Radio Havana Cuba, December 3, 1997 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA December 3, 1997 rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org The following items are taking from Radio Havana Cuba's news service for Wednesday, December 3, 1997. Today's stories: 1.- DELEGATIONS FROM THE US AND CUBA EXPRESS SATISFACTION OVER JUST-ENDED ROUND OF MIGRATION TALKS IN HAVANA 2.- SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA MEETING IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL SET FOR THIS WEEK 3.- CUBAN FIRST VICE PRESIDENT RAUL CASTRO VISITS THE VATICAN 4.- INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON THE CONTROL OF RATS AND MICE GETS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA 5.- CITY COUNCILS FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS AGREE TO DEVELOP COOPERATION PROJECTS IN HAVANA 6.- 19TH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF NEW LATIN AMERICAN FILM GETS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA 7.- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN GENETIC ENGINEERIONG AT THE CENTER OF DISCUSSIONS AT BIOTECHNOLOGY '97 CONGRESS IN HAVANA DELEGATIONS FROM THE US AND CUBA EXPRESS SATISFACTION OVER JUST-ENDED ROUND OF MIGRATION TALKS IN HAVANA Havana, December 3(RHC)-- A new round of migratory talks between Cuba and the United States has ended Tuesday evening in Havana. Government delegations from the two countries met behind closed doors at the city's Convention Center to review the march of existing Cuba-US migration agreements. The US delegation to the talks was chaired by Assistant Undersecretary of State, John Halmilton, while the Cuban representation was headed by the President of the Island's Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon. This was the 8th round of Cuba-US migratory talks since the signing in 1994 of a comprenhensive migration accord. The two sides expressed satisfaction with the meeting. At a press conference in Havana Wednesday, Ricardo Alarcon described the one-day talks as comprehensive, useful, and constructive. He said the meeting had allowed for a full review of migratory issues between Washington and Havana. Alarcon also said that the issue of attempts by the United States to beam the so-called TV Marti to Cuba by ultra-high frequency was raised by his delegation. He termed those plans a provocation, a hostile action, and said they contradicted an existing Cuba-US agreement on the issue. SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA MEETING IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL SET FOR THIS WEEK Madrid, December 3(RHC)-- Representatives from 100 Cuba solidarity organizations in Spain and Portugal are scheduled to meet this weekend in Galicia, Spain, in an effort to increase their support for the Caribbean nation. The gathering will be held in the Galician cities of Santiago de Compostela and Oleiros. They will analyze the role Cuba Friendship Societies should play to assist Cuba at these times of increased US hsotility toward the island. Participants are expected to address issues like how best to achieve unity of action in supporting the Cuban people and rejecting Washington's more than 35 year blockade. The solidarity activists will also study actions in the next few months to challenge the anti-Cuba Helms-Burton Law, which seeks to further tighten the blockade. The three day meeting will also focus on the current situation and prospects for the Cuba Solidarity Movement in Spain and Portugal, and what unions are doing to support Cuba. The encounter also includes a coloquium on the life and thought of legendary guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara on the 30th anniversary of his death in combat in Bolivia. CUBAN FIRST VICE PRESIDENT RAUL CASTRO VISITS THE VATICAN Havana, December 3(RHC)-- Cuban First Vice President and Defense Minister Raul Castro made a stop-over in Rome today following his two-week official visit to China. The Vatican's chief spokesperson, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said the Cuban vicepresident's visit is of a strictly private nature, and that the delegation has requested to tour the Holy See. Thursday, Raul Castro is expected to visit the arqueological excavations beneath the major altar of St. Peter's Basilica, where the Apostle is believed to have been buried The visit is also interpreted as a sign of Cuba's interest in preparations for the January visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba. The head of the Vatican will offer open air masses in Havana, Camaguey, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba between January 21st and the 25th. INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON THE CONTROL OF RATS AND MICE GETS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA Havana, December 3(RHC)-- Increasing research applied to the fight of diseases affecting humans and also animals is at the center of discussions of the First International Simposium on the Biological Control of Rats and Mice that got underway at Havana's International Convention Center Wednesday. The scientific forum is sponsored by Cuba's Biological-Pharmaceutical Laboratories, LABIOFAM. Participants will attend round table disscussion and master lectures on the clinical and microbiological characteristics of diseases caused by mice and rats. This first exchange of experiences on the subject was suggested to Cuban health authorities by the Panamerican Health Organization, PAHO. In Wednesday 's session, scientists addressed the evolution of the so-called Hanta virus, an ancestral disease presently affecting several Latin American regions. The Hanta virus has a high mortality rate among humans. The meeting's agenda also includes the evaluation of pest control methods. CITY COUNCILS FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS AGREE TO DEVELOP COOPERATION PROJECTS IN HAVANA Havana, December 3(RHC)-- Representatives from 19 city councils in the Spanish autonomous region of the Canary Islands agreed Tuesday to put in motion several cooperation projects in the Cuban province of Havana. The projects are worth some 333 thousand dollars. The initiative was launched by participants of the 4th Canary Islands-Havana Province Friendship Encounter that wound up Tuesday in the Cuban capital. The Spanish group was headed by the mayor of Santa Lucia, Camilo Sanchez, whos is also the president of the Federation of Canary Associations Abroad. In a final declaration, the visitors pledged to continue strengthening relations between institutions from that autonomous Spanish region and the province of Havana and to increase general solidarity and cooperation. Projects include bringing electricity to La Sierra rural community; completing work on a hospital currently being built in Artemisa municipality; repairing roofs on schools and homes; building houses and offices for Family Doctors; completing a water processing plants; and boosting donations for the province's health and education systems. 19TH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF NEW LATIN AMERICAN FILM GETS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA Havana, December 3(RHC)-- The 19th edition of Havana's International Festival of New Latin American Film officially got underway Tuesday in the Cuban capital with an innaguration ceremony in the Karl Marx theatre. Festival president and president of Cuba's Film Insititute, ICAIC, Alfredo Guevara, delivered the inaugural address. Singer/songwriter Silvio Rodriquez sang two songs, and then Spanish actress Victoria Abril introduced the surprise feature film with which the Festival opened: the Spanish-French comedy "The Cosmonaut's Wife", in which Abril stars. In addition to running non-stop movies from Latin America, the 19th International Festival of New Latin American Film will also offer master classes, tributes, retrospectives, and special showings, as well as poster and photo exhibits. The 19th Festval this year is paying tribute to three figures: Cuban documentary filmmaker, Santiago Alvarez; US director, Robert Altman, who will be in Havana with five of his movies; and Italian director Francesco Rosi. Retrospectives will cover works by Cuban Humberto Solas, best known for his classics Lucia, and by Germans Volker Schlondorff and Margarita Von Trotta, both of whom will also travel to Havana for the event. Finally, there will be a retrospective of the work of Finnish brothers Aki and Mika Kauismaki. In addition there will be showings of French, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Neopolitan, and Japanese classics as well as American independent films. A series of music and dance concerts is also being offered to Festival participants and the public in general. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN GENETIC ENGINEERIONG AT THE CENTER OF DISCUSSIONS AT BIOTECHNOLOGY '97 CONGRESS IN HAVANA Havana, December 3(RHC)-- Biotechnology '97 is on its third day of sessions at Havana's Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Center. Over 1200 delegates from 48 countries are participating in this event. On the meeting's agenda are pre-clinical and clinical studies; statistics in pharmaceutical evaluation; biotechnology and social development; diagnosis; production of therapeutical molecules, vaccines, new therapeutic strategies, therapeutic and genetic engineered anti-bodies; and environmental management in biotechnology. Biotechnology '97 is sponsored by some 25 institutions from Cuba and the world. Among them are the Havana Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the WHO, the Pan-American Health Organization, UNESCO, Canada's York Medical, the UN's Biotechnology Program for Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain's Higher Council for Scientific Research, and the Latin American Council of Experimental Biomedicine. Biotechnology 97 includes a commercial fair that is attended by 75 companies, among them A Merchant Pharmacia Biotech from the United Kingdom; Gordon and Bridge Hardwork Academic, from Switzerland; Merc from Germany; Alfa Investigaciones, from Panama; and Ever Biotech and Elfos, from Cuba. Biotechnology '97 is scheduled to end Friday. [c] 1997. Radio Habana Cuba All rights reserved Articles cannot be reproduced, reprinted or published in any system without the consent of RHC. This prohibition includes the distribution of this material via Usenet News, "bulletin board" services, e-mail lists, print media, radio and television. 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