Radio Havana Cuba-11 October 2000 (delayed) Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 11 October 2000 [Received 24 hours late due to technical problems in Havana] . *FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE WRAPS UP VISIT TO PERU, SIGNS 3 BILATERAL ACCORDS *IBERO-AMERICAN CARDIOLOGY CONGRESS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA *HEALTH MINISTRY INTENSIFIES CAMPAIGN TO ERADICATE AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITO *VIETNAMESE DELEGATION TO ATTEND WORLD SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA CONFERENCE *CUBA-UKRAINE COMMISSION FOR ECONOMIC & SCIENCE COOPERATION MEETS *IBERO-AMERICAN GROUP ON NATIONAL LIBRARIES WILL MEET NEXT WEEK *SYMPOSIUM ON ARAB PRESENCE IN THE AMERICAS OPENS IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL *Viewpoint: THE THIRD WORLD NEEDS REASONABLE OIL PRICES . *FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE WRAPS UP VISIT TO PERU, SIGNS 3 BILATERAL ACCORDS Peru with the signing of three bilateral accords. The accords, which both nations say will give a substantial boost to bilateral relations, include a reciprocal promotion and protection of investments agreement. I n Havana, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage has returned home after official visits to Japan and Iran. Lage said that both Tokyo and Tehran expressed keen interest in enhancing their relations with Cuba -- both in the economic and political arenas. *IBERO-AMERICAN CARDIOLOGY CONGRESS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA Havana, October 11 (RHC)-- "Tobacco or Health: You Choose" is among the main themes on the agenda of the First Ibero-American Congress on Cardiac Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention, underway in Havana through Thursday. Experts attending the congress told reporters in the Cuban capital that ten million people are expected to die from the effects of smoking by the year 2020, when that habit will become the main cause of death worldwide. Strategies to quit smoking and tobacco as a risk factor, are among the topics debated at a symposium entitled "Tobacco or Health: You Choose," which opened on Wednesday at Havana's International Convention Center, at the same time as the First Ibero-American Congress on Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention. The event got underway at Havana's Convention Center on Monday. Participating in the event are some 600 specialists, patients and guests from 23 countries. Friday and Saturday will be devoted to courses at Havana's Hermanos Almeijeiras Hospital and at the National Center for Cardiac Rehabilitation. *HEALTH MINISTRY INTENSIFIES CAMPAIGN TO ERADICATE AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITO Havana, October 11 (RHC)-- Cuba's Health Ministry has intensified its campaign to eradicate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito -- carrier of the dengue epidemic which has hit Central America. Cuban radio stations announced Wednesday morning that fumigation has been intensified in areas where the mosquitos may be reproducing, especially in Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo. Cuba's Health Ministry recently warned that the change in weather could increase the presence of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito in uncovered, clean or relatively clean water, possibly provoking an outbreak of dengue. Cuba was hit with a dengue epidemic in the summer of 1981, causing the deaths of 158 people, including 101 children. In 1997, another outbreak was registered in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, where hundreds of cases were reported. *VIETNAMESE DELEGATION TO ATTEND WORLD SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA CONFERENCE Hanoi, October 11 (RHC)-- The vice president of Vietnam's National Assembly, Truong My Joa, is heading a delegation to participate in the Second World Conference in Solidarity with Cuba -- slated from November 10th to the 14th in the Cuban capital. The Vietnam-Cuba National Friendship Association reports that Vietnam's Minister for the Protection of Children, Tran Ti Tanh, will also attend the international solidarity conference. *CUBA-UKRAINE COMMISSION FOR ECONOMIC & SCIENCE COOPERATION MEETS Havana, October 11 (RHC)-- The Cuba-Ukraine Joint Intergovernmental Commission for Economic and Scientific/Technical Cooperation got underway on Wednesday in Havana. The meeting's aim is to strengthen and expand bilateral relations. Cuban Health Minister Carlos Dotres and his Ukranian counterpart, Vitaly Moskalenko, will participate in the event. Representatives of the two countries will examine the results of joint work carried out in the areas of sugar, health, construction, trade and agriculture. *IBERO-AMERICAN GROUP ON NATIONAL LIBRARIES WILL MEET NEXT WEEK Havana, October 11 (RHC)-- The 11th General Assembly of the Ibero-American Association for the Development of National Libraries will begin on Monday in the Cuban capital. Among the Assembly's objectives is to collect and store information in Ibero-American National Libraries and to preserve each country's bibliographic heritage. The director of Havana's Jose Marti National Library, Eliades Acosta, pointed out that the meeting will be doubly important for the island, since foreign delegates will have the opportunity to learn about Cuban culture. *SYMPOSIUM ON ARAB PRESENCE IN THE AMERICAS OPENS IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL Havana, October 11 (RHC)-- Researchers, specialists and historians from over 20 countries on Wednesday opened the 3rd International Symposium entitled "The Arab Presence in the Americas." The Havana meeting, which is sponsored by Cuba's Arab Association, will examine issues related to the Arab and Islamic Cultures and their impact on the American continent. Participants at the conference will also discuss the Islamic presence in Arab and non-Arab communities and the influence of Arabs and Islam on the region's educational systems. As part of the first day of activities, the Fajad Jamis Exhibition Hall was inaugurated in Havana. Fajad Jamis was a Cuban poet and diplomat of Arab origin who died in 1988. Viewpoint: *THE THIRD WORLD NEEDS REASONABLE OIL PRICES The world oil market has taken a leap that has left behind all but the wealthiest nations. The latest rise in prices is as though the high-jump bar has been placed at a level which only Olympic champions can manage. Unfortunately, those champions don't live in the Third World, whose economies are being drained by ever-expanding foreign debts and the poverty and misery of underdevelopment. The recent meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) failed to find a solution to the problem. The oil exporters claim that they only control 40 percent of the world's petroleum reserves and that the cause of the sky-rocketing price of crude is stock market speculation and taxes on oil sales in the importing countries. It appears that even after the OPEC countries increased their daily exportation of oil by more than a million barrels a day, prices have not changed. Nor has the announcement by the United States that it will place a significant part of its oil reserves on the international market had any affect -- even though this will mean another 30 million barrels a day for a month or more. There is also a concern in the United States that sustained high oil prices could unleash a generalized economic recession, which would negatively affect its economy. Before it was the big, transnational oil companies that manipulated the price of crude and now it is the actual exporting countries themselves that control the ups and downs of the price of petroleum. The problems have become even more complicated. In reality, none of the participants in the oil game can claim to be free of responsibility for the scandalous rise in fuel prices and each one must play their part to alleviate the pressures being exerted, both on the developed and the developing nations. Obviously, a social explosion would be damaging to all. The world needs the oil high-jump bar placed at a height that is manageable for all. (c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= rhc-eng-3199 2000-Oct-12 21:50:17