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White House swipes at Castro after Katrina
aid offer
WASHINGTON, 7 (AFP) - The White House
answered Havana's offer of aid to help victims
of Hurricane Katrina by saying it hoped
Cuban President Fidel Castro would "offer
freedom to his people."
Castro, who often deploys Cuban doctors
abroad, has offered to send 1,586 doctors
and 34 tonnes of medicine to the United
States to help in the aftermath of Katrina,
one of the worst natural disasters to strike
the United States.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said
the US State Department was handling overseas
assistance offers but added: "In terms
of Cuba, we would certainly hope that Castro
would offer freedom to his people."
The comments, which were not a rejection
of Havana's offer, came after US State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack did not rule out
accepting the assistance, saying it would
depend on the needs in the region.
"In terms of Cuba, I understand that
there has been an offer of medical personnel.
I think it is an offer, along with some
other offers of medical personnel, that
we will continue to take a look at,"
McCormack said Tuesday.
Speaking in Havana later Wednesday, the
president of Cuba's parliament, Ricardo
Alarcon, said Cuba was still waiting for
a response to its offer of medical assistance
for the US disaster zones.
"We are waiting for a response. I
imagine it would not be easy to figure out
a position, the reasons they will give,
but it's urgent because there are people
who need medical assistance," Alarcon
said.
McClellan said 94 countries and international
organizations had offered help to the United
States, but he declined to say whether any
of those assets were deployed along the
storm-ravaged US Gulf Coast.
Cuba, under a strict US embargo for more
than 40 years, has rejected past US aid
offers to help the island recover from hurricanes.
Tobacco exec says Cuba leads world cigar
exports with 100 million annually
HAVANA, Cuba, 7 (AP) - Cuba remains the
leader in the international market for hand-rolled
cigars, continuing to export more than 100
million of the smokes annually despite a
drought in recent years, a top tobacco company
executive was quoted as saying this week.
The number cited by Oscar Basulto, president
of the Cuban-Spanish firm that markets the
island's cigars abroad, was made in a report
to Cuba's parliament, and carried by the
government's business weekly Opciones.
The president of Habanos S.A. said Cuba
last year produced about one-fourth of all
the world's black tobacco, used to produce
cigars and strong, aromatic cigarettes.
Before drought took hold of the island
in recent years, industry officials had
reported that the island was exporting as
many as 150 million cigars annually.
Basulto said Cuban tobacco growers have
been able to minimize the effects of drought
by developing a less thirsty plant variety
that can withstand infrequent irrigation.
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