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CUBA
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Cuban musician Compay Segundo dies in Havana
HAVANA, 14 (AFP) - Legendary Cuban musician Compay
Segundo, one of the stars of the hit film "Buena
Vista Social Club," has died at the age of
95.
"He died during the night in Havana,"
a spokeswoman for Dro-EastWest, his record company
in Madrid, Spain, told AFP.
Company officials said he was surrounded by friends
and family members at the time of his death.
Mourners will be able to pay their respects at
a central Havana funeral home until 3:00 pm (1900
GMT), when his body will be taken to his hometown
of Santiago de Cuba, some 900 kilometers east
of Havana, for burial.
Segundo, whose real name was Maximo Francisco
Repilado Munoz, was suffering from a severe kidney
infection and had canceled a series of concerts
scheduled for this summer in Europe.
He was being looked after by a personal doctor
and his family at his home in the Miramar neighbourhood
of Havana.
"Buena Vista Social Club," a documentary
about a group of legendary musicians as they performed
in Cuba and abroad, was filmed by German filmmaker
Wim Wenders and released in 1999.
The film's soundtrack sold more than four million
copies and the group enjoyed worldwide fame and
concert invitations after the documentary's release.
Segundo was born in Santiago in 1907, and built
a musical reputation before the revolution that
brought Fidel Castro to power.
During the 1960s and 1970s he disappeared from
music to work rolling cigars, only to return in
the late 1980s to wide and growing acclaim.
Andy Garcia Sees Links Between Romania, Cuba
BUFTEA, Romania, 12 (AP)- Cuban-born U.S. actor
Andy Garcia, filming in Romania, said Saturday
he was struck by the parallels between the regimes
of late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and Cuban leader
Fidel Castro.
"Cuba is under the same kind of totalitarian
dictatorship that Romania was," Garcia told
The Associated Press in an interview.
Garcia was wrapping up a 42-day film shoot of
"Modigliani." He portrays the Italian
painter and sculptor in the movie.
Garcia, 47, said he had talked with Romanians
who witnessed the revolution while he was on the
set at the Buftea studios, a village 12 miles
north of Bucharest. He also met with President
Ion Iliescu, a key figure in the revolt.
"As a Cuban, I am looking forward to that
day when (Cuba) comes out of the dictatorship,"
he said.
The film is likely to be released early next
year.
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