Wall Street Journal
Cuba Lifts Curbs on Cellphone Use
Associated PressMarch 28, 2008 10:18 a.m.
HAVANA -- President Raul Castro's government said it is allowing cellphones for ordinary Cubans, a luxury previously reserved for those who worked for foreign firms or held key posts with the communist-run state.
It was the first official announcement of the lifting of a major restriction under the 76-year-old Mr. Castro, and marked the kind of small freedom many on the island have been hoping he would embrace since succeeding his older brother Fidel as president last month.
Some Cubans previously ineligible for cellphones had already gotten them by having foreigners sign contracts in their names, but mobile phones are not nearly as common in Cuba as elsewhere in Latin America or the world.
Telecommunications monopoly Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A., or ETECSA, said it would allow the general public to sign prepaid contracts in Cuban convertible pesos, which are geared toward tourists and foreigners and worth 24 times the regular pesos Cuban state employees are paid in.
The decree was published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
The government controls well over 90% of the economy and while the communist system ensures most Cubans have free housing, education and health care and receive ration cards that cover basic food needs, the average monthly state salary is just 408 Cuban pesos, a little less than $20.
A program in convertible pesos likely will ensure that cellphone service will be too expensive for many Cubans, but ETECSA's statement said doing so will allow it to improve telecommunication systems using cable technology and eventually expand the services it offers in regular pesos.
The statement promised further instructions in coming days about how the new plan will be implemented, and there were no lines of would-be customers mobbing ETECSA outlets as they opened for business.
ETECSA is a mixed enterprise that operates with foreign capital from the Italian communications firm Italcom.
Copyright © 2008 Associated Press
Saturday, March 29, 2008
News From Today III
Peru Says Chavez Backs Domestic Revolt
Mar 22, 4:06 AM (ET)By ANDREW WHALEN
LIMA, Peru (AP) - Hugo Chavez has been accused of using Venezuela's oil riches to meddle in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Now, Peru's president says the Venezuelan leader may be doing it here by funding militants and anti-poverty centers that preach populist revolution.
In recent weeks, Peruvian police have arrested nine people the government alleges are militants bankrolled by Venezuela. And the head of a Congressional investigatory committee accused Venezuela of supplying funds to outreach centers he says agitate against the government.
Mar 22, 4:06 AM (ET)By ANDREW WHALEN
LIMA, Peru (AP) - Hugo Chavez has been accused of using Venezuela's oil riches to meddle in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Now, Peru's president says the Venezuelan leader may be doing it here by funding militants and anti-poverty centers that preach populist revolution.
In recent weeks, Peruvian police have arrested nine people the government alleges are militants bankrolled by Venezuela. And the head of a Congressional investigatory committee accused Venezuela of supplying funds to outreach centers he says agitate against the government.
News From Today II
The Economist
The Kirchners v the farmers
Mar 27th 2008 BUENOS AIRES
CLANK, clunk, clank, clunk. The sound of a cacerolazo—Argentina's signature style of protest, in which people pour into the streets banging pots and pans—had not been heard in Buenos Aires since the depths of the country's economic collapse in 2002. Yet on March 25th, after five years of breakneck economic growth that has left the slump a distant memory, the steady clanging of kitchenware returned to Argentina's main cities.
The target was the country's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Barely three months after taking office, she has provoked a conflict with Argentina's farmers which has blossomed into her government's first real domestic political test. Ms Fernández was elected last year only after her husband, Néstor Kirchner, chose not to stand for a second term. To support her campaign, Mr Kirchner ramped up spending on pensions and public works. The new government is seeking to restore the fiscal surplus to rein in the resulting inflation. So it has raised the already steep export taxes it levies on most agricultural commodities. The rate on soyabeans, to take the most extreme example, has been hoisted to 40%, up from 27% last year.
Argentina's farmers have hit back with a campaign of strikes and roadblocks across the country. They launched similar protests under Mr Kirchner. But this time they seem more determined. They have vowed to continue until the taxes are cut. Some foodstuffs are running short: the meat racks in one supermarket in Palermo, a fashionable neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, are all but bare.
Farmers insist that the government has left them with no choice. Mr de Noailles predicts that the farmers are capable of leaving the cities without meat for up to two months. “It's tough to say how people will react,” he says. “Will they say it's our fault or the government's? But you can't ruin people's lives like this. If they don't back down, Buenos Aires will starve.”
The Kirchners v the farmers
Mar 27th 2008 BUENOS AIRES
CLANK, clunk, clank, clunk. The sound of a cacerolazo—Argentina's signature style of protest, in which people pour into the streets banging pots and pans—had not been heard in Buenos Aires since the depths of the country's economic collapse in 2002. Yet on March 25th, after five years of breakneck economic growth that has left the slump a distant memory, the steady clanging of kitchenware returned to Argentina's main cities.
The target was the country's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Barely three months after taking office, she has provoked a conflict with Argentina's farmers which has blossomed into her government's first real domestic political test. Ms Fernández was elected last year only after her husband, Néstor Kirchner, chose not to stand for a second term. To support her campaign, Mr Kirchner ramped up spending on pensions and public works. The new government is seeking to restore the fiscal surplus to rein in the resulting inflation. So it has raised the already steep export taxes it levies on most agricultural commodities. The rate on soyabeans, to take the most extreme example, has been hoisted to 40%, up from 27% last year.
Argentina's farmers have hit back with a campaign of strikes and roadblocks across the country. They launched similar protests under Mr Kirchner. But this time they seem more determined. They have vowed to continue until the taxes are cut. Some foodstuffs are running short: the meat racks in one supermarket in Palermo, a fashionable neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, are all but bare.
Farmers insist that the government has left them with no choice. Mr de Noailles predicts that the farmers are capable of leaving the cities without meat for up to two months. “It's tough to say how people will react,” he says. “Will they say it's our fault or the government's? But you can't ruin people's lives like this. If they don't back down, Buenos Aires will starve.”
Friday, March 28, 2008
News from Today
Proposed Sudanese-Brazilian Projects
Sudan has presented a Brazilian delegation visiting the country a list of investment projects primarily in agriculture and food production, modern agricultural cultivation methods, irrigation and water harvesting as well as projects designed to increase Sudanese exports. There were also proposals for investment in banking and infrastructure.
There is no indication of any agreement on particular projects.
al-Sharq, Qatar, March 28, 2008
Sudan has presented a Brazilian delegation visiting the country a list of investment projects primarily in agriculture and food production, modern agricultural cultivation methods, irrigation and water harvesting as well as projects designed to increase Sudanese exports. There were also proposals for investment in banking and infrastructure.
There is no indication of any agreement on particular projects.
al-Sharq, Qatar, March 28, 2008
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