum on President Hugo Chávez.

    During the meeting, behind closed doors, the opposition delegates presented Gaviria the evidence a special team collected to demonstrate the vote fraud. Sources said the Democratic Coordinator may ask Gaviria to launch an investigation on the SBC Consortium (comprising U.S. Smartmatic Corp., Venezuela Bizta Software, and Venezuela Cantv), which provided the computerized electoral system implemented during the election.

     U.S. DIPLOMAT BUILDS REPLICA OF CUBAN DUNGEON 

    The top U.S. diplomat in Cuba built a replica of a solitary confinement prison cell in which a leading dissident was held for two months. The replica of the cramped cell with only one ventilation slot and no light bulb was exhibited at a diplomatic reception attended by Cuban dissidents on Wednesday night at the residence of James Cason, head of the U.S. Interests Section.

    "This is how political prisoners are treated in Cuba," said Cason, who had the iron and wood cell built at his residence. The 6-1/2 foot-long 6-1/2 foot-high and 3 foot-wide model was based on details sent from jail by physician Oscar Elias Biscet, who has spent more than four years in Cuban prisons for opposing President Fidel Castro's communist-run government.

    The cell had a drain hole for a toilet and an opening at the bottom of the iron door to receive food. The replica had a plate of rice and beans, and a plastic rat and cockroaches that Biscet's wife, Elsa Morejon, said entered the cell from the drain. "The reality of punishment cells is even harsher. You have to add the heat, the humidity and the mosquitoes," said human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez. "To keep people in such conditions is physical torture."  

    IVAN "THE TERRIBLE" TO HIT CUBA WITH WINDS OF UP TO 170 MPH

    The powerful hurricane Ivan (The Terrible) strengthened in the Caribbean and appeared destined to make direct strikes on Jamaica and Cuba. Ivan was blamed for the deaths of at least three people on Grenada, which it blasted with winds so strong they flattened concrete homes. Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent also absorbed major hits. Forecasters warned of flooding rains in Haiti and the Dominican Republic from Ivan's outlying but potent squalls.

    The long-range forecast, subject to considerable error but also showing considerable consistency, predicted that Ivan's core would strike Jamaica on Friday and Cuba on Sunday, possibly passing over or close to Havana. Those forecasts also brought Ivan very close to the Florida Keys and fairly close to South Florida, possibly affecting our weather by late Saturday or early Sunday -- depending on the size and scope of the storm.

   Ivan reportedly damaged at least 176 homes in Barbados and left many residents without water and electricity. The Atlantis Hotel and Ocean Spray Hotel, just outside Bridgetown, the capital, lost part of their roofs. At 11 a.m. EDT, the eye of Hurricane Ivan was located about 795 miles east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 1,285 miles from South Florida. Ivan was moving toward the west-northwest at 16 mph. That motion was expected to continue during the next 24 hours.

    BLACKOUTS KEEP RADIO STATION OFF THE AIR 

    Thousands of listeners of "Central Cuba's Queen of the Airwaves" are missing important news about hurricane Ivan due to the frequent blackouts in the area where the station's transmitters are located in the city of Santa Clara.

    The outages at station CMHW are but another annoyance brought about by the blackouts that often last up to 12 hours. Refrigerators are not on for long enough to keep the food safe, and productive facilities such as bakeries often can't deliver their production.

    MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: CHENEY'S CHARGE WAS "IRRESPONSIBLE" 

    "I have heard a lot of outrageous statements at various times in my president's elections, but I think this kind of scare tactic by the vice president of the United States is irresponsible," Madeleine Albright, a Democrat who served under Bill Clinton as Secretary of State said during a televised program.

    September 11 "everybody knows, has changed a way that we are looking at fighting terrorism," Albright said. "Senator Kerry has made very clear that he will seek a victory over the terrorists, and that this is a -- a battle that he will pursue with vigor. I just find this kind of a statement (by Cheney) over the top."  Cheney, campaigning in Iowa, said Tuesday that the United States risked suffering another terrorist attack if voters do not reelect George W. Bush in the November 2 presidential election.

    "If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again," he said, implying that Kerry was less determined than Bush in fighting extremists. On Tuesday, Kerry's running mate, John Edwards accused Cheney of "crossing the line" with his comments. "Dick Cheney's scare tactics crossed the line today, showing once again that he and George Bush will do anything and say anything to save their jobs," Edwards replied in a statement. 

    RUSSIA THREATENS TO STRIKE TERRORIST BASES 

    General Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of the general staff of Russia's armed forces, asserted Russia's right to strike terrorists beyond its borders. "As for carrying out preventive strikes against terrorist bases ... we will take all measures to liquidate terrorist bases in any region of the world," he told reporters. The Bush administration also has a policy of pre-emptive military action against terrorists.

    Russia's Federal Security Service offered a reward of $10 million Ê its biggest bounty ever Ê for information that could help "neutralize" Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, whom officials have accused of masterminding last week's hostage crisis. Maskhadov, the former president of Chechnya, had denied any involvement in the school standoff, according to aides.

    "After all, we are talking about those individuals who stand behind bloody attacks by terrorists in Russia, which have drawn the indignation of the entire civilized word," Yakovenko said in a statement. Officials said the approximately 30 attackers, including two women, had met in a forest early Sept. 1 before heading to School No. 1 in Beslan in a truck and two jeeps packed with weapons and ammunition.
 

    ARGENTINA AND CUBA AGREE TO INCREASE TRADE

    Argentina has put aside years of squabbling with Cuba over the Caribbean island's $2 billion debt in an effort to increase trade, the country's ambassador, Raul Abraham Taleb, said on Tuesday. Cuba maintains the debt total is between $600 million and $800 million, not the $2 billion Argentina claims. Taleb said at a Havana press conference on trade plans between the two countries that the debt would be dealt with in the medium term, which he described as 10 to 20 years.

    Taleb said. Cuba's debt to Argentina dates back to the 1970s and has strained bilateral relations since President Fidel Castro's government declared a moratorium on all debt payments in 1986. Bilateral trade, which once topped $350 million annually, declined to $40 million in 2002, partly because Cuba must pay 60 days in advance for imports under Argentine Central Bank rules. Trade began to increase last year when Cuba began purchasing food for cash. "It is not easy trading with Cuba in part because there are Central Bank restrictions due to Cuba's debt," Taleb said. Cuba has not reported on its foreign debt since 2001 when it was $11 billion.

    CUBANS, INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE ISLAND,  RENDER TRIBUTE TO THE LADY OF CHARITY, PATRONESS OF CUBA 

     Despite de devastation created by Charley and Frances in Florida and Cuba, today is a day of prayer, faith, hope -- and yearning ú for all Cubans, inside and outside the Island, to celebrate in Catholic churches, in the streets, as well as in the privacy of their homes, the Day of Our LADY OF CHARITY (LA CARIDAD DEL COBRE), PATRONESS OF CUBA. Young and old Cubans will attend the religious events scheduled in their cities or towns. All Cubans remember the Catholic festivities in a pre-1960s Cuba and hope for a time when they could celebrate the feast back in a FREE and DEMOCRATIC Cuba.
 
    Those outside Cuba are praying not just as regular Catholics but as Cuban exiles. They also pray for more love, and strength to help them survive their involuntary exodus. They are asking for their "CACHITA", through her son Jesus Christ, to restore democracy and peace to Cuba. Not by more dying or suffering, but in the way that God wants the liberation to come. The Patron Saint was canonized by Pope John II during his visit to Cuba in 1998.

    Also today, September 8, a hope for a democratic Cuba will vibrate through rosary prayers that will be led by a Cuban Catholic priest at the Church of Charity in Havana, Cuba. Thousands of Cubans carried the Virgin of the Charity and the Virgin of Regla in more than 50 processions through the streets of Regla, a worker's district in the port of Havana.

     FREQUENT AND PROLONGED BLACKOUTS AGGRAVATE HOT SUMMER IN CUBA

    Cuban authorities called on the island's 11 million inhabitants to save electricity in the face of prolonged blackouts that have added discomfort to a hot summer. Frequent power cuts have brought complaints from Cubans over enduring sweltering nights with no fans or air conditioning and food rotting in their fridges.

    The outages began after Cuba's largest power plant, located near the city of Matanzas, broke down in May during maintenance work, depriving the country of almost one fifth of its power needs. Hurricane Charley made matters worse in western Cuba by downing high voltage power lines and electrical poles in and around Havana during its furious passage Aug. 13. The whole of the western province of Pinar del Rio had no power for 11 days.

    Electricity Demand regulator Victor Puentes said the Antonio Guiteras generator near Matanzas, 60 miles east of Havana, will be repaired in 10 days, improving power supplies. But maintenance work on other generators will mean power cuts will continue through the end of the year, Puentes said in an interview with the ruling Communist party newspaper Granma. "We must continue saving electricity at work places and homes to contribute to the stability of this vital service," he said. For many Cubans, the long outages have brought back memories of long blackouts during the so-called "special period" of the mid-1990s, when Cuba was plunged into economic crisis by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which supplied the island with cheap oil.

   CAR BOMB NEAR FALLUJAH KILLS SEVEN MARINES

    An suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed vehicle on the outskirts of Fallujah on Monday, killing seven U.S. Marines and three Iraqi national guardsmen, the U.S. military said. It was the deadliest day for U.S. forces in four months of fighting.

    The suicide bombing nine miles north of Fallujah - a stronghold for Sunni insurgents - destroyed two Humvees, witnesses said. Medical teams in helicopters swept into the dusty, barren site to ferry away the injured, and troops sealed off the surrounding wreckage. The force of the car bomb sent the vehicle's engine "a good distance" from the site, a military official said on condition of anonymity.

    The Marines killed were members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is charged with securing the western Anbar province, an area rife with guerrillas. Names of the dead U.S. and Iraqi troops were withheld pending family notification. With Monday's deaths and those of two U.S. soldiers in a mortar barrage outside Baghdad a day earlier, 985 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the Defense Department.

     STATISTICIAN QUOTED BY THE CARTER CENTER ADMITS HE WAS WRONG 

    A group of Venezuelan engineers and experts in mathematics rebutted the statement of U.S. statistician Jonathan Taylor, on whose researches The Carter Center based to claim that no fraud was committed in the August 15 revoking referendum on President Hugo Chávez, and Taylor publicly backed down in his web page (www.stat.standford.edu/jtaylo/) and admitted he was wrong.

    Jorge Rodríguez, a spokesman for the group, previously said they sent Taylor a mathematic model the engineer Elio Valladares developed to show Taylor that is was highly unlikely that similar results were obtained in 336 different voting stations, as Taylor ensured. Rodríguez added that Taylor sent him an e-mail admitting: "I have realized my model was wrong."

    "Therefore, the figures The Economist quoted (in an article by The Carter Center official Jennifer McCoy claiming that the August 15 recall vote was transparent) are seriously defective." Taylor corrected his model and admitted that the new results "all almost identical to yours. I regret not having realized my mistake before the article was published in The Economist."

CARACAS,  September 7

    SUMATE: THERE IS A 99% PROBABILITY OF FRAUD IN REFERENDUM

    Opposition non-governmental organization Súmate Sunday disclosed a report prepared by independent experts Ricardo Hausmann, a Harvard University teacher, and Roberto Rigobon, a teacher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, showing that there is a 99 percent of probabilities that a fraud was committed on the August 15 recall referendum on President Hugo Chávez. The findings have reinforced Súmate's doubts about the transparency of the election results.

    Hausmann explained that the study compared the results the National Electoral Council (CNE) published for 340 electoral centers with the number of signatures the opposition collected in November-December last year to demand a revoking referendum against Chávez, and with the exit polls both Súmate and the opposition Primero Justicia party conducted on August 15 at said electoral centers.

    Hausmann, who is a teacher of Economics at the Harvard University, ensured that on August 18 the CNE conducted an audit on a sample of voting stations that was neither representative nor randomly selected. According to Hausmann, the CNE chose the voting stations in advance, from the electoral centers that were not manipulated, in order to prevent irregularities from being detected.

    CAPTURE OF AL-DOURI PROVED FALSE

    An Interior Ministry spokesman said medical tests on a man being held in custody showed he is not former president Saddam Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, ending conflicting claims about his purported arrest.

    The man is a relative of al-Douri, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim, and was wanted by authorities, but not an important member of Saddam's ousted regime. On Sunday, Iraqi officials said they had nabbed al-Douri - the most-wanted member of Saddam's regime - during a shootout north of Baghdad, but later in the day the Iraqi defense minister said word of his arrest was "baseless."

    There have been incorrect reports of al-Douri's arrest in the past. American officials believe that al-Douri - Saddam's former right-hand man - is playing an organizing role in the 16-month insurgency that has plagued U.S. forces here.

   AL-DOURI, LEADING IRAQI FUGITIVE CAPTURED

    Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, deputy commander of armed forces under Saddam Hussein, was captured Sunday near Tikrit by the Iraqi national guard and U.S. troops, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said. He was the highest-level Iraqi official not yet captured.  Last November, the U.S. military announced a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.

    The military said al-Douri was organizing many attacks by insurgents in Iraq. Al-Douri was number six on the U.S. military's list of 55 most wanted Iraqi officials, which described him as vice-chairman of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council. He was the king of clubs on the U.S. military's card deck showing wanted Iraqi officials .

    U.S. officials say al-Douri was also involved in Saddam's decision to use chemical weapons against Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988. That attack killed 5,000 people and left 10,000 severely injured -- many blinded, maimed, or disfigured Iraqi. Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan had warned that al-Douri could face trial in absentia if he was not found. 

    COMMUNIST CUBA FINISHED WELL BELOW OLYMPIC FORECAST -- USA FINISHED FIRST WITH 103 MEDALS

    Communist Cuba left Athens in 11th place on the medals table, two places behind its standing in Sydney 2000, with 9 gold, 7 silver, and 11 bronze medals, also below expectations. Boxing was the biggest boost to the Cuban medal count, with 5 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze. Three of these came in on the last day of competition.

    Out of 65 medals garnered in 12 Olympiads, 32 of them have come from boxing. Other Cuban medals were for baseball, wrestling, shot put, and javelin. However, The United States beat its target of 100 winning 103 in total, 35 of them gold, 39 silver and 29 bronze. Russia finished second with 92, including 27 gold, 27 silver and 38 bronze. China finished third with 63, including 32 gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze.

    MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED FORTY PEOPLE, INCLUDING 156 CHILDREN, WERE KILLED IN RUSSIA SCHOOL STANDOFF

    More than 340 people - nearly half of them children - were killed in a hostage-taking at a southern school. President Vladimir Putin went on national television to tell Russians that they must mobilize against terrorism and promised wide-ranging reforms to toughen security forces and purge corruption. ''We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten,'' he said. Regional Emergency Situations Minister Boris Dzgoyev said 323 people, including 156 children, were killed. More than 542 people including 336 children were hospitalized, medical officials said.

    During his visit to Beslan, Putin stressed that security officials had not planned to storm the school - trying to fend off any potential criticism that the government side had provoked the bloodshed. He ordered the region's borders closed while officials searched for everyone connected with the attack. ''What happened was a terrorist act that was inhuman and unprecedented in its cruelty,'' Putin said in his televised speech later. ''It is a challenge not to the president, the parliament and the government but a challenge to all of Russia, to all of our people. It is an attack on our nation.''

    He called for Russians to mobilize against what he said was the ''common danger'' of terrorism. Measures would be taken, Putin promised, to overhaul the law enforcement organs, which he acknowledged had been infected by corruption, and tighten borders. ''We are obliged to create a much more effective security system and to demand action from our law enforcement organs that would be adequate to the level and scale of the new threats,'' he said. An unidentified intelligence official was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying the school assault was financed by Abu Omar As-Seyf, an Arab who allegedly represents al-Qaida in Chechnya, and masterminded by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev.  

    CAR BOMBING KILLS AT LEAST TWENTY PERSONS IN NORTHERN IRAQ 

    A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb Saturday outside an Iraqi police academy as hundreds of trainees and civilians were leaving for the day, killing 20 people and wounding 36 others in the latest attack designed to thwart U.S-backed efforts to build a strong Iraqi security force ahead of January elections.

    The car bomb in Kirkuk littered the street with bloodied bodies, gutted cars, shards of glass and twisted metal. The police academy's steps were covered in blood. "I saw one of my friends killed before my eyes. I couldn't do anything to help him," said Bassem Ali, a student at the academy who was hurt in the blast. Kirkuk police put the toll at 20 dead and 36 wounded. "This is a terrorist act against members of Iraqi police who were going home," said Kirkuk police Col. Sarhat Qadir.

    Militants have blown up police stations all over the country, gunned down officers in drive-by shootings and battered police recruitment centers with mortar barrages and rocket-propelled grenades - leaving policemen increasingly terrified and deterring would-be recruits. From April 2003 to May 2004 alone, 710 Iraqi police were killed out of a total force of 130,000, authorities said.  

    CUBA IMMIGRANT ARRESTED FOR FAILING TO DISCLOSE HE ONCE WORKED FOR CUBAçS INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

    A hospital translator faces an immigration hearing after federal agents arrested him on allegations he failed to disclose he once worked for Cuba's intelligence service. Juan Manuel Reyes-Alonso, 36, who lives in Chatham County, was held without bond in the Forsyth County jail while awaiting a meeting with an immigration judge in Atlanta. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents led him away in handcuffs Thursday outside UNC Hospitals, where Reyes-Alonso works in the pediatrics department.

    Reyes-Alonso, who was born in Cuba, failed to disclose he had ''intelligence office training in June 1994 under the command of the Cuban Directorate of Intelligence,'' said Sue Brown, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. He failed to disclose that training as required by the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Brown said in a news release.

    ''This man had extensive training and a long career as a Cuban intelligence officer,'' Ken Smith, Atlanta special agent in charge of the Raleigh office, said in the statement. "Failing to disclose foreign intelligence activities is a violation of the law. It's that simple.'' The law describes ''agents'' as people who continue to act at the order or request of a foreign government, organization or individual.

    PRESIDENT BUSH CASTS HIMSELF AS THE LEADER THE U.S. NEEDS

     Invoking powerful memories of September 11, President Bush launched his final drive to the November election Thursday by presenting himself as a battle-tested leader who can guide the nation through dangerous times. Acknowledging his flaws as well as his strengths, President Bush asked Americans to give him four more years to make the country safer, stronger and more prosperous. He assured cheering delegates at the Republican convention that he would never falter in his "solemn duty to protect the American people."

    Bush accepted his party's presidential nomination in Madison Square Garden, a few miles from the site of the terrorist attacks that shook the nation and altered the course of his president. The aftershocks from that tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, set the tone for his acceptance speech, but Bush also sketched out a second-term agenda that includes initiatives on health care, education and an effort to simplify federal tax laws.

    Declaring that "freedom is on the march," he expressed his determination to finish the job in Iraq, defeat global terrorism and spread democracy throughout the Middle East. "I wake up every morning thinking about how to better protect our country. I will never relent in defending America, whatever it takes," he said. "We have fought the terrorists across the Earth - not for pride, not for power, but because the lives of our citizens are at stake."  Bush's remarks to cheering Republican delegates - and an expected television audience of about 30 million viewers - signaled the start of the final push to the Nov. 2 election, and he drove home the themes of his campaign. 

    COMMANDOS STORM RUSSIAN SCHOOL: ONE HUNDRED BODIES FOUND

    Commandos stormed a school Friday in southern Russia and battled separatist rebels holding hundreds of hostages, as crying children, some naked and covered in blood, fled through explosions and gunfire. More than 100 bodies were reportedly found in the gymnasium where hostages had been held. Reports in Russia said the hostages may have numbered as many as 1,200 and that 70 percent of them were children.

    There also was a report that 23 bodies, including 17 children, were outside a hospital morgue and 10 more bodies were inside. One news report said the death toll could exceed 150. Near the scene, news footage showed dead bodies of children on stretchers. It is reported that 400 people had been freed in the storming operation, with many of them wounded. Earlier, scores of survivors ran from the school and people were being carried on stretchers to ambulances.

    There was an explosion, hostages fled, and hostage-takers opened fire on the children and rescue workers. One of the workers was killed and another was wounded. Russian commandos then opened fire at the rebels, and the battle began. It is thought that the people in the gym might have died when explosives triggered the collapse of the roof and a fire. About a dozen hostage-takers escaped after they split into three groups to blend in with the hostages and took refuge in a home nearby. Tank fire was heard from the area of the house, Interfax said, and gunfire rang out through the town for hours.

    U.S. IMPOSES FINES ON SEVERAL EUROPEAN COMPANIES FOR BREAKING CUBA EMBARGO

    The US Treasury has imposed penalties on 60 companies this year for breaking the Cuban embargo law. British Airways is one of the largest shareholders of Iberia, with a 9 per cent stake. Spain is the largest foreign investor on the number of joint ventures with the Cuban authorities and the second after Canada in terms of money invested.

    The fines, news of which emerged yesterday, follow the penalty imposed on Iberia, the Spanish airline, after it was accused of shipping Cuban goods through the US. The sanctions may force the European Commission, which has strongly criticized the extra-territorial application of the Cuban embargo laws, to protest to Washington. Brussels said yesterday it was studying the fine imposed on Iberia. The US has recently increased its pressure on Fidel Castro's
communist regime in Cuba.

    VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY HAILS PRESIDENT BUSH'S COURAGE AND LEADERSHIP 

     The third night of the Republican convention was billed as a showcase of America as a "LAND OF OPPORTUNITY," but vice president Dick Cheney and many of the speakers before them concentrated on presenting President Bush as the country's protector. Cheney said "if the killers of September 11 thought we had lost the will to defend freedom, they did not know America, and they did not know George W. Bush.

    "It is time to set the alternatives squarely before the American people," Cheney said. "The president's opponent is an experienced senator. He speaks often of his service in Vietnam, and we honor him for it. But there is also a record of more than three decades since. And on the question of America's role in the world, the differences between Senator Kerry and President Bush are the sharpest, and the stakes for the country are the highest.

    "Senator Kerry denounces American action when other countries don't approve -- as if the whole object of our foreign policy were to please a few persistent critics," Cheney said. "But as the president has made very clear, there is a difference between leading a coalition of many and submitting to the objections of a few. George W. Bush will never seek a permission slip to defend the American people."

    SENATOR ZELL MILLER: DEMOCRATIC PARTY COULD NOT BE TRUSTED TO PROTECT MY FAMILY

    Sen. Zell Miller, a Georgia Democrat, took the stage before Vice-President Dick Cheney and gripped the audience with a crowd-rousing speech. The former Georgia governor hammered hard and often on the terror threat facing the nation and charged that his party could not be trusted to protect his "most precious possession:" his family. "There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future, and that man's name is George W. Bush," he said.

    "Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today," Miller said. "Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. He added, "I can remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny."

    "No one should dare to even think about being the commander in chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home," Miller said. Listing a half dozen of the weapons programs he said Kerry voted against during his Senate tenure, Miller asked, "This is the man who wants to be the commander in chief of our U.S. armed forces? U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs? Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than 20 weeks of campaign rhetoric."

    LUIS POSADA CARRILES BEING SOUGHT IN HONDURAS 

    Honduran President Roberto Maduro said investigators are looking into whether public functionaries allowed Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles to enter Honduras illegally after his release from a prison in Panama last week. Maduro told reporters in Honduras that if Posada is captured, he will be deported because, "If this gentleman is here, he is here illegally, without permission, without approval and without the agreement of the government.''

    He also said government officials were investigating several people in the case, including ''public functionaries'' who may have had some ''responsibility'' for Posada's slipping into Honduras. Honduran officials have said Posada sneaked into Honduras with a false U.S. passport, one day after he was pardoned, after landing in the northwestern city of San Pedro Sula aboard a chartered Learjet that arrived from Panama.

    An press story said Honduran newspapers had reported that Posada was spotted Sunday eating in a San Pedro Sula hotel with Rafael Nodarse, a Cuban-American-Honduran businessman who owns the Honduran Channel 6 television station. Nodarse has long been known as a Posada friend and anti-Castro activist. He has also helped several Cuban boat people who landed in Honduras earlier this year, friends said.

    'EXOTIC DEBT' TRADERS WAITING CUBAN DICTATOR'S DEATH 

    Fidel Castro's expectations of capitalism are not high. But even he must be galled to know that speculators are running long positions in Havana's sovereign debt, waiting for him to die. Cuban sovereign paper is known as "hyper exotic" in default and owed by a country with a politically isolated regime.

    Like distressed corporate debt, hyper-exotics can offer spectacular returns. Vietnam is the textbook example. In the early 1990s its hard currency debt traded at 4 cents per dollar of face value. By 1996,Hanoi had come in from the political cold, having re-established US diplomatic relations and reached a preliminary agreement with the London Club of private creditors. Over this period, including repayment of past due interest, a 4 cents initial investment rose to more than 100 cents. One specialist asset manager says "if Castro died, I would have several hundred million" of client fund inflows.

    US GOVERNMENT FINES IBERIA POR BREAKING EMBARGO AGAINST CUBA

    The US has imposed a fine on Iberia, the Spanish airline, for breaking its embargo on Cuba. According to the US Treasury, Iberia - in which the Spanish government has a 5.35 per cent stake - was guilty of the "transportation and importations of Cuban goods to the United States".

    The fine, which was imposed in June but only emerged on Wednesday night, threatens further to undermine relations between Washington and Madrid, which are already at a low ebb after the new Spanish government's removal of its troops from Iraq. The penalty was imposed on Iberia Airways, the US subsidiary of Iberia. In a settlement with the Treasury Iberia has paid the fine but without making any admission of wrongdoing. The level of payment was not disclosed, but people close to the settlement said it was very low, in the range of thousands of dollars.

    The fine relates to an event in 2000. People within Iberia said the airline was transporting goods between Spain's Canary Islands and central America trough its US regional hub in Miami. The goods were seized by customs officials at Miami. It is the first time a Spanish company has faced sanctions under the Cuban embargo laws, although Spanish citizens have been charged with breaking it. It remains unclear why the US Treasury waited four years to impose a penalty.

    CUBAN-AMERICAN TO BE REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE

    President Bush's former housing secretary, Mel Martinez, came from behind to win a ballot in Florida Tuesday to pick the Republican party's candidate for a keenly sought U.S. Senate seat. Martinez led fellow Republican Bill McCollum, a former congressman, by 45 percent to 31 percent, the Florida Department of State said on its Web site. On the other side of the electoral divide, voters registered with the Democratic party overwhelmingly picked former Florida education commissioner Betty Castor to be their candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Bob Graham in November.

    Martinez, a Cuban-American with strong support among Hispanics in south Florida but less well-known in the state's north, stepped down as housing and development secretary last December at the apparent urging of White House strategists. His candidacy had been expected to shore up Bush's support among Cuban-Americans, a pivotal constituency in a state Bush won by just 537 votes in 2000, and which is again seen as a key battleground in the Nov. 2 general election.

    Martinez, who fled Cuba in 1962 under a Catholic humanitarian program called Operation Peter Pan that eventually brought 14,000 children to the United States, was a key formulator of a controversial government crackdown on travel to Cuba, announced this year. The presidential race in Florida in 2000 was so close it triggered endless ballot recounts and law suits that held up the results of the general election for over a month, tarnishing the state's democratic credentials.

    SCHWARZENEGGER: AMERICA IS THE BEST HOPE OF DEMOCRACY

    Describing his life as the embodiment of the American dream, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hailed his adopted country as "the best hope of democracy" and praised President Bush as the man to lead it. "America gave me opportunities, and my immigrant dreams came true," the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger said. "I want other people to get the same chances I did, the same opportunities. And I believe they can. That's why I believe in this country, that's why I believe in this party -- and that's why I believe in this president."

    Schwarzenegger's appearance before the Republican National Convention drew roars of approval from the delegates and guests, and his remarks often brought the crowd to its feet. "What a greeting!" Schwarzenegger said at the start of his speech. "This is like winning an Oscar! As if I would know." The governor of the nation's most populous state described growing up in socialist Austria in the shadow of the former Soviet Union and then coming to the United States as a young man.

    Schwarzenegger said his political epiphany came in 1968 as he followed the race for the White House that year between Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Republican Richard Nixon, who talked of limiting the role of government. "I've been a Republican ever since!" Schwarzenegger said. "And trust me, in my wife's family, that's no small achievement! I'm proud to belong to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, the party of Ronald Reagan -- and the party of George W. Bush."

    SEVEN KILLED AS TERRORISTS STORMED SCHOOL IN RUSSIA 

    Seven people were killed as armed attackers stormed a school in southern Russia and took at least 200 people hostage, Russian media said. Children, parents and teachers were herded into the school as they gathered for a ceremony marking the first day of class. The attackers issued demands to Russian authorities and threatened to kill the children.

    The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said seven people were killed and four were wounded in the attack, which took place at about 9 a.m. (1 a.m. ET). Interfax news agency said there was shooting at the time of the attack as well as afterward. At least 15 armed attackers rushed the school in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said. Some were reportedly wearing explosives belts used in suicide bombings.

    Interfax reported at least 200 people inside the school with the hostage-takers; Russian state television, however, said the number was as high as 300. Interfax said the hostage-takers had threatened to kill 50 children for each of their number killed by Russian forces and 20 for each wounded. Quoting emergency officials, Interfax reported that half of the hostages were children. The students in the primary school range in age from 7 to 17.

    U.S. WON'T CRITICIZE PANAMA ON PARDON 

    The U.S. government will not criticize Panamanian President Mireya Moscosoçs decision to pardon four Cuban exiles accused of planning to kill Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Washington response may have been influenced by election-year politics, particularly the administration's interest in keeping the Cuban-American vote in President Bush's column this November, much as it was in 2000. Luis Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jiménez, Guillermo Novo and Pedro Remón were arrested in Panama when Castro was in Panama to attend an American summit.

    Posada Carriles, the group leader, left Cuba after the 1959 revolution and has spent much of his life seeking Castro's ouster. He trained for the CIA-organized Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, though his group did not reach shore. Debate over the case has resurfaced with the decision of President Moscoso last week to pardon the four. Among Cuban-Americans in Miami there was jubilation. The Cuban government was furious. Moscoso said she decided on the pardon for humanitarian reasons, claiming she was fearful her successor would extradite the men to Cuba, where they would await a firing squad.

    Moscoso announced the pardon six days before the end of her term as president. President-elect Martin Torrijos was taking the oath of office Wednesday in the presence of Secretary of State Colin Powell and other foreign dignitaries. In Washington, the State Department declined to criticize Moscosoçs actions. "This was a decision made by the government of Panama," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. "We never lobbied the Panamanian government to pardon anyone involved in this case, and I'd leave it to the government of Panama to discuss the action."

    REPUBLICAN SPEAKERS LAUD PRESIDENT BUSHçS COURAGE IN WAR AGAINST TERRORISM

    Speaker after speaker Monday evening at the Republican National Convention said that President Bush's decisive declaration at one of the scenes of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, demonstrated the need to re-elect him. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani recalled that when Bush visited the rubble of the twin towers September 14, 2001, the president declared, "The terrorists will hear from us."

    And Giuliani asked the delegates, "As long as George Bush is president, is there any doubt they will continue to hear from us?" Giuliani said it doesn't matter to Bush "how he is demonized. It doesn't matter what the media does to ridicule him or misinterpret him or defeat him." "They ridiculed Winston Churchill. They belittled Ronald Reagan. But like President Bush, they were optimists. Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present, and it's set on a future of real peace and security. "Some call it stubbornness. I call it principled leadership." "President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is," said Giuliani, the night's final speaker.

    "It is important to see the contrast in approach between the two men: President Bush, a leader who is willing to stick with difficult decisions even as public opinion shifts; and John Kerry, a man who changes his position often." "The contrasts are dramatic. They involve very different views of how to deal with terrorism. President Bush will make certain that we are combating terrorism at the source, beyond our shores, so we can reduce the risk of having to confront it in the streets of New York," Giuliani said. "John Kerry's record of inconsistent positions on combating terrorism gives us no confidence he'll pursue such a determined course."

    TWO BUS BOMBS IN SOUTHERN ISRAEL KILL SIXTEEN

    Suicide bombers blew up two buses almost simultaneously in southern Israel on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 80 others in the first Palestinian suicide attack inside Israeli in nearly six months. The twin blasts, claimed by the militant group Hamas, were likely to provoke a harsh Israeli response. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with top security officials and planned further talks later in the day.

    "Israel will continue fighting terror with all its might," Sharon said, pledging to push forward with Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The explosions came just hours after he presented his Likud party with the most detailed timetable yet for the pullout. The buses burst into flames about 100 yards apart near a bustling intersection in Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, just 10 miles from the West Bank. Hamas issued a leaflet in Hebron - the closest Palestinian city to Beersheba - saying the attack was avenging Israel's assassinations of two of its leaders earlier this year.

    Police said the messy scene was complicating the recovery of bodies and warned the death toll could rise. They said the 15 people did not include the bombers. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said 30 of the wounded were in serious or moderate condition. Authorities stepped up security throughout Beersheba after the attacks, placing checkpoints on major roads and snarling traffic coming in and out of the city. "The Palestinian interest requires a stop to harming all civilians so as not give Israel pretext to continue its aggression against our people," said a spokesman from the Palestinian Authority.

     POLICE: NINE KILLED IN MOSCOW TERRORIST BLAST 

    At least nine people were killed and 51 others wounded when at least one car exploded outside a Moscow subway station, police said. The blast occurred Tuesday at 8:10 p.m. local time outside the Rizhskaya subway station, near the city center. A score of emergency and police vehicles rushed to the scene, and police cordoned off the area around the blackened car that apparently exploded, The Associated Press reported.

    Police said the explosion shattered doors and windows in the station vestibule, Russian news agencies reported. Alexei Borodin, 29, told the international press that he heard "a very powerful bang. Something flew past my head, I don't know what it was." "There were people lying in the square," he said.

    It was reported that officials believe there were "one of two blasts.... they are just not sure." The blast occurred a week after two Russian passenger planes crashed minutes apart, brought down by explosions believed brought on board by Chechen suicide bombers.

    IRAQI TERRORISTS KILL TWELVE NEPAL HOSTAGES

    Iraqi terrorists have killed 12 Nepalis they captured just over a week ago, the terrorists and a Nepalese official said Tuesday. It was the largest mass killing of captives in the grueling war against the insurgency that has followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

    A Web site associated with a group calling itself Jaish Ansar al-Sunna posted gruesome still images and video of militants beheading one of the Nepalis and shooting to death 11 more as they lay on the ground face down. Nepal's ambassador to Qatar, Somananda Suman, confirmed the deaths in an interview on the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera.

    The still images on the Web site appear to have been taken from the video. Jaish Ansar al-Sunna, which claimed August 23 to have kidnapped the 12 Nepalis, said they were killed "for their cooperation with the United States in fighting Islam and its people." The group described the men as working for a Nepalese company that works under a Jordanian firm doing business in Iraq. The killings nearly double the number of hostages believed to have been killed in Iraq, and are by far the largest number of captives to be killed at once.