Radio Havana Cuba-09 May 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 09 May 2001 . *FIDEL CASTRO, AWARDED HONORARY DOCTORATE, SPEAKS AT TEHRAN UNIVERSITY *WHITE HOUSE BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED AFTER SECOND UN COMMITTEE OUSTER *US AFL-CIO FEDERATION DECLARES WAR ON FTAA *CUBA, ETHIOPIA SIGN MEDICAL COOPERATION ACCORD *BRAZIL HOLDS FIRM IN PATENT DISPUTE WITH USA, DRUG COMPANIES *CUBA TO TRAP WILD DOGS OVERRUNNING GUANTANAMO NATURE PRESERVE Viewpoint: *REJECTION OF WASHINGTON'S FOREIGN POLICY BEHIND US DIPLOMATIC DEFEATS . *FIDEL CASTRO, AWARDED HONORARY DOCTORATE, SPEAKS AT TEHRAN UNIVERSITY Tehran, May 9 (RHC) -- University students in Tehran have awarded visiting Cuban President Fidel Castro an honorary degree in law and social sciences for his lifetime commitment to struggle against injustice. The award followed a master lecture delivered by the Cuban leader before hundreds of enthusiastic students at the University of Tehran. As is his custom, President Castro spoke in detail of the immense inequalities between rich and poor nations, and of Cuba's more than 40 years of resistance against U.S. efforts to strangle the Cuban Revolution. He said the Cuban nation's level of education and political consciousness acquired over past decades have been the weapons that allowed for the miracle of the Cuban Revolution's survival. Since his arrival in Iran on Monday, the Cuban leader has received exclusive official treatment reserved only for the most illustrious visitors. Iranian President Mohamed Khatami has praised Cuba's contribution to south-south cooperation, insisting that the resistance of the Cuban nation is a example for developing countries that prize their independence and progress. Late Tuesday, the Cuban leader gathered with Iranian and Cuban specialists building a biotechnology center on the outskirts of Tehran, which will be the largest and most modern of its kind in the region. It will not only allow Iran to be self-sufficient in pharmaceuticals, but also will permit the country to export pharmaceutical products. On Wednesday, Iran's Health Ministry blamed the U.S. embargo against both Iran and Cuba for the delays in the project. Construction began in 1996 and was to conclude in 2002, but due to embargo restrictions on machinery and technology, only 60 percent of the facility has been completed. *WHITE HOUSE BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED AFTER SECOND UN COMMITTEE OUSTER Washington, May 9 (RHC) -- In the USA, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has bitterly acknowledged that the George W. Bush administration is disappointed over its second exclusion from a United Nations Agency. Late last week, the United States was excluded from the UN's International Narcotics Control Board, after having been voted off the Human Rights Commission. Fleischer said Washington had received written guarantees of support, but that 14 countries made an about-face. He admitted that there is no way to determine which countries deceived Washington, since the vote was secret. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, according to the Washington office of EFE news agency, was somewhat more realistic, admitting that at least part of the blame resides in the U.S. government. In a complicated manner, Boucher said he believed it is fair to speculate that the exclusion could be related to matters involving Washington's behavior. The White House has reportedly decided not to support the idea of some conservative members of Congress who, in reprisal, want to renege on promises to pay the multi-million dollar US debt to the world body. *US AFL-CIO FEDERATION DECLARES WAR ON FTAA Washington, May 9 (RHC) -- The president of the U.S.'s AFL-CIO labor federation, John Sweeney, has declared war on the proposed Free Trade Association of the Americas. Speaking Tuesday in Washington at a gathering of U.S. business executives investing in Latin America, Sweeney announced an aggressive campaign to deny President George W. Bush the "fast track" he seeks to negotiate the deal. Sweeney said that the NAFTA "free trade" agreement with Mexico has only allowed for the exploitation of cheap labor and the contamination of Mexico's environment, asserting that the only people interested in a regional free trade zone are those in Washington and those who eat in expensive restaurants. Sweeney said the AFL-CIO is broadening its alliance with workers around the world who are convinced that free trade does not respect labor rights or the environment. The U.S. labor leader said the Bush administration currently does not have sufficient support in Congress for a "fast track" mandate. His remarks coincided with the publication of a letter sent to Bush and signed by 61 Senators who declared their opposition to any free trade deal that weakens the US's controversial trade laws, among them the anti-dumping law. Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, insists that the United States uses the anti-dumping law as a protectionist measure applied arbitrarily to protect US economic sectors that are not competitive. The law has been used against Brazilian steel, orange juice and footwear. Last Monday a similar sanction was slapped on Argentine honey, while Washington is expected to adopt a similar measure against Chilean grapes. *CUBA, ETHIOPIA SIGN MEDICAL COOPERATION ACCORD Addis Ababa, May 9 (RHC)--Ethiopia and Cuba yesterday signed a medical cooperation accord in Addis Ababa which will lead to the use of experimental medical equipment in Ethiopia as well as the placement of 12 Cuban specialists. Ethiopia's Deputy Health Minister, Lamisso Hayisso, and the Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Noemi de Mendoza signed the accord. The Cuban experts will work in Ethiopia for two years providing medical training at hospitals and health institutions across the country. Cuba will also provide grants for Ethiopian students to study medicine in Cuba. To date, more than 4,000 Ethiopian students have studied in Cuba. Both countries also agreed to exchange any information their research teams uncover in the area of public health. Similar accords on education and trade were signed last November between Havana and Addis Ababa. *BRAZIL HOLDS FIRM IN PATENT DISPUTE WITH USA, DRUG COMPANIES Brasilia, May 9 (RHC)--The president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Tuesday threw his weight fully behind his nation's confrontation with Washington and international pharmaceutical companies. Brazil has become a symbol for the Third World in its production of generic drugs to fight HIV/AIDS. The South American giant has fallen afoul of transnational pharmaceutical corporations and their patents on the drugs, but the nature of Brazil's public health crisis prompted Brasilia to act against the corporations and the government of the US. In a front-page article on the subject, the Cuban daily Granma reports that Cardoso declared that he would not yield a millimeter when defending the interests of his country. Brazil is being accused by the US of using the AIDS issue to protect its own pharmaceutical industry. Cuba stands solidly behind Brazil in its battle against the world's huge and powerful pharmaceutical conglomerates. The island has already begun producing its own HIV/AIDS medicines. South Africa is doing the same, and recently came away victorious in a court standoff with companies such as Bristol-Myers-Squibb, which sought to penalize Pretoria for patent violations. Cuba has accords with both South Africa and Brazil to produce the medicines for themselves and for other Third World nations. With the gauntlet thrown down by these three nationsm Washington is stepping up its pressure against them, reports Granma, which says that the US government would be willing to see a full half of the world's population succumb to the virus to please its corporate benefactors. The head of Brazil's HIV/AIDS program, Ricardo Teixeira, has already attacked the US position as "arrogant, autocratic and useless, because we are not taking a single step backwards". The Brazilian Health Minister said that Washington was not defending free trade or competition but the interests of an industry that has a disproportionate influence on the Bush administration". *CUBA TO TRAP WILD DOGS OVERRUNNING GUANTANAMO NATURE PRESERVE Guantanamo, May 9 (RHC)--Specialists are intensifying action against wild dogs to protect the fauna and flora of the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park -- the largest in Cuba. A study of the population of wild dogs in the park concludes that there is a worrying increase in their numbers. Wild dog packs are responsible for the deaths of more than a thousand domestic and corralled animals every year in just two of the park's zones; most of the losses are chickens and pigs. However, they have also threatened other wild species with extinction and park officials have finally found it necessary to take concerted action action against them. Rather than employ poisoning methods used by local campesinos that affect other species in the park, environmental experts are seeking to capture the dogs with traps that are easy to set and do not ensnare other animals. . Viewpoint: *REJECTION OF WASHINGTON'S FOREIGN POLICY BEHIND US DIPLOMATIC DEFEATS The United States is fighting mad. Government officials and legislators are threatening to pull out of international accords and stop payments to the United Nations after the most powerful country in the world was kicked off two United Nations Commissions within a week. First, members of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva in a secret vote, forced the United States off the commission for the first time since its founding in l947. Less than a week later, in another secret ballot, the United States lost its seat on the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board, this time with the help of its own European allies. Adding insult to injury, the vote represents a loss to the US of the Board's vice presidency: Herbert Okun, representative on the panel, had served in that capacity. This vote is seen as an especially hard blow because the international flow of illegal drugs is of utmost importance to the world's largest drug consumer: the United States. According to some specialists, the latest international reverses are related to US government ignorance about some of the pacts considered to be vehicles of international cooperation. Among the actions that have alienated the international community are Washington's refusal since 1989 to ratify the International Convention on Children's Rights, refusal to submit to the International Court of Justice, and its violations of the International Treaty against Nuclear Testing. More recently, President Bush announced his unilateral renunciation of the Kyoto Protocol on the elimination of dangerous gas emissions. Last March 28, the US vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning repression against Palestinians in the occupied territories, while on April 18 it opposed condemnation of Israel in the Human Rights Commission for the violation of the human rights of the Arab people. Washington's European allies, as well as China and Russia, oppose Bush's plans to build a National Anti-Missile Defense System, calling it a provocation to start a new arms race. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has admitted that the two international defeats may have been the result of Washington's unpopular voting record, especially regarding the Palestinians, as well as its campaigns against Cuba and China. In the final months of the Clinton administration, the United States and the United Nations came to an agreement on the US paying its more than billion dollar debt. That accord is now in danger of being rejected by Washington. Influential Republican and Democratic lawmakers have threatened to hold back payment on the huge UN debt if its seat on the Human Rights Commission is not restored. It remains to be seen how the Bush administration will deal with this new turn of events, since its foreign policies thus far have seriously compromised its relations with the rest of the world. (c) 2001 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-25231 2001-May-10 02:35:43