CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org The following items are taken from Radio Havana Cuba's news service for Tuesday, September 8, 1998. Today's stories: 1.- VISITING NORWEGIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER SEEKS INCREASE IN BILATERAL TRADE 2.- FORMER US PROFESSIONAL WORLD BOXING CHAMP MOHAMMED ALI ARRIVES IN CUBA TUESDAY 3.- HEALTH MINISTERS FROM ANDALUCIA, SPAIN VISITING CUBA 4.- ARABS FROM THE AMERICAS MEETING IN HAVANA 5.- INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE UNDER DISCUSSION IN CUBA 6.- NEARLY 80 PERCENT OF CUBAN MOTHERS ARE BREAST FEEDING 7.- AIDS AND VENEREAL DISEASE HOTLINE SET UP IN HAVANA VISITING NORWEGIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER SEEKS INCREASE IN BILATERAL TRADE Havana, September 8(RHC)-- Visiting Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Janne Haaland Matlary stated that the aim of her five-day stay in Cuba is to give a boost to bilateral trade. The Norwegian official arrived in Havana Monday evening at the invitation of her Cuban counterpart Isabel Allende. Upon arriving at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, the Norwegian official said her country was particularly interesting in renewing cooperation in the fishing sector. Accompanied by a delegation of business executives, Deputy Foreign Minister Matlary will inaugurate a seminar of Cuban and Norwegian journalists, and will visit a community program in a neighborhood in Havana sponsored by the non- governmental organization Norwegian Popular Aid. Cuba and Norway established diplomatic relations on a consulate level in May 1960, and on an embassy level in 1961. FORMER US PROFESSIONAL WORLD BOXING CHAMP MOHAMMED ALI ARRIVES IN CUBA TUESDAY Havana, September 8 (RHC)-- Three times world professional boxing champ, Mohammed Ali arrived in Cuba Tuesday with US TV star, Ed Asner,to present a donation of medicines. The two US celebrities will also visit various sites of interest in Havana. This is the former boxer's second visit to Cuba. During the two Americans tour of the island, Ali will be reunited with his former colleague and friend, former world and olympic champ Teofilo Stevenson. Ali and the former Cuban boxer will visit sports facilities like the "Cerro Pelado" high performance sports training center and a sports center for the physically and mentally impaired. US actor Edward Asner, "Lou Grant" of the popular US television program "Mary Tyler Moore Show," will visit the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists and he and Mohammed Ali will attend a performance of the Cuban children's theater group, La Colmenita, Havana's National Theater. The two US personalities will stay on the island through Saturday. HEALTH MINISTERS FROM ANDALUCIA, SPAIN VISITING CUBA Havana, September 8 (RHC)-- The Health Minister from the southern Spanish region of Andalucia, Jose Luis Garcia, has arrived in Cuba for an official visit scheduled to end on Sunday. The visitor brought with him a donation to be presented to Cuban medical centers. During his stay on the island, Garcia will visit pediatric hospitals and scientific research centers. He will also meet with Havana health authorities and with those from other areas. ARABS FROM THE AMERICAS MEETING IN HAVANA Havana, September 8 (RHC)-- The Executive Committee of the Federation of Arab Entities of the Americas -FEARAB-AMERICA- began a meeting in the Cuban capital with a call to counteract Zionism and its links with imperialism. FEARAB- AMERICA is made up of 20 nations in the Americas and the Caribbean to promote the strengthening of relations between the Americas and Arab states and exchange in the spheres of the economy, culture, sports, tourism and others. A Syrian delegation is attending the event. At the session's opening Monday, the President of FEARAB- Cuba, Alfredo Deriche, called on Arab descendants to defend the just causes of Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, the Democratic Saharahui Republic and Cuba and to condemn aggression. The President of the international organization, Argentina's Horacio Munir Haddad, stressed the importance of holding the meeting in Cuba since, in his words, the island remains firm in the face of the pressures from international powers and he stressed the role played by FEARAB-CUBA to coordinate actions and opinions. INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE UNDER DISCUSSION IN CUBA Havana, September 8 (RHC)-- More than 200 engineers, historians, architects, archaeologists, sociologists and other experts from 22 countries in Europe and the Americas are meeting in Havana as part of the Second Latin American Colloquium on the Recovery, Preservation and Use of Industrial Heritage. The event is scheduled to run until September 10th in the headquarters of the National Center for Restoration and the Study of Museums housed in Havana's Santa Clara Convent. Under discussion will be issues like industrial heritage as part of cultural heritage derived from work including buildings, technologies, aqueducts, villages, ports, mines, plantations and archives. Cuba possesses interesting examples of its industrial heritage in the form of 19th and 20th century industries including sugar mills, agro-industrial complexes, cigar, rum, textile and beer factories. The island also boasts one of the main sugar production regions of the 19th century which is found in Trinidad- a UNESCO's World Heritage Site. The colloquium includes two photo exhibits on the Elements of Catalonya's Industrial Heritage and Catalonian industries in Cuba sponsored by Catalonia's Autonomous Government and an exhibition on Mexican Working Class culture and industrial heritage. NEARLY 80 PERCENT OF CUBAN MOTHERS ARE BREAST FEEDING Havana, September 8 (RHC)-- 76 percent of Cuban mothers breast feed their babies until the children are four months old, according to Cuban health authorities. That puts the island close to the proposal of the World Children's Summit that countries should reach 80 percent by the year 2000. Mother's milk has been found to be the best nourishment and medicine for newborns contributing greatly to the child's overall health. In the early 1990's breast feeding in Cuba until the fourth month of life was only at 25 percent, but thanks to an initiative put forward by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund Unicef, hospitals that promoted breast feeding were declared Mother and Child Friendly Hospitals. The Mother and Child Friendly hospital drive became a national health program on the island which has been extended to Cuba's family doctor and nurse offices as well as in the homes of new mothers. Mother's milk immunizes the child against several diseases including diarrhea, a big killer of children in the Third World. AIDS AND VENEREAL DISEASE HOTLINE SET UP IN HAVANA Havana, September 8 (RHC)-- An anonymous and confidential AIDS and Venereal Disease Hotline is operating in Cuba to provide information on sexually transmitted diseases and the HIV virus and AIDS. The service, called "Lineayuda", or help on the line, was set up by the Cuban Health Ministry in close cooperation with Holland's Doctors without Borders humanitarian organization. The aim of the hotline is to re-enforce education and promote prevention against the diseases by providing the public with confidential information on any clinical, therapeutic, statistical or epidemiological aspect of the ailments. This is the first such hotline established in Cuba. Questions are answered by a specially-trained professional team made up of doctors, nurses and psychologists. 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