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10/12/09 - Prensa Latina (Habana) - DIRECT FROM HAVANA (AM)

LATIN AMERICAN NEWS AGENCY, SA
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Morning Transmission
Monday, October 12, 2008
For up to the minute news: www.plenglish.com



CUBA-NATIONAL NEWS CUBA
Guinea Bissau Premier Stresses Cuban Solidarity
Chile-Cuba Event Devoted to Juan Almeida
Cuba Slams Blockade Damages to Genetics

INTERNATIONAL NEWS


LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Lula: The Rich Must Assume Global Warming Liability
Dominican Military to Haiti Border
Bolivian Police Struck Drug-Trafficking
Brazil to Investigate Premature Births
Call to End HIV-AIDS in Panama
Honduran Rallies Still at Streets

US, CANADA, EUROPE
WHO Will Distribute Swine Flu Vaccines
Medvedev Iterates Rejection of History Review
US Lawmakers at Odds over Afghanistan Troops
FAO Alerts to Possible Food Price Rise

AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST


ASIA AND AUSTRALIA
Loses Increase Due to Sumatra Earthquake

*************************************

CUBA-NATIONAL NEWS CUBA

Guinea Bissau Premier Stresses Cuban Solidarity

Havana, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Premier of Guinea Bissau Carlos Gomes
stressed the ties of solidarity and cooperation that join that African
nation with Cuba, where he is carrying out an official visited, invited
by the island's government.

Gomes expressed satisfaction from his people of having friendship with
Cuba, Granma newspaper reported Monday.

"We are here to greet our brother Commander Fidel Castro, President
Raul Castro, and the people of Cuba," Gomes said.

During his stay in New York, at the UN headquarter, the African visitor
urged US President Barack Obama to review the policy of economic, trade
and financial blockade to Cuba for almost 50 years, and the case of five
Cuban anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in US jails since 1998.

Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez
and Rene Gonzalez are currently serving harsh sentences for merely
gathering information about terrorist plots by anti-Cuban organizations
in Miami, Florida, in an effort to prevent the deaths of Cuban and even
United States citizens.

Gomes arrived in Havana on Sunday and among his objective is to review
bilateral cooperation in sectors like health and education.

Chile-Cuba Event Devoted to Juan Almeida

Santiago, Chile, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Delegates from all Chilean
regions will hold in the neighboring port of Valparaiso the 17th
National Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, this time devoted to recently
deceased Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque.

After describing Almeida Bosque as "an icon of revolutionary exemplary
dedication," the call to this meeting, to be run next weekend, stated
that "the Cuban experience against the Empire is a permanent guide to
face hardship against Latin America."

The event will analyze actions and activities carried out against the US
economic blockade on Cuba, the current situation, and the effects of
Obama's administration.

Another commission will also determine actions in favor of the release
of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned in the United
States and the Fourth International Drive for their freedom.

According to the call, five working groups will discuss commitments of
the last year meeting, and resolutions of the 2009 Inter-zone Meeting,
including among other issues the movement's zonal, inter-zonal and
national organic situation.

The national forum, organized by the Jose Marti Cuba-Chile Friendship
House and the Chilean Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, will also pay
posthumous tribute to recently deceased Juan Oyarzun and Emilio
Contardo, active activists of solidarity with Cuba.

Cuba Slams Blockade Damages to Genetics

Havana, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Cuba has a group of professionals capable
of carrying out their own genetic studies like First World nations, but
the US blockade deprive them of access to the advanced technology.

That unfair measure that slows the development of the National Medical
Genetics Center was slammed by Doctor Beatriz Marcheco, director of the
institution, Granma newspaper reported Monday.

The expert said that to purchase a gene analyzer equipment, to study
variations and determine which can lead diseases that are among the main
causes of death in Cuba or have a high incidence.

Among sickness are breast, colon and prostate cancer, asthma, diabetes
mellitus, ischemic heart disease, and hypertension.

Macheco stated that the analyzer is manufactured by the US Company
Applied Biosystems, and ranks as the most advanced technology worldwide
for the above researchers.

That equipment works at very high speed and is capable of identifying
genetic predisposition people with those mentioned pathologies can have.
This provides an opportunity to change lifestyles and take other
preventive actions.



INTERNATIONAL NEWS



LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Lula: The Rich Must Assume Global Warming Liability

Brasilia, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva affirmed on Monday that rich countries must assume their
responsibility in the fight against global warming, and announced the
Brazilian proposal on that issue will be ready in a month.

Rich nations must assume their responsibility for the severe damage
caused, and if they are sending too much greenhouse gases, they will
have to reduce them, said Lula in his regular Cafe con el presidente
radio program on Mondays.

"It means reducing the consumption level or somehow changing the
production rhythm. If rich nations were reluctant to do so, they would
have to reforest their territories, or pay countries with forests to
preserve them and give them some financial compensation," he pointed
out.

The Brazilian president state his government is still elaborating the
proposal it will present at the December Summit on Climate Change in
Copenhagen, Denmark.

However, he informed the Brazilian plan intends to cut deforestation by
80 percent until 2020.

Lula added they want to make a proposal along with other countries, and
that developed nations assume other commitments than just reducing
greenhouse gases.

When paying for the damage caused to the planet, there must be a
different approach coping with rich nations, which have an industrial
policy of over 150 years, and poor and emerging nations, which are just
beginning to develop.

"It is not the same referring to the US and to China. The US has a
nearly 200-years-old industrial revolution, and China has just begun.
So, rich nations are more responsible for global warming than emerging
ones," he stressed.

Dominican Military to Haiti Border

Santo Domingo, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) The Dominican Army plans to
position 600 soldiers along the border with Haiti, official sources
informed.

It was informed the decision made to complete the Specialized Border
Corps (CESFRONT) created as ordered by President Leonel Fernandez in
2007, intended to cut smuggling of drugs, arms, people, and goods.

The contingent will make up and reinforce "the staff assigned to units
along the border, to fight evils constantly threatening the borderline,"
the note says.

The new decision follows the sending last week of 150 students from the
police school to cities bordering Haiti, as part of their training, it
was recalled.

Bolivian Police Struck Drug-Trafficking

La Paz, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Bolivian Special Force to Fight Drug
Trafficking (SFFDT) found out and destroyed two cultivation hectares
that contained 96 tons of marijuana in the locality of Pucapilla, in the
central department of Cochamba.

According to Cambio newspaper, the finding was discovered this weekend
as part of an operation that mobilized 150 policemen of the Mobile Rural
Patrol Unit, two specialized groups and staff of the regional force
command to combat drug trafficking.

SFFDT Director in Cochamba, lieutenant colonel Elvin Baptista explained
that they got to the plantations thanks to the information of the owner
of a rustic house, where 142 kilograms of marijuana that were ready to
be moved to no specific place yet.

Police action also made possible the destruction of 30 mobile factories
of cocaine that used the Colombian method.

According to the police report, at least two kilograms of that narcotic
were produced daily.

ó There were no arrests because the occupants of the mobile factories
have methods to detect us when we are one thousand 500 meters away,
which gives them time to escape ó , underlined the police chief.

Deputy Minister of Social Defense and Controlled Substances Felipe
Caceres said that Bolivia broke a record with the most recent SFFDT
finding in Cochamba.

Brazil to Investigate Premature Births

Brasilia, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Researchers of the Medicine Faculty of
Sao Paulo University will study possible factors regarding an increased
number of premature births in the past years in Brazil.

Figures of the Health ministry indicate that between 1997 and 2007
premature births increased from 5.3 percent to 6.7 percent of the total
number of births, a percentage that demonstrates that in 1997 21,580
thousand infants were borne before 37 weeks of pregnancy and in 2008
these figures rose to 194,783.

Professor Marco Antonio Barbiere, pediatrician and epidemiologist in
charge of the research pointed out that increases such as these are
observed in the world and added that it could be related to the life
style of modern society.

He further indicated that there are well known causes such as
hypertension and malnutrition but these factors only represent 40
percent of premature births while ó" he continued ó" the world is
going through a perinatal epidemiological transition for unexplained
reasons.

Barbieri mentioned stress that increases production of corticotropine
(CRH) that could lead to an early birth. Other factors could be
increased pollution, violence or psychological alterations such as
depression.

After referring that the study would have a follow up of 14,000
pregnant women, until birth, in the cities of Riberao Preto and Sao Luis
in Maranhao state, the professor pointed out that the study will also
investigate impacts of stress caused by depression and several kinds of
violence and racial discrimination and lack of social support.

We know that emotional stress can unleash liberation of CRH hormone and
added that now they will study drug, alcohol or cigarette consumption
during pregnancy that also simulates liberation of this hormone.

Call to End HIV-AIDS in Panama

Panama, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Prevention is a basic factor to confront
the scourge of HIV-AIDS in Panama that registers 600 new cases every
year, informed specialized sources.

According to reports of the non governmental organization, Probidsida,
a majority of persons seek attention in public service health centers.

A factor to consider indicated directors of the institution is that 70
percent of those infected are found in the age groups of 18 to 44.

Even more so, of 50 patients who monthly arrive for the first time in
the hospitals with AIDS, 22 percent fall in the age group of 15 to 29
years.

Authorities of the Health ministry warned that efforts are concentrated
in assistance in treatment with a lesser influence in prevention.

Confronted with this situation, Probidsida applied an initiative to
train about a hundred young persons in provinces such as Herrera, Colon,
Cocle, Chirirqui, Veraguas and Los Santos to extend the message of
prevention in that sector of the population.

In the country the president sets aside a yearly sum close to 23
million dollars to cover costs of combating the disease both among the
already diagnosed as new programs of prevention.

Honduran Rallies Still at Streets

Tegucigalpa, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) The National Front against the Coup
d'Etat in Honduras stated that it will continue Monday fighting in the
streets to demand the restitution of democracy, despite the suspension
of constitutional guarantees.

The decision was agreed Sunday by the leadership of the Front of that
alliance, and ratified by the bases from people's forces during an
assembly held in Tegucigalpa.

"We will continue our class struggle and deep changes, even with those
repressive battalions that attack us, and the state of siege," the
Front's general coordinator Juan Barahona stated.

The union leader said that the de facto government has maintained the
suspension of constitutional guarantees, decreed on September 26, as its
announced derogation has not been published in the official gazette.

Monday's rally precedes the continuation of talks to be run Tuesday
among three Zelaya's representatives, Barahona is one of them, and equal
quantity from the de facto government.

"The main objective is the immediate restitution of President Manuel
Zelaya, which is the point that will define the success or failure of
negotiations with the de facto government," Barahona stated.

He noted that after talks have been reached, the resistance will
continue fighting in the streets to call for a national constituent
assembly, a right the people won before the coup.



US, CANADA, EUROPE

WHO Will Distribute Swine Flu Vaccines

Geneva, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) World Health Organization (WHO) announced
Monday that it will distribute vaccines against swine flu A (H1N1) in
100 countries with low and mid incomes. The vaccines should be effective
with the application of only one.

Chief of WHO vaccine research Marie-Paule Kieny said that the vaccines
will be delivered as donation to cover basically the needs of the health
personnel and keep them from propagating the virus.

ó A hundred of developed countries will receive vaccines against swine
flu in the next four months to cover two per cent of the population
involved in public health services ó , explained the official.

In the second stage, WHO expects to cover 10 per cent of the
citizenship of those nations.

Kieny underlined that a dose of the swine flu H1N1 vaccine should offer
enough protection against the strain of the pandemic disease.

The virus does not seem to have mutated to a more virulent form since
it appeared in the United States and Mexico, she admitted.

Medvedev Iterates Rjection of History Review

Moscow, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Rusian President Dmitri Medvedev
reiterated on Monday his rejection of reviewing history and the results
of World War II, during the ceremony to hand over credentials to a group
of ambassadors accredited in this capital.

Medvedev, who recalled that they would celebrate in 2010 the 65th
anniversary of the victory over fascism, spoke against attempts of
rehabilitate collaborators of the Nazi regime.

May 9 is a special day to Russia, he said.

The million people that fell for our joint freedom mean pain and loss
to almost all the Russian families, thus we revere our dead combatants,
as they do also in foreign countries, he stated during the official
ceremony at the Kremlin.

Bolivian, Peruvian, Slovenian, Slovakian and Belgian Ambassadors to
Russia Maria Luisa Ramos Ursagaste, Marta Elena Toledo-Ocampo Ureñia,
Ada Filip-Slivnik, Joseph Migash and Gi Truberois, respectively, were
among those who participated in the ceremony.

Maltese, Albanese, Libyan, Dutch Ambassadors and that from New Zealand,
Carmel Inguanez, Sokol Gioka, Amir al-Arabi Ali Garib, Ronald Keller and
Jean Alexander Hill, respectively, also presented their credentials.

Además, presentaron sus credenciales, el embajador de Malta, Carmel
Inguanez, de Albania, Sokol Gioka, de Libia, Amir al-Arabi Ali Garib, de
Holanda, Ronald Keller, y de Nueva Zelanda, Jean Alexander Hill.

US Lawmakers at Odds over Afghanistan Troops

Washington, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) The possible increase of US troops in
Afghanistan, requested by the Department of Defense, has generated
disagreements among legislators.

Several Democrat senators has rejected the requested increase of
troops, and expressed their doubts as to its results.

Carl Levin, leader of the upper chamber's Armed Services Committee has
opposed sending more military to that country, currently totalling about
68,000.

Similar stance was adopted by Representative James McGovern, who said
that sending more soldiers would be a mistake and a counterproductive
measure. "We need to have a definite strategy, including the end of our
soldiers' presence in that nation," the Massachusetts deputy commented.

Faced with increasing violence in Afghanistan, the commander of foreign
troops, General Stanley McChrystal, has asked for another 40,000
soldiers.

Democrat senator Dianne Feinstein backs the petition, and noted Obama
should meet the requirements of military chiefs on the theater of
operations.

Her Republican colleagues Mitch McConell, leader of the minority in the
upper chamber, and John McCain also supported sending more troops.

Obama has already held several meetings with his main national security
advisors to analyze the nature of the conflict and the strategy to be
followed.

FAO Alerts to Possible Food Price Rise

Rome, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) The UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) warned about food price rises, similar to those in 2007 and 2008,
due to the increase of raw material prices.

In a medium term, food prices could remain steady, but a report by the
mentioned institution said the prices of wheat, rice, oleaginous plants,
and refined and unrefined sugar will exceed those prior to 2006 until
2018.

According to the FAO, basic food prices rose in 2006 and reached record
levels in 2008, causing social disturbances and a significant increase
of the hungry in the world.

FAO also warned that the world food market will probably remain
volatile in a near future.

He reiterated that re-appearance of price rises was possible, due to
factors that keep the demand vulnerable to any abrupt movement, as
deficit of crops, speculation or a rise in oil prices.

The FAO said that while the general increase of the demand is slow, the
need for products that are sensitive to income will increase at faster
pace.

Insufficient investment in productive capacity and greater increase in
the demand for biofuels will also be influential, as well as instability
of the US dollar and oil, and restrictions to exports in times of high
prices.


AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST






ASIA AND AUSTRALIA

Loses Increase Due to Sumatra Earthquake

Jakarta, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) Up to 807 dead people and 300 missing
were the official data regarding the consequences of Sumatra ó s
earthquake that according to the meteorologists correction it did not
have a 7, 6 but a 7, 9 magnitude in Richter scale.

The earth tremor on September 30th devastated Padang city, provincial
capital of East Sumatra with nearly 300 thousand destroyed or damaged
houses, said local authorities.

UN and other international institutions calculations set in three
thousand the victims of the earthquake in a estimate of the inhabitants
of that and other neighboring zones that were buried by rubble and
earth.

After the updated analysis of the data we have corrected the tremor
assessment to 7, 9 magnitude, told to the press M Taufik Gunawan,
Coordinator of the Meteorology Office of West Java.

There were 807 dead people, 300 missing, 744 seriously injured and more
than one thousand 300 with minor injuries, said competent authorities.

Only in Padang 101 thousand 653 houses were destroyed and 97 thousand
995 were damaged.

Tourism was seriously struck because from 47 prime quality hotels, 27
were affected and 11 were totally destroyed.





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