RHC Weekend-23/24 February 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - Weekend News Update - 23/24 February 2002 . *CUBANS RALLY TO PROTEST PANAMANIAN MANEUVERS IN POSADA CARRILES CASE *CUBAN SPORTS INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 41st ANNIVERSARY *GRANMA PHOTO-JOURNALIST WINS NATIONAL AWARD *CUBA AND MEXICAN STATE OF HIDALGO SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT *INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR CONTINUES IN CUBA'S CENTRAL PROVINCES *RENEWED HOPES FOR PEACE IN ANGOLA: UNITA'S JONAS SAVIMBI IS DEAD *US CORPORATE GIANT FOUND GUILTY OF TOXIC POISONING IN LANDMARK COURT CASE *COLOMBIA: SHATTERED PEACE PROCESS FUELS HUMANITARIAN CRISIS *MEMBER NATIONS OF ALADI ANNOUNCE PLAN FOR FREE TRADE SPACE *HALF OF WORLD'S LANGUAGES THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION . *CUBANS RALLY TO PROTEST PANAMANIAN MANEUVERS IN POSADA CARRILES CASE Santi Spiritus, February 23 (RHC)--In the central Cuban municipality of La Sierpa, thousands rallied Saturday morning to protest what they described as "dirty maneuvers" on the part of Panama's judicial authorities regarding the case of Cuban-American terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Teachers, doctors and farmers were among the nearly one dozen speakers who condemned the ruling by the Panamanian Attorney General's office this week, which said there was insufficient evidence to link Posada Carriles to an assassination plot against Cuban President Fidel Castro during the 10th Ibero-American Summit, in November 2000. Posada Carrilles is well known for his terrorist anti-Cuba career, which has included organizing numerous bomb attacks and other illegal acts, like the blowing up in mid-air of a Cubana airplane in 1976 killing all 73 people onboard, and several bomb attacks against hotels and other tourist facilities in Cuba. In 1985, Posada Carriles, with help from his friends in Miami, escaped from a Venezuelan prison, where he was serving time for the Cubana sabotage bombing. He has also admitted to having master-minded the attacks against Cuban tourist resorts some five years ago. *CUBAN SPORTS INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 41st ANNIVERSARY Havana, February 23 (RHC)--The Cuban Sports Institute, known by its Spanish acronym INDER, today celebrated its 41st anniversary with the main activity in the municipality of Manicaragua, in central Villa Clara province. The date includes the re-inauguration of the national teachers' training school in that municipality, where there are already students from the provinces of Sancti Spiritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara and hundreds of phys-ed and sports professors who traveled to Villa Clara this weekend for the INDER festivities. Participants in the celebrations and INDER officials reiterated that the success of Cuban athletes in the international arena will continue thanks to the work being carried out by these professors in the schools and communities where they find young talents who will become the island's sports stars of the future. *GRANMA PHOTO-JOURNALIST WINS NATIONAL AWARD Havana, February 23 (RHC)--The Cuban Union of Journalists (UPEC) announced Friday that the National Jose Marti Journalism Award of 2001 has been granted to photo-reporter Liborio Nodal, of the Granma newspaper, for his outstanding and continuous work over the last 40 years. Speaking to reporters after the announcement was made, Nodal said that he did not expect it "because there are many others who deserve it too." On Friday, UPEC also announced the national Juan Gualberto Gómez Awards of 2001, which were granted to journalists Marina Menéndez and Ivon Delofeu, of Juventud Rebelde newspaper and Cuban Television, respectively, and to photo-reporter Luis Toca, of Bohemia magazine, among others. *CUBA AND MEXICAN STATE OF HIDALGO SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT Havana, February 23 (RHC)--The government of the Republic of Cuba and the Mexican state of Hidalgo signed a cooperation agreement on Friday for sports, cultural and education exchange in order to improve the level of human resources in both regions. The document was signed by Cuba's Education Minister Luis Ignacio Gómez and the Governor of Hidalgo, Manuel Núñez, who said that the accord will help his country to improve the quality of education taking as a model the Cuban example, which he described as the best in Latin America. The agreement also includes exchange of information between medical students and professors from both countries, as well as visits to Mexican universities by Cuban students. Another aspect of the accord is a comprehensive program to improve reading habits, particularly in Hidalgo, which includes the creation of libraries, reading centers and the distribution of bibliographical material. *INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR CONTINUES IN CUBA'S CENTRAL PROVINCES Havana, February 23 (RHC)--With the presentation of over 400 new titles and the presence of several authors and specialists, the 11th International Book Fair continued over the last week in the western provinces of Pinar del Rio, Matanzas and Havana, as well as the special municipality of the Isle of Youth. As of Friday, more than 400,000 people had visited the stands and participated in the activities of this important international event. On Monday, the 25th, the Book Fair moves to the central region of the island and the cities of Santa Clara, Sagua la Grande, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Moron and Camagüey. According to the organizing committee of the 11th International Book Fair, this year's event is unprecedented because of its extension, not only in time but also in territories involved. With 15 days still ahead for the Fair, more than one million books have already been sold. *RENEWED HOPES FOR PEACE IN ANGOLA: UNITA'S JONAS SAVIMBI IS DEAD Luanda, February 23 (RHC)--The Angolan army has announced the death of Jonas Savimbi, leader of the terrorist group known as UNITA. Savimbi founded UNITA in the mid-1960s and fought against the Angolan government following the country's independence from Portugal in 1975, receiving millions of dollars in aid and military supplies from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the apartheid South African government. According to reports from Luanda, Jonas Savimbi was killed during a battle with government troops Friday afternoon in the southeastern province of Moxico. On Saturday, his body was shown to reporters in the village of Lucusse and independent journalists confirmed that Savimbi had been shot at least 15 times. Observers both in Angola and around the world say that the death of Jonas Savimbi means the end of one of the most destructive terrorist movements the world has known. On Saturday, Associated Press recalled that hundreds of thousands of Angolans have been killed, wounded and displaced over the past 30 years. AP said tens of thousands of children, boys and girls, were kidnapped and forced into UNITA's army as porters, sex slaves or fighters. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) and human rights activists had long declared Jonas Savimbi a war criminal. Known for his brutality, which included burning his foes at the stake, Savimbi became a favorite of the United States and apartheid South Africa. In 1986, then-President Ronald Reagan invited him to the White House, where he was received like a head of state. After signing a peace agreement with the Angolan government in 1991 and losing a UN-monitored election the next year, Savimbi plunged the country back into civil war, refusing to disarm and demobilize his army. In 1994, Savimbi signed another peace accord, which was also shattered by his refusal to abide by its terms. UNITA forces shot down several United Nations planes delivering humanitarian supplies and, in 1998, the UN secretary general's special representative, Maitre Alioune Blondin Beye, died in a plane crash. In 2000 a UN report detailed UNITA's use of diamonds to fuel the war, and the terrorist movement was put under strict international sanctions. Despite UN prohibitions, UNITA continued to rake in millions of dollars from diamonds sold on the black market to fund their terrorist operations against the Angolan people. Political analysts commented on Saturday that with Jonas Savimbi out of the picture, Angola is breathing a sigh of relief, with renewed hopes for peace in the war-torn African nation. *US CORPORATE GIANT FOUND GUILTY OF TOXIC POISONING IN LANDMARK COURT CASE Birmingham, February 23 (RHC)--An Alabama jury has found that the U.S. biotechnology giant Monsanto engaged in what it called "outrageous" behavior by releasing tons of PCBs into the city of Anniston and covering up its actions for decades. Observers say the decision in the landmark environmental lawsuit gave more than 3000 area residents a huge victory over one of the country's largest corporations. David Baker, president of the local group Community Against Pollution, said that Monsanto destroyed his community. In his words, "They poisoned us, they profited from us, and now it's time for them to pay." On Friday a jury in Gadsden, Alabama, a town 20 miles from Anniston, held Monsanto and its corporate successors liable on all six counts it considered: negligence, wantonness, suppression of the truth, nuisance, trespass and outrage. Under Alabama law, the rare claim of outrage typically requires conduct "so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society." After a six-week trial on liability, the case now proceeds to a damages phase. Meanwhile, 15,000 additional area residents have filed another lawsuit citing health problems, property damage and emotional distress caused by PCB contamination. And a U.S. Senate committee is preparing to hold hearings on the situation. PCBs, shorthand for polychlorinated biphenyls, have been banned in the United States since 1979, but they were once considered lifesavers, nonflammable coolants that prevented explosions in electrical equipment. From 1935 on, Monsanto was the only U.S. company that made them, at one plant in Illinois and another in working-class west Anniston. Today, PCBs are known as global pollutants and possible carcinogens, with severe effects on human health. Anniston residents did not learn about the pollution until 1996, even though documents show that Monsanto knew about it for decades. In 1966, for example, Monsanto managers discovered that fish dunked in a local creek turned belly-up within 10 seconds, spurting blood and shedding skin as if dropped into boiling water. In 1969, they found a fish in another creek with 7,500 times the legal PCB level. But they decided not to tell their neighbors in the Alabama town. *COLOMBIA: SHATTERED PEACE PROCESS FUELS HUMANITARIAN CRISIS Bogotá, February 23 (RHC)--Non-governmental organizations in Colombia have begun to mobilize support for communities trapped in the crossfire of civil war, following the rupture of peace talks between the government and rebel forces. Jorge Rojas, director of the Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), an NGO that has helped Colombians forced to flee their homes by the armed conflict over the past 10 years, spoke with reporters in Bogotá on Friday. He said that with the collapse of the talks, "there will be no possibility of alleviating the tragedy faced by those Colombians who give up everything they have to avoid being killed." Rojas noted that there are now over two million Colombians displaced by the conflict. He said his organization demands respect and protection for the civilian population, "in the demilitarized zone as well as other parts of the country, where thousands of campesinos are trapped by the paramilitary siege." International human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch blame the right wing paramilitary militias, which they say have close ties to the armed forces, for brutal massacres of civilians committed in Colombia. Representatives of human rights groups and other organizations gathered in the Colombian capital to adopt a unified position with regards to the new war scenario, after President Andrés Pastrana broke off talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) late Wednesday. The activists warned that the heightened intensity of the war, which already claims an estimated 3,500 victims a year, would aggravate the humanitarian crisis, human rights violations and poverty in this South American country of 42 million inhabitants. The non-governmental organizations said they would insist on the need for peace talks, which they say will be inevitable even after this latest escalation of fighting. They also announced that at a May peace congress, they would urge Colombia's new president to return to the negotiating table. Presidential elections are scheduled for May, and a run-off will be held in June. Activists told reporters in Bogotá that they will immediately implement a plan to support the roughly 80,000 people living in the former demilitarized zone in southern Colombia. On Thursday, under orders of President Andres Pastrana, army troops began a massive military assault on the area, which was the site of government-rebel talks for nearly three years. *MEMBER NATIONS OF ALADI ANNOUNCE PLAN FOR FREE TRADE SPACE Montevideo, February 23 (RHC)--Member countries of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) on Friday announced in Montevideo their intention to join under a free trade space by the year 2007. The announcement was made by ALADI secretary general, Venezuelan Juan Francisco Rojas. Rojas was attending an ALADI Council of Ministers Meeting in the Uruguayan capital. In statements to the press, he said that faced with the present trade difficulties, it was imperative for ALADI to have regional coordination in its macro-economic policies. Cuba was represented at the Uruguay meeting by Minister of State Ricardo Cabrisas. The ALADI secretary general considered that the region is not doing enough to mitigate the negative effects of the present world economic difficulties and meet the new challenges, which underlined the need, he stressed, for greater macro-economic coordination as provided by a common free trade space. *HALF OF WORLD'S LANGUAGES THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION Paris, February 23 (RHC)--Half the world's 6000 languages are under threat of extinction, according to the new edition of the "Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing." The Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuura, stated that the death of languages also spells the end of the culture that gave rise to them. He spoke with reporters in Paris on the occasional of International Mother Language Day, established by UNESCO three years ago. The head of UNESCO said the UN agency plans to set up a monitoring system that will warn when an endangered language -- classified as no longer spoken by at least 30% of a community's children -- is threatened with extinction. UNESCO is urging countries to protect languages as natural and cultural treasures. A ceremony to mark Mother Language Day at UNESCO's Paris headquarters, featuring a tribute to the former editor of the Atlas, Professor Stephen Wurm, who died last October. An Australian linguist of Hungarian origin, he spoke some 50 languages and pioneered the field study and analysis of local tongues in Papua New Guinea, which is home to 832 languages -- more than any other country. The Washington-based Worldwatch Institute says Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Papua New Guinea account for more than half of all languages in the world. Australia is the country with the largest number of vanished or endangered languages, according to UNESCO. Until the 1970s, Australia's aboriginal population was forbidden from speaking their more than 400. Only about 25 are still commonly spoken. One native language, Wanyi, is spoken by only two people. Although languages elsewhere in the world have been dying out for 300 years, extinctions are now occurring at a dramatic and steadily increasing pace, according to UNESCO. Reasons given include communities broken up by outside groups who want to extract minerals, timber, and oil from their homelands; and official sanctions against the use of minority languages in schools, local authorities and the media. The UN agency also notes that languages spoken by minority communities can also be eroded as part of efforts by parents to encourage their children to adapt to norms set by majority cultures, especially in order to get a job. UNESCO reports that some 726 million people use Mandarin Chinese as their mother tongue, while 427 million are native English speakers and 266 million are native Spanish speakers. Almost 350 million people speak other Chinese languages. (c) 2002 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-12770 2002-Feb-24 01:49:04