CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA June 11th, 1997 E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org The following items are taken from RADIO HAVANA CUBA's International Shortwave Service in English for Wednesday, June 11th, 1997. Today's stories: 1.- CUBA DENOUNCES U.S. SPY-FLIGHT THAT ENDANGERED COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT 2.- CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO VISITS HAVANA'S CIVIL DEFENSE COUNCIL 3.- CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER ROBERTO ROBAINA CONTINUES CENTRAL AMERICAN/CARIBBEAN TOUR 4.- CUBAN VICE PRESIDENT CARLOS LAGE IN URUGUAY 5.- CUBAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC COOPERATION IBRAHIM FERRADAZ IN PERU 6.- U.N. STUDY PLACES CUBA AMONG DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WITH BEST HUMAN PROGRESS INDICATORS 7.- SIXTH CONGRESS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN ECONOMISTS OPENS IN HAVANA 8.- JOURNALIST DONATES JUDICIAL AWARD TO THE FEDERATION OF CUBAN WOMEN 9.- CUBA SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE OPENS TOMORROW IN HANOI CUBA DENOUNCES U.S. SPY-FLIGHT THAT ENDANGERED COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT Havana, June 11(RHC)-- Cuba has denounced the flight of a U.S. government plane, endangering commercial aircraft flying over the island. The incident took place last Friday, June 6th, at 9 a.m., when a COPA flight from Miami to Panama reported that a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane was spotted some 110 kilometers north of Punta Alegre in the province of Ciego de Avila. According to the Ministry of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces -- MINFAR -- the U.S. spy plane came within 1500 feet of the Panamanian commercial aircraft. Havana's air traffic control reported the dangerous flight to the appropriate U.S. authorities. Later that day, at 11:48 a.m., a Boeing-757 North American Airlines flight from Miami to Cancun, Mexico, spotted the same RC-135 reconaissance flight at a distance of 100 kilometers north of Bahia Honda, Pinar del Rio province. Flying at an altitude of 34,000 feet, the U.S. Air Force plane came within 1000 feet of the North American Airlines flight, which was navigating at an altitude of 35,000 feet. According to the MINFAR report, published in this morning's edition of the Cuban daily Granma, there have been 14 near- misses with similar reconnaissance aircraft so far this year. CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO VISITS HAVANA'S CIVIL DEFENSE COUNCIL Havana, June 11(RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro visited Havana's Civil Defense Council on Tuesday to learn more about measures taken in the Cuban capital in response to recent heavy rains. During his conversation with Civil Defense authorities, the Cuban leader asked about the situation of some 800 people who have been evacuated in advance of rising flood waters. Fidel also questioned authorities about measures being taken to protect economic and social facilities in Havana. There have been reports of nearly 90 houses collapsing in the capital due to the heavy rainfall. Despite the fact that rains were beneficial for sugarcane and other crops -- following a severe draught for the past seven months -- Cuban Civil Defense has reported that in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, floods affected some 25,000 people and damaged more than 7000 homes, as well as having caused damages to two thermoelectric plants. The intense storms have also caused the interruption of electrical and telephone services, affecting more than 250,000 people. In the neighboring province of Granma, the evaluation commission verified the total destruction of 67 houses and partial damages to another 500. Although the rains have diminished considerably over the last few hours, the Cuban Meteorological Institute has forecast more rain over the next several days. Rains are now associated with a stationary-front, located in the Florida Straits. CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER ROBERTO ROBAINA CONTINUES CENTRAL AMERICAN/CARIBBEAN TOUR Santo Domingo, June 11(RHC)-- Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina met with Dominican President Leonel Fernandez Tuesday in Santo Domingo, presenting him with a personal letter from his Cuban counterpart, Fidel Castro. The Cuban foreign minister is on a Central America and Caribbean tour and has already visited Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica. Cuba's top diplomat has been meeting with area leaders, informing them of the new, anti-Cuba legislative measures working their way through the U.S. Congress. Robaina will be in Santo Domingo until tomorrow, Thursday, when he will leave for Managua and a meeting with Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman. CUBAN VICE PRESIDENT CARLOS LAGE IN URUGUAY Montevideo, June 11(RHC)-- As part of Cuba's diplomatic offensive in the face of increased U.S. aggressions, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage spoke on Tuesday with Uruguayan Foreign Minister Alvaro Ramos. Upon his arrival in Montevideo, the Cuban vice president presented a letter from President Fidel Castro to his Uruguayan counterpart, Julio Maria Sanguinetti. Uruguay is on record in opposition to the U.S. blockade against Cuba as well as the anti-Cuba Helms- Burton Law. CUBAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC COOPERATION IBRAHIM FERRADAZ IN PERU Lima, June 11(RHC)-- Cuban Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Ibrahim Ferradaz met Tuesday in Lima with Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. Ferradaz spoke with the Peruvian president about the effects that new, anti-Cuba measures in the U.S. Congress will have on Latin America. The Peruvian government has expressed its firm opposition to the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba as well as the extraterritorial nature of Washington's Helms-Burton Law. In related news, Cuba's new ambassador in Lima, Benigno Perez Fernandez, presented his credentials on Tuesday to Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. U.N. STUDY PLACES CUBA AMONG DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WITH BEST HUMAN PROGRESS INDICATORS United Nations, June 11(RHC)-- Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Chile, Singapore and Costa Rica are the five developing countries with the best indexes of human development, according to a new United Nations study. The 1997 U.N. report on human development has, for the first time, based itself not on income, but rather on life expectancy, illiteracy and access to public services. The stated premise is that poverty is not only a lack of adequate income, but also the denial of opportunities and basic options for human development. The U.N. study classifies 78 developing countries based on the percentage of their populations that die before age of 40, on the level of illiteracy among the adult population and on the lack of access to health, clean drinking water and reasonable nutrition. The table closes with the seven countries in which this new concept of poverty affects more than 50 percent of the population: Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali Mozambique and Cambodia. SIXTH CONGRESS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN ECONOMISTS OPENS IN HAVANA Havana, June 11(RHC)-- Some 300 delegates from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as representatives from China and the Ukraine, are taking part in the 6th Congress of the Association of Latin American and Caribbean Economists, which opened today here in Havana. Delegates at the event, which will take place until June 13th, will focus on poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, economic adjustments, crises and social movements, unemployment, neoliberalism and globalization, among other issues. Challenges and perspectives in the region regarding sustainable development, integration, cooperation, and environmental quality, as well as essential aspects related to the formation of economic sciences in the region, are also on the event's agenda. JOURNALIST DONATES JUDICIAL AWARD TO THE FEDERATION OF CUBAN WOMEN Havana, June 11(RHC)-- A German journalist has donated 20,000 Marks to the Federation of Cuban Women -- the FMC -- after winning a lawsuit against one of his country's publications, which manipulated information he gave on women's lives on the island. The donation given to the FMC by Groerg Hohmann, who is a journalist with an important newspaper in Munich, is the amount of money he received as a settlement, after winning the judicial dispute against "Der Spiegel" magazine, the owner of Der Spiegel Television. In 1996, the television station broadcast a documentary made in the Cuban capital, in which the sequences showing Hohmann and a Cuban woman photographer were changed. Der Spiegel had to publicly admit the misrepresentation of the broadcast images and pay Hohmann 20,000 Marks as compensation. The German journalist decided to donate that sum of money to the Federation of Cuban Women because, as he said, he was not the only one affected -- but all women on the island were slandered. CUBA SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE OPENS TOMORROW IN HANOI Hanoi, June 11(RHC)-- An Asian Solidarity with Cuba Conference will take place in Vietnam on Thursday -- the second of its kind on that continent. The main issue on the event's agenda will be Washington's blockade against Cuba and the latest U.S. congressional measures to tighten the extraterritorial nature of recent legislation. The three-day meeting, sponsored by the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association, will be attended by over 100 delegates from 15 countries and will wind up Saturday with the signing of "The Hanoi Declaration." The President of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples -- ICAP -- Sergio Corrieri, who is also a member of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee, is heading the delegation to the event. Sergio Corrieri, who is already in the Vietnamese capital, has met with Le Quang Dao, President of Vietnam's Homeland Front. The two leaders spoke about the two countries' current situation and the issues moving today's international political relations. [c] 1997. Radio Habana Cuba All rights reserved Articles cannot be reproduced, reprinted or published in any system without the consent of RHC. 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