Radio Havana Cuba-12 November 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 12 November 2001 . *FIDEL CASTRO TOURS AREAS AFFECTED BY HURRICANE MICHELLE *PROGRESSIVES IN MIAMI FORM CUBA HURRICANE RELIEF COMMITTEE *FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE TO SPEAK AT UNITED NATIONS ON TUESDAY *GATHERING AGAINST FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS GEARS UP IN HAVANA *ITALIANS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA *STUDY REVEALS GORE WOULD HAVE WON ELECTION WITH A FLORIDA RECOUNT *WTO CLOSE TO AGREEMENT ON Rx PATENTS, FAR APART ON OTHER ISSUES *UN REPORTS NORTHERN ALLIANCE LOOTING, KILLING AND KIDNAPPING *NORTHERN ALLIANCE HOLD HALF OF AFGHANISTAN, ON OUTSKIRTS OF KABUL *INTERNATIONAL PESSIMISM ON POST-TALIBAN COALITION GOVERNMENT *AMERICAN AIRLINES CRASH IN NYC NOT SEEN AS TERRORISM . *FIDEL CASTRO TOURS AREAS AFFECTED BY HURRICANE MICHELLE Matanzas, November 12 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro on Sunday toured areas hard hit by Hurricane Michelle. During visits to the provinces of Matanzas and Villa Clara, the Cuban leader told reporters that he was impressed with the recovery efforts by local residents. Speaking with victims of the storm damage, the Cuban president reassured them that the response of work crews will be "in record time." He also reiterated that no one will be left abandoned and that the government will provide people with materials to rebuild their damaged homes. Recovery work continues throughout the areas most affected by the powerful storm, which was the strongest hurricane to hit the island in more than 50 years. Damage was widespread, covering more than 45 percent of the island's territory -- a little over five million of the country's 11 million inhabitants. In terms of agricultural damage, sugar and citrus were the two export crops most affected by Hurricane Michelle. Nearly one million acres of sugarcane -- which was to be harvested later this month and into December -- was flattened by the hurricane-strength winds. In related news, the government of Belize has offered to send relief aid to Cuba in the wake of Hurricane Michelle. According to reports from Belmopan, the Belizean capital, the aid will consist of food stuffs and other emergency assistance. *PROGRESSIVES IN MIAMI FORM CUBA HURRICANE RELIEF COMMITTEE Miami, November 12 (RHC)-- Progressive groups in Miami have announced that they're putting together a Cuba Hurricane Relief Committee to collect and transport medicine, food and other humanitarian aid. The Miami Coalition Against the U.S. Embargo, the Cuban Committee for Democracy, the Antonio Maceo Brigade and the Cuban American Defense League, among others, have issued a statement insisting that the donations will be given without conditions to the proper Cuban institutions responsible for their distribution to the needy population. The statement added that the Cuba Hurricane Relief Committee absolutely rejects any attempt to condition in any manner donations offered to the Cuba people as the result of the natural disaster. *FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE TO SPEAK AT UNITED NATIONS ON TUESDAY New York, November 12 (RHC)-- Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque is heading the island's delegation to the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Meeting with other delegates and representatives of Third World countries at UN Headquarters on Monday, Cuba's top diplomat is slated to address the world body tomorrow, Tuesday. During his stay in New York, Felipe Pérez Roque will also attend ministerial meetings of the Movement of Non-Aligned Nations and the Group of 77. *GATHERING AGAINST FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS GEARS UP IN HAVANA Havana, November 12 (RHC)-- The Hemispheric Conference Against the Free Trade Area of the Americas gets underway tomorrow, Tuesday, in the Cuban capital. The gathering will be attended by more than 400 representatives of 60 organizations and social movements from 37 countries. In statements to the weekly newspaper Trabajadores, the director of the Center for the Studies of the World Economy, Osvaldo Martínez, stated that the main objective of the regional gathering is to analyze the effects of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The Cuban economist emphasized that delegates attending the meeting -- which runs through Friday, the 16th -- will bring new ideas and strategies with them to Havana to fight against neo-liberal globalization. Osvaldo Martínez warned that Washington's project for so-called "free trade" is nothing more than a plan to economically annex Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States. "It is a clear attempt to impose the old imperialist dream," which is actually a nightmare for our peoples and will only bring greater poverty and misery to the region. The Cuban economist said that among the participants at the gathering will be representatives from trade union organizations, religious groups, indigenous activists, environmentalists and representatives from youth and women's organizations. *ITALIANS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA Viareggio, November 12 (RHC)-- Nearly 200 Italians took part in a solidarity with Cuba meeting held over the weekend in Viareggio. Representatives of 86 solidarity and friendship organizations based in Italy met to discuss their present and future work. The gathering was held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Italy-Cuba Friendship Association, with the aim of further strengthening solidarity toward the Cuban Revolution. On hand for the event was the President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), Sergio Corrieri, and Havana's Ambassador to Italy, María de los Angeles Flores. *STUDY REVEALS GORE WOULD HAVE WON ELECTION WITH A FLORIDA RECOUNT Washington, November 12 (RHC)-- An independent study of the vote in last year's US presidential race in Florida has revealed that Al Gore would have won in a recount of all the state's ballots. Eight U.S. media outlets contracted a $900,000 study by the University of Chicago which found that Gore would have won by a narrow margin of between 42 and 171 votes. The Associated Press, CNN, Tribune Company, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the St. Petersburg Times, The Palm Beach Post and The Wall Street Journal-sponsored study also determined, however, that had the Supreme Court allowed the partial recount requested by Gore, George W. Bush would have maintained his lead. Gore had publicly defended a full vote recount, but only petitioned the Supreme Court for a partial review. The revelation this weekend led White House spokesman Ari Fleischer to impatiently reiterate that Bush won and that it's time to move forward, while Bush advisor Carter Eskew said it's time to leave behind the bitterness. The media organizations that contracted the study had originally declined to publish its results, which were ready around the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Observers had speculated that the media didn't want to embarrass the Bush administration at that particular time. It wasn't clear why they decided to publish the results now. *WTO CLOSE TO AGREEMENT ON Rx PATENTS, FAR APART ON OTHER ISSUES Doha, November 12 (RHC)-- At the World Trade Organization's ministerial meeting in Qatar, delegates are closer than ever to an agreement on pharmaceutical patent rights, according to Brazilian Trade Minister Sergio Amaral. Amaral said there is light at the end of the tunnel. A rough draft of the accord, according to the AFP news agency, retains the premise established by Brazil and India that WTO patent regulations should not impede member nations from taking the necessary measures to protect public health. Observers and journalists covering the event, however, have noted that despite an eventual accord on the issue, other items under negotiation are advancing slowly. In the sphere of agriculture, the total elimination of export subsidies, demanded by many developing nations, is up against opposition by the United States, the European Union and Japan. These countries are in favor of a gradual, not a total elimination of subsidies. Rich nations are also opposed to further opening their markets to the textile industries of Third World nations. The disputes and disagreements reportedly did away with the euphoria following China's official membership in the WTO, announced Saturday after 15 years of negotiations, and Sunday's admittance of Taiwan following 12 years of talks. The atmosphere is now reportedly pessimistic, as trade ministers desperately hope to avoid a repetition of the 1999 failure in Seattle during the WTO's last ministerial gathering. *UN REPORTS NORTHERN ALLIANCE LOOTING, KILLING AND KIDNAPPING Rome, Islamabad, November 12 (RHC)-- Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance is looting, carrying out executions, kidnapping and deporting civilians in the recently conquered city of Mazar-I-Sharif, according to the United Nations World Food Program. The organization's spokespersons in Islamabad and Rome said it had 8 workers in the city and that 89 tons of food have been stolen from its deposits. Of the city's 250,000 inhabitants, 102,000 reportedly depend on monthly rations of food aid. Mazar-I-Sharif has exchanged hands on several occasions in the past years of civil war in Afghanistan, and has been the scene of massacres perpetrated by both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. On Sunday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called on the armed opposition to protect the city's civilian population, recalling the history of vengeance and civilian losses that have accompanied its diverse military occupations. *NORTHERN ALLIANCE HOLD HALF OF AFGHANISTAN, ON OUTSKIRTS OF KABUL Islamabad, November 12 (RHC)-- The Northern Alliance has taken control of approximately 50 percent of Afghanistan, occupying key provinces and cities and now on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul. Washington and London, however, have called on the armed opposition to not occupy Kabul until there is a coalition government to replace the Taliban. Among the occupied cities is Herat, the gateway to the Taliban stronghold Kandahar - the most important city in western Afghanistan. Kandahar is the home of supreme Taliban leader mullah Mohammed Omar, and is believed to be the principle base of Osama Bin Laden. According to observers, the rapid manner in which the Taliban are collapsing suggests that many of its combatants are changing sides instead of putting up resistance, a common occurrence among the numerous factions in Afghanistan dating back to the Soviet intervention in that nation. Observers are also saying that it remains to be seen whether the opposition can maintain the pace of its offensive as it approaches Taliban bastions in the south, where the majority of inhabitants are of the same ethnic group as the Taliban. *INTERNATIONAL PESSIMISM ON POST-TALIBAN COALITION GOVERNMENT Islamabad, November 12 (RHC)-- As the Northern Alliance advances in Afghanistan, members of the international community are expressing concern over what direction the country will take if the Taliban regime falls. Still present the memory of the anarchy and mass murders committed in Kabul by the Northern Alliance warlords in April 1992, pessimism reigns about the possibility of a political leadership representing all of Afghanistan's ethnic groups and that would satisfy the opposing interests of the country's neighbors. Afghan-Uzbek General Abdur Rashid Dostum has already declared Mazar-I-Sharif his group's bastion, the Tajik militia have claimed exclusive rights over Talokan and the Hazan-Shiites claim Bamian. Pakistan, meanwhile, Monday reiterated its opposition to a dominating role of the Northern Alliance in any future Afghan government. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry stated that if a political process fails there will be more civil war in Afghanistan. The United Nations has expressed support of an international interim government similar to that established in East Timor, but neither would all the factions support such a move. *AMERICAN AIRLINES CRASH IN NYC NOT SEEN AS TERRORISM Washington, November 12 (RHC)-- The White House has announced that terrorism does not seem to be behind the Airbus A-300 American Airlines plane that crashed into a neighborhood in Queens, New York with 255 passengers on board. Though White House spokesman Ari Fleischer refused to totally discard a terrorist attack, he said there was no unusual communication from the crew in the cabin, that there was no threatening message or warning. (c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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