from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
subject: Radio Havana News March 3/4
RHC Weekend-03/04 March, 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - Weekend News Update - 03/04 March 2001
.
*SPORTS GALA HONORS BEST 100 CUBAN ATHLETES OF THE CENTURY
*CUBA WILL ASSEMBLE 200 BUSES THIS YEAR
*BRAZIL, CUBA TO COOPERATE IN PRODUCTION OF GENERIC DRUGS
*PEREZ ROQUE ARRIVES IN JAPAN ON FINAL LEG OF ASIAN TOUR
*SPANISH STRIKERS DEMAND BACK PAY FROM RIGHT-WING CUBAN AMERICAN
BOSSES
*WASHINGTON THREATENS TO CONTINUE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST
YUGOSLAVIA
*ISRAELI ARMY PREPARING TOUGHER MEASURES AGAINST PALESTINIAMS
.
*SPORTS GALA HONORS BEST 100 CUBAN ATHLETES OF THE CENTURY
Havana, March 3 (RHC)--On Friday Cuba paid homage to its best 100
athletes of the century. Cuban president Fidel Castro was on hand for
the ceremony held at the National Sports Institute in Havana, Friday
afternoon. The ceremony was also part of activities marking the
Institute's 40th anniversary and served as the official farewell
ceremony for three star athletes: Ana Fidelia Quirot, Mireya Luis and
Felix Savon, who retired from active sports.
President Castro took the floor to close the homage to the best 100
Cuban athletes of the century, selected by popular vote. Let us
continue being a guide for thousands upon thousands of people who
have never seen their flags hoisted at international competitions,
said Fidel. Let us continue supporting Third World Nations. Let us
continue showing the powerful and the rich that there are other
things better than money and luxury, he added. The Cuban leader
described the ceremony as a privilege for everyone present.
He spoke of the Cuban example in the field of sports, when he said
that we are now honoring not only the top 100 athletes of the
century, but also all those who have won honors for their country in
international sports events. He explained that in the first 59 years
of the last century only 10 athletes won important international
events before the triumph of the Revolution. He added that the
Revolution started to bare fruit in the field of sports a decade
after 1959.
The Cuban leader pointed out that since the beginning of the so
called Independent Republic in 1902, which was in effect a neo-colony
of the United States, Cuba was able to win only six gold medals at
Olympic Games, and four of them by only one person - fencer Ramon
Fonst. He contrasted those to the 51 medals harvested by the island
since 1959 even after missing two Olympic Games.
The Cuban president provided detailed information about the medals
the island has won at different international competitions. In the
Panamerican Games, Cuba took only 10 gold medals before 1959, whereas
over the past 40 years, this figure has mounted to 569. Regarding
Central American games, Fidel said that before January 1st, 1959,
Cuban athletes brought back only 181 titles, and now they tally
1,311.
Some 15,000 spectators gathered Friday for the ceremony, including
workers, athletes, physical education instructors, students from all
ages and even cadets from the Armed Forces and the Interior
Ministries.
The Cuban president also spoke to the nearly 200 students present at
the recetnly opened International School for Sports and Physical
Education. They will, he said, have the responsibility of promoting
and developing sports in their own countries adding that sport is
health, joy, a living standard and an honor.
Fidel Castro also highlighted the broad sports movement on the island
that groups more than 30,000 physical education instructors and
special schools to promote and perfect athletes and sports in each of
the 14 provinces. He announced that the number of students who will
become phsycial education and sports instructors each year will
increase to 2,500.
Currently, there are a quarter of a million Cubans who practise
sports regularly and more than 2 million children have physical
education instructors at their schools, along with work with the
elderly at the senior citizens homes, he added.
The Cuban leader noted that sports is an efficient way to fight
against delinquency, drugs and other problems that affect modern
societies. He also praised the work done by more than 2,000 Cuban
sports specialists abroad, whose pupils have even beaten Cuban
atheltes at international competitions.
*CUBA WILL ASSEMBLE 200 BUSES THIS YEAR
Havana, March 3 (RHC)--In an effort to help alleviate trasportation
problems on the island, a local manufacturing industry will assemble
200 new buses this year. Most of the new vehicles will substitute
some very old and deteriorating buses in the capital.
The head of urban bus system, Hernan Castillo, has told the National
News Agency, AIN, that each vehicle completed on the island, saves
10,000 dollars for the national budget. He added that in the near
future they are planning to incorporate more home made parts to
reduce costs and revitalize other Cuban industries.
Currerntly there are a little more than 450 buses distributed in 19
bus terminals in the capital, which move some 320,000 passangers
daily. A pilot program functioning at a bus terminal in the city will
be gradually incorporated for the rest of Havana.
*BRAZIL, CUBA TO COOPERATE IN PRODUCTION OF GENERIC DRUGS
Havana, 3 March (RHC)-In the wake of well-publicized results from Rio
de Janeiro, the Cuban government has decided to expand its relations
with a Brazilian laboratory to increase the production of generic
drugs.
Faced with multi-national pharmaceutical corporations that fight to
retain their patent rights on life-saving drugs at prices that are
far beyond the reach of Third World nations, Brazil has been in the
vanguard of producing generic drugs at a fraction of their market
price set by the pharmaceuticals.
The Cuban ambassador to Brazil, Jorge Lezcano Perez, said today that
his nation would be working with Rio de Janeiro within the framework
of the Common Market of the South or Mercosur. Perez said that what
interested Havana was the type of organization that Mercosur has.
While not attempting to join Mercosur, he said, Cuba hoped to expand
relations with the four countries it contains: Argentina, Brazil,
Paraguay and Uruguay.
By producing low cost AIDS medicines, Brazil has been able to give
extremely effective health care to the majority of it's HIV/AIDS
cases that require combination drug therapy. One of Cuba's problems
is access to AIDS medication which the US blockade has made very
difficult to obtain. Cuba is interested in producing its own AIDS
drugs on a similar level as Brazil. Although it has the technology,
to date it has lacked the raw materials to do so.
For Brazil's part, it is interested in expanding the system of
family doctors that Cuba is famous for, as well as aspects of the
island's educational system.
*PEREZ ROQUE ARRIVES IN JAPAN ON FINAL LEG OF ASIAN TOUR
Havana, 3 March (RHC)--Cuban foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque,
arrived in Japan on Saturday from China for an official visit, the
last stop of an Asiantour.
The Cuban official and his delegation were met in Osaka by Cuban
ambassador, Ernesto Malendez and Japan's ambassador in Havana, Mutsuo
Mabuchi.
The Cuban foreign minister and other Cuban government officials then
went to Kyoto, where they held talks with the president of the city's
University for Foreigners. Perez Roque is expected to visit ancient
Japanese temples and other places of cultural interest.
The Cuban minister, the head of the foreign ministry's Asia
department, Alberto Velasco, and the foreign minister's principal
advisor, Carlos Miguel Pereira, will join both ambassadors on Sunday
in Tokyo and on Monday and Tuesday they will meet with a variety
Japanese leaders and personalities.
Official sources say that the aim of the visit is to promote and
expand relations between Japan and Cuba. Last year, Cuban vice-
president, Carlos Lage and the president of the island's parliament,
Ricardo Alarcon, visited Tokyo. Last January a Japan-Cuba Economic
Conference was attended by some 100 officials and business executives
from both countries.
Japan is the last stop on an Asian tour that has taken the Cuban
foreign minister to Malaysia, Singapore, Viet Nam and China.
*SPANISH STRIKERS DEMAND BACK PAY FROM RIGHT-WING CUBAN AMERICAN
BOSSES
Havana, 3 March (RHC)--Telecommunications workers in Spain who have
been on strike six weeks now for back wages, are calling on the
Sintel company and the Cuban American extreme right wing in Miami to
pay 7 months of wages owed to them.
The workers are also urging Spanish president, Jose Maria Aznar,
to intervene and establish negotiations to revive the company which
they charge was led into ruin by its owners, the so-called Cuban
American mafia, based in Miami in the United States.
The company, which was originally part of the Spanish "Telefonica"
company, appears to have been fraudulently sold to its current
owners, according to a preliminary investigation mounted by the anti-
corruption agency of the Spanish Attorney General's office.
Documents reveal that Sintel, with some 5,000 employees, was sold for
some 50 million dollars by "Telefonica" to the Mastec Group, which
was owned by the infamous Mas Canosa family of the Cuban-American
right wing in Miami.
A report shows that the Mas Canosa family failed to pay the price in
the bill of sale but that Telefonica did not sue to force them to
comply with the terms of the contract and that the Mas Canosa family
allowed the new company to become bankrupt.
Criminal charges have been filed against Telefonica executives, the
Mas Canosa family and Sintel executives.
*WASHINGTON THREATENS TO CONTINUE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST
YUGOSLAVIA
Havana, 3 March (RHC)-The United States ambassador to Belgrade,
William Montgomery, has given Yugoslavia 30 days to cooperate fully
with the International Court in the Hague, or face continued economic
sanctions.
After consulting with the new US Secretary of State, Colin
Powell, Montgomery also demanded that Belgrade cease giving
assistance, material or otherwise, to separatist institutions that
support Serbia, and change its policies toward minorities.
The US Congress is due to vote on the 31st March whether or not to
maintain economic sanctions against Yugoslavia. Some congressional
representatives have also insisted that any resumption of economic
aid should be conditional on the extradition of former president
Slobodan Milosovic. Milosovic has been accused of war crimes and
crimes against humanity by the International Court.
If Belgrade refuses to cooperate, Washington has said that it will
not only block funding from the US but also from international
financial institutions.
*ISRAELI ARMY PREPARING TOUGHER MEASURES AGAINST PALESTINIAMS
Havana, 3 March (RHC)--Despite international pressure, the Israeli
army will take tougher measures against the Palestinians if the
violence continues in the Palestinian territories.
Israeli army chief of Staff, Shaul Nofa, who issued the warning on
Saturday in Tel Aviv, said in a radio interview that nevertheless
there are no immediate plans to deploy troops in areas under
Palestine National Authority control.
Four Palestinians, including a nine year-old child, died on Friday
in clashes with Israeli troops.
Nofa claimed that the Palestine National Authority is responsible for
the violence that has erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; at
least 374 Palestinians and 61 Israelis have died since the second
"intifada" began last September 28th,when ultra-right wing politician
Ariel Sharon provoked local Palestinians by making a highly
publicized visit to one of Palestine's holiest shrines. Sharon is now
the Israeli Prime Minister.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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rhc-eng-19719 2001-Mar-04 20:25:34 "JC
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