FREE THE CUBAN FIVE NOW!
by INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR A JUST WORLD
http://www.just-international.org/article.cfm?newsid=20002499,


Everything Ready for World Campaign in Favor of Cuban Five

(acn) Solidarity Committees and friends of Cuba from all over the world have confirmed their participation in a worldwide campaign in solidarity with the five Cuban political prisoners in the United States that begins on Wednesday, September 12, and will take place until October 8th.Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino and Rene Gonzalez, internationally known as the Cuban Five, were detained in 1998 for infiltrating right-wing anti-Cuba organizations based in Florida, which have organized numerous terrorist actions against the island over the last 45 years causing death and huge material damage.According to Granma news daily, solidarity rallies have been planned for cities from Mexico to Canada, from Chile to Argentina, from Namibia to South Africa and, of course, in Cuba and all over the United States.On Wednesday, coinciding with the first day of the campaign and also with the ninth anniversary of the arrest of the Cuban Five, one of the members of their defense team, Leonard Weinglass, will speak at Howard University in Washington, where he will give details of the manipulations and violations committed during the process against the Five.Weinglass will be the special guest for the Rector's Lecture at the Faculty of Law of the university. Participants will also watch a video message sent by actor and peace activist Danny Glover in favor of the release of the five Cuban heroes.Meanwhile, mayors from 13 cities of the US state of California have sent a letter to the US Attorney General asking, on humanitarian bases, that Washington grants visas to Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva, wives of Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez, respectively.Perez and Salanueva have repeatedly been denied visas to visit their husbands. Gerardo Hernandez is at the federal prison of Victorville, California, while Rene Gonzalez is at the federal penitentiary of Marianna, Florida.In their letter to the Attorney General, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, of Richmond, and her counterparts sustain that there is no reason to obstruct these family visits. Adriana and Olga have not been able to visit their husbands in the last nine and seven years, respectively."I'm deeply saddened because our federal government has not allowed these two women to visit their husbands in the United States. We hope this issue is favorably resolved so that they receive the visas to do it," said McLaughlin.The other signatories of the letter are Robert Lieber, Mayor of Albano; Sam Pierce, of Sebastopol; Emily Reilly, of Santa Cruz; Dennis Donohue, of Salinas; Mary Craton, of Canyon Lake; Maricela Morales, of Port Hueneme; Elba Guerrero, of Huntington Park; Felipe Aguirre, of Maywood; Tom Bates, of Berkeley; Larry Bragman, of Fairfax; Bill Bogaard, of Pasadena; and Woody Fridae, of Winters.Copies of the document were sent to Paul D. Clement, who will temporarily hold the post after the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez; State Secretary Condolezza Rice; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi; and to Californian senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Geografía de solidaridad
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/miami5/los_heroes/antonio/00623.html,


Rechaza el bloqueo grupo parlamentario ACP

Las delegaciones de las 79 naciones que integran el Grupo de países de África, Caribe y Pacífico exigieron el cese de las leyes extraterritoriales de los Estados Unidos contra Cuba jrebelde.cip.cu
BRUSELAS— La Novena Sesión de la Asamblea Parlamentaria del Grupo de países de África, Caribe y Pacífico (ACP), reunida en Bruselas, aprobó el martes 11 de septiembre una resolución que «demanda el cese de las leyes extraterritoriales y del ilegal bloqueo contra Cuba», y reitera al mismo tiempo «su apoyo a las resoluciones aprobadas por la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas con respecto a este tema».
La delegación cubana a esta importante reunión, presidida por el diputado Rogelio Polanco, presentó el proyecto de resolución que fue adoptado por aclamación de las delegaciones parlamentarias de los 79 países miembros de este Grupo.
El texto aprobado recoge también el apoyo de la Asamblea Parlamentaria ACP, de la cual Cuba es miembro pleno, a la Declaración de la Cumbre de Jefes de Estado y Gobierno de dicho Grupo, la cual se desarrolló en Khartoum, Sudán, en diciembre de 2006, y en la que se acordó un «firme rechazo a la aplicación de leyes y medidas unilaterales y extraterritoriales contrarias al derecho internacional», y se expresaba una «profunda preocupación con relación a las nuevas medidas que refuerzan y amplían el campo de aplicación de esas leyes, como el caso de la ley Helms-Burton».
La Resolución exhorta al Copresidente de este órgano parlamentario a que comunique el contenido de la misma a los Presidentes de los Consejos de Ministros ACP y ACP-Unión Europea, al Parlamento Europeo y a la Unión Interparlamentaria, entre otras instituciones internacionales.



El Imperio y la Mentira Fidel Castro Ruz (2007-09-11)
http://www.cubadebate.cu/index.php?tpl=design/especiales.tpl.html&newsid_obj_id=9890,

Castro accuses US of 9/11 conspiracy
HAVANA (AFP) — An article attributed to Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Tuesday accused the US government of deceiving the world about the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.
The article, written on the sixth anniversary of the attacks, claimed that the Pentagon was hit not by an airplane but by a missile, and says that data on the World Trade Center destruction does not add up.
"We know that there was deliberate misinformation," said Castro, 81, in a lengthy article titled "The Empire and Lies." The Cuban leader routinely refers to the United States as "the empire."
"What is most dramatic is the affirmation that the truth about what happened may never be known," he said.
Castro has not been seen in public since undergoing intestinal surgery in July 2006. He has appeared in photographs and eight videos, the last of which aired on June 5.
This is the 44th (no, 45th, say I )opinion articles attributed to Castro that has appeared in the government-run newspapers.
The way the passenger jets crashed into the Twin Towers in New York on September 11 and the data from the plane's black boxes "do not correspond with the criteria of mathematicians, seismologists, and information and demolition specialists," Castro said.
Castro does not believe that an airplane crashed into the Pentagon, nor does he believe that any airplane passengers died. "Only a projectile could have created the geometrically round orifice created by the alleged airplane," he said.
"We were deceived as well as the rest of the planet's inhabitants," he said.
Castro said that Cuba offered to donate blood after the tragedy, and that Cuban security services had earlier warned US officials of planned strikes, including information on a planned attempt on then-president Ronald Reagan's life.
In turn, the US government has developed hundreds of plots to kill him, Castro said in the article

Castro says US lied about 9/11 attacks
Mark Tran and agenciesGuardian Unlimited
Fidel Castro has accused America of spreading disinformation about an explosion at the Pentagon on September 11 2001. Fidel Castro today joined the band of September 11 conspiracy theorists by accusing the US of spreading disinformation about the attacks that took place six years ago.In a 4,256-word article read by a Cuban television presenter last night, the country's leader asserted that the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers.
"Only a projectile could have created the geometrically round orifice created by the alleged airplane," he said. "We were deceived as well as the rest of the planet's inhabitants," he said.
In fact, the remains of the bodies of the crew and passengers of American Airlines flight 77 were found at the Pentagon crash site, and positively identified by DNA.
As for the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, Mr Castro wrote that the way the passenger jets crashed into the twin towers on September 11 and the data from the plane's black boxes "do not correspond with the criteria of mathematicians, seismologists, and information and demolition specialists".
But in a glaring omission, Mr Castro's conspiracy theory failed to mention Osama bin Laden, who this week issued a video praising one of the hijackers who crashed into the World Trade Centre, and his militant Islamist al-Qaida network.
In his article, Mr Castro said the truth behind the attacks with hijacked planes that killed nearly 3,000 people would probably never be known.
The Cuban government originally condemned the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington hours after they occurred.
Within days it had organised a rally to express solidarity with Americans and Mr Castro said Cuba offered to donate blood.
Mr Castro has not appeared in public since mid-2006, when he underwent intestinal surgery and ceded power to his younger brother Raul. In late March, he began writing occasional essays on mostly international themes.
Mr Castro himself was the target of several failed assassination attempts by the US after he took power in 1959.
He also claimed in his essay that Cuba tipped off US security services in 1984 about a plan to kill the then president, Ronald Reagan, while he was campaigning for re-election in North Carolina.
The information provided by Cuba led to the arrest of a group of would-be assassins and foiled the plot, he wrote.

Expertos rusos también creen que el 11-S fue acción orquestada por EEUU http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=56045,

Ben Laden ayuda a Bush http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=56029,




OTORGAN PREMIO ONU-HABITAT 2007 A HISTORIADOR DE LA CIUDAD DE LA HABANA
Cubadebate
El Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana, Eusebio Leal Spengler, fue designado ganador exclusivo del Pergamino de Honor de ONU-HABITAT 2007, concedido por esa institución de Naciones Unidas entre una larga lista de candidatos.
Según una nota de prensa divulgada por la propia Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana, el comité internacional encargado de adjudicar dicho lauro decidió otorgarlo unánimemente a Leal Spengler «por muchos años de carismática dirección, de minuciosa dedicación a la restauración y conservación del Centro Histórico de La Habana».
El Pergamino de Honor fue instituido por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para los Asentamientos Humanos (ONU-HÁBITAT) en 1989 y es considerado uno de los reconocimientos mundiales más importantes referidos al hábitat humano.
Esta distinción, que se concede anualmente, se entregará en las celebraciones por el Día Mundial del Hábitat que tendrán lugar el próximo 5 de octubre en Monterrey, México, en el marco de la Conferencia Internacional sobre Ciudades Seguras.
La mencionada reunión es parte de la Observancia Global del Día del Hábitat Mundial y reunirá a representantes gubernamentales, autoridades locales y organizaciones de la sociedad civil, así como expertos académicos y miembros del sector privado para discutir formas de hacer las ciudades del mundo más seguras.
Además de ser Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana desde 1967, Eusebio Leal Spengler es miembro del Parlamento cubano y Héroe Nacional del Trabajo de la República de Cuba, así como Embajador de Buena Voluntad de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas.


Carlos Lage Jr: El socialismo no debe estar divorciado del bienestar social
http://www.univision.com/contentroot/wirefeeds/lat/7247323.html,

Trabajadores Sociales
Experiencias al calor de las batallas
El programa de trabajadores sociales desde su creación el 10 de septiembre del 2002 por el Comandante en Jefe ha dado pruebas de su empeño por cumplir las tareas asignadas e irrefutables muestras de confianza en el hombre del futuro
http://www.lademajagua.co.cu/infgran6999.htm,

Fidel o la inmediatez del futuro
“…No podemos renunciar al objetivo humano fundamental del Socialismo, no podríamos resignarnos al principio de: siembra escuelas y te quedarás sin obreros agrícolas. Más bien dirás: siembra escuelas y tendrás decenas de miles de científicos, siembra escuelas y tendrás decenas de miles de buenos cuadros…”

Dr. Agustín Lage. Director del Centro de Inmunología Molecular. http://www.cubasocialista.cu/texto/00079909futuro.html,

Entre enero y julio último Cuba exportó a Canadá productos por valor de 684 millones de dólares,
un aumento de 144.3 por ciento respecto al mismo período de 2006, gracias al incremento en los envíos y el precio del níquel.
http://mx.news.yahoo.com/s/11092007/7/negocios-enero-julio-ltimo-cuba-export-canad-productos.html,

CARICOM prepara su primera Cumbre de Salud
http://www.prensa-latina.cu/article.asp?ID={099A34A4-42BA-4DCD-8462-6CF5593668FE})#uage=ES,



Thousands flout ban to see 'forbidden treasure' of CubaStory HighlightsCuba said about 37,000 Americans not of Cuban origin came in 2006

19 Americans have paid fines for sneaking to Cuba since January 2006

Some lawmakers would like to loosen the U.S. embargoCNN.com, HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Barack Obama would lift restrictions on visits by Cuban Americans to the hemisphere's only communist country if elected president. A growing chorus of Democratic and Republican lawmakers would go even farther, loosening the U.S. embargo enough to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba.

But thousands of U.S. tourists already travel to Cuba behind Washington's back, and many say being sneaky is part of the fun. Some are scrambling to get to the island while Fidel Castro is still alive, fearing the U.S. government could scrap the travel ban once he's gone and bring profound change to Cuba.

"The fact that you're not supposed to be there, that was the top for me," said Amit, 29, a New York City native who visited Cuba in September 2006, shortly after the 81-year-old Castro fell ill and ceded power to his younger brother.

"I was like, 'It's time to go,"' said Amit, who asked that his full name not be published to avoid U.S. fines. "You just don't know what Cuba will be like after Castro's gone."

Traveling to Cuba is not illegal for Americans, but provisions of the Trading With the Enemy Act prohibit spending money here without authorization." If caught, unauthorized U.S. tourists can face civil fines of up to $55,000, though many settle for smaller amounts.

Since January 2006, 19 Americans have paid fines for sneaking to Cuba, including four people involved in making Oliver Stone's documentary about Castro, "Comandante." Fellow filmmaker Michael Moore is now being investigated for filming "Sicko" without permission in Cuba.

Obama would like to do away with tighter restrictions imposed by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2004 that limited educational and religious travel and reduced trips by Americans with family on the island to one every three years.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued 40,308 licenses for family travel last year, almost all to Cuban Americans, and the Cuban government counts these travelers as Cubans, not Americans.

Separately, Cuba said 20,100 Americans visited the country through June of this year, almost all presumably without U.S. permission.

Other than family members, the U.S. government granted permission 491 times for people involved in religious, educational and humanitarian projects. Some other Americans -- including journalists and politicians -- can come without licenses, though few do.

Cuba said about 37,000 Americans not of Cuban origin came in 2006 -- down from the more than 84,500 it reported in 2003, before the latest restrictions.

The American Society of Travel Agents recently estimated that nearly 1.8 million Americans would visit in the first three years following an end to the travel ban.

"We wanted to get here before all the other Americans come and ruin it all," said Bridget, a 20-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who wandered Old Havana's colonial streets with her friend Erik in August. They wouldn't give their last names.

"It's forbidden treasure," said Erik, also from the Twin Cities. "It will be so Americanized in a few years. Just like Cancun," where U.S. franchises from Hard Rock Cafe to Hooters tend to drown out Mexican culture.

Some Americans sail to Cuba, but most fly through Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas or Jamaica. Cuban tourist cards can be purchased at third-country airports and customs officials usually stamp only these loose-leaf visas, not the permanent pages of U.S. passports.

Bridget and Erik sent money orders to a U.S. travel agent recommended by a friend who had visited Cuba, and flew from Detroit to Cancun. A man at the Cubana Airlines ticket counter then gave them their Cuban tourist cards, hotel vouchers and tickets for a connecting flight to Havana.

Traveling to Cuba is not as easy as punching dates into an Internet site, however. Travelocity recently agreed to pay $182,750 in fines for booking nearly 1,500 flights between the United States and Cuba from 1998 to 2004. The company says it fixed technical glitches and no longer lets such trips go through.

Danielle Drobot, who spent a legal semester in Cuba while pursuing an International Studies degree at the University of North Carolina, predicted that "it will be the end of the U.S.-Cuba blockade, not necessarily the end of Castro, that forces the economic and political systems to change in Cuba."

"As sad as it is," Drobot said, "money talks."



Ayudaron jóvenes cubanos al ahorro energético en 14 países
(AIN) Jóvenes cubanos integrados al Programa de Trabajadores Sociales sustituyeron bombillos incandescentes en 14 países, con lo cual contribuyeron al ahorro energético en esas naciones.
Más de dos mil 700 miembros de ese movimiento, creado en Cuba hace siete años, han cumplido esa y otras tareas en el exterior encaminadas a la disminución del uso de combustible, refiere el periódico Trabajadores en su edición digital.
Tan solo en Venezuela se han sustituido más de 60 millones de unidades, lo cual redujo en dos mil 300 megavatios la demanda máxima, entre otras ventajas económicas.
La primera experiencia se realizó en Jamaica, en febrero del 2006, en las ciudades East Kingston y Port Royal y se han beneficiado otras islas caribeñas, entre estas Guyana, Belice, Dominica, Antigua y Barbuda, Haití y Surinam.
Cerca de 43 mil jóvenes están incorporados al trabajo social comunitario en la mayor de las Antillas, donde se ocupan de la Revolución Energética y la atención a personas discapacitadas y la reinserción a la sociedad de personas sin vínculo laboral o ex reclusos, entre otras actividades.

Cuba and allies critical of pressure on IAEA chief
International Herald Tribune, Norma Miguelina Goicochea Estenoz of Cuba also expressed support for the work of the agency and its head, Mohamed ElBaradei, in her separate capacity as ...Developing states rap "interference" in Iran deal Reutersall 398 news articles » http://news.google.be/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=cuba,

Honduran Prez to Visit Cuba

Tegucigalpa (Prensa Latina) Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will visit Cuba in October and sign a Maritime Delimitation Treaty between both countries, Honduran Foreign Ministry sources confirmed on Tuesday in Tegucigalpa."The negotiations have practically concluded, for President Zelaya and Foreign Minister Milton Jimenez to be able to sign that treaty during the visit," said Assistant Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina.The agreement, which both sides have been negotiating since November 2006, will allow exercise of sovereignty regarding exploitation of oil and fishing resources, and will generate greater possibilities for the national economy.The delimitation of sea borders with Cuba "supposes conclusion of a series of treaties, as those signed with Mexico and the United Kingdom, through Grand Caiman," he added This will allow Honduras sovereignty over more than 77,220 miles of water, the minister stated.

Cuba predica las ventajas de Linux contra dependencia de Windows
(Reuters) - Cuba ha capacitado a un ejército de 4.000 personas en el uso del sistema operativo de código abierto Linux, como parte de su batalla por romper con la dependencia digital del sistema Windows de la estadounidense Microsoft, dijo el martes la prensa oficial.
El Gobierno comunista de Cuba abrazó Linux en 2005 y está predicando las ventajas ideológicas del software libre en unos 600 centros de informática montados por la Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas en toda la isla.
"Con la extensión del software libre, Cuba dejaría atrás su dependencia con el sistema Windows y posibles exigencias legales de su propietario, el gigante norteamericano Microsoft", dijo Juventud Rebelde, el diario de la Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas.
Aunque la mayoría de los ordenadores del país utilizan el sistema operativo de Microsoft, el Gobierno pretende que la mitad de ellos en sus ministerios y oficinas migren a Linux en los próximos tres años.
Más de 3.880 cubanos ya han recibido cursos de Linux, dijo Juventud Rebelde.
"A diferencia del programa creado por la empresa de Bill Gates, el Linux ofrece la libertad, a los usuarios que desean estudiarlo, de acceder a sus códigos fuente, modificarlos y así aumentar la privacidad de la información", añadió el diario.
Linux es un sistema operativo de código abierto, accesible y modificable por los usuarios, desarrollado por el finlandés Linus Torvalds, que se ha convertido en bandera de quienes critican el amplio predominio del mercado que posee Microsoft.
Cuba tiene alrededor de 380.000 ordenadores, es decir, 3,4 por cada 100 habitantes. El Gobierno acusa a Estados Unidos de frenar su desarrollo tecnológico mediante un embargo comercial de más de 45 años, que limita la compra de equipos y el acceso a Internet.
Según las autoridades cubanas, Linux ya está siendo usado en las aduanas y pronto entrará también en los centros de educación superior.
Para las autoridades cubanas, enfrascadas en una guerra ideológica de casi medio siglo con Estados Unidos, la migración a Linux es cosa seria.
"Es básicamente un problema de soberanía tecnológica, un problema de ideología", dijo Héctor Rodríguez, jefe de un equipo de 1.000 personas que desarrolla Linux en la Universidad de La Habana, durante una conferencia informática realizada en febrero.
La estrella del evento fue el científico estadounidense Richard Stallman, del Massachusetts Institute of Technology, venerado como el padre del software libre.*.

El costo ecológico y social de los agrocombustibles
François Houtarthttp://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=56042,

Chávez-Allende: ¿paralelismos? http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=56054,

Aznar se reúne en Santiago de Chile con la Presidenta Michelle Bachelet, con los líderes de la derecha y con empresarios, para explicarles las ventajas del neoliberalismohttp://www.insurgente.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=11003,


Condiciona su voto a que se amplíe la declaración con condenas contra el aborto y la eutanasia
Polonia bloquea una declaración de la UE contra la pena de muerte
20MINUTOS.ES / EFE
Polonia ha vuelto a poner en entredicho uno de los principios fundamentales de la Unión Europea: la condena a la pena de muerte.
Polonia insiste en que la declaración incluya también una condena al aborto y a la eutanasia Así, el país gobernado por Lech Kaczynski ha bloqueado en solitario la aprobación de una declaración de la UE contra la pena capital e insiste en que la Unión abra un debate más amplio en el que además se condene el aborto y la eutanasia.El resto de países comunitarios ha reprochado la postura polaca, la cual "no entienden", según fuentes comunitarias.
La presidencia portuguesa de turno de la UE ha elaborado, en colaboración con Italia, una resolución contra la pena capital que los Veintisiete y el Consejo de Europa planeaban presentar a la Asamblea general de la ONU en septiembre.
El texto incluye la instauración del Día Europeo contra la Pena de Muerte cada 10 de octubre, coincidiendo con el Día Mundial que ya celebran organizaciones no gubernamentales de todo el mundo.
La declaración debe aprobarse por unanimidad, pero Polonia condiciona su voto a que la UE lance un debate más amplio sobre el derecho a la vida.
El representante polaco insiste en que su país mantiene su oposición y su compromiso contra la pena de muerte, y que la cuestión no se trata de decir sí o no a ese castigo, sino también de no olvidar algunos aspectos del derecho a la vida.