Yahoo! December 8, 2000
Putin To Visit Cuba, Canada
MOSCOW, 7 (AP) - President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) will visit Cuba
and Canada next week, the presidential press service said Thursday, in what
would be the first trip by a Russian leader to Cuba since the collapse of the
Soviet Union.
An official of the press service said few details of the trip were
available, but said the Dec. 13-19 trip would begin in Cuba.
There has been no official announcement by the Cuban or Canadian governments
about the trip. But Cuban authorities have said privately that Putin's visit to
the communist island will be from Wednesday to Friday.
During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet military and economic presence
in Cuba was immense, with U.S. officials estimating that Soviet aid accounted
for at least 20 percent of the island's gross national product.
After the Soviet breakup a decade ago, Cuba was plunged into an economic
crisis that it is still trying to recover from. Although the former subsidies
and preferential terms are long gone, a significant amount of trade continues
between the two nations, mostly petroleum and sugar.
Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, who became Russia's president after the
Soviet collapse, never visited the island during his tenure.
Trade is expected to be discussed during Putin's Cuba trip, as well as ways
to help wipe out Cuba's lingering debt with Russia, left over from the Soviet
era.
100th Anniversary of First International Phone Call
SOURCE: CommRad.com. Thursday December 7, 4:38 pm Eastern Time
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The first international long-distance
call took place exactly 100 years ago this month when a telephone call from Key
West, Florida to Havana, Cuba was successfully connected. To commemorate that
historic occurrence, CommRad.com will launch a yearlong celebration of
'telephone' events. The party gets underway this weekend at China Expo 2000 in
LA where visitors can make FREE international calls from the exhibit floor.
A full century later, the promise of that first call has been left
unrealized as callers have been left battered and bruised by the arcane pricing
practices of telecommunications giants. Today we are on the verge of another
technological breakthrough that will revolutionize the industry. CommRad.com is
using Internet technology to bring the promise and intimacy back to
international long-distance. Using the fluidity of e-commerce, CommRad.com is
able to offer the lowest rates to the most locations worldwide for traditional
phone-to-phone calling.
While the telecom giants disband their long distance services, CommRad.com
CEO and Co-Founder, Edmund Eng, was inspired to create this revolutionary
communications company. The vision was to combine the low overhead of an
Internet storefront with traditional phone service. In this way, CommRad.com has
mapped a path-to-profitability while offering consumers quality service and low,
low rates. The company, owned and operated by Asian Americans, believes there is
a widely under-served customer base within the Asian community.
In a show of appreciation to the Asian-American community, which has so
warmly embraced the young company, CommRad.com will offer FREE international
calls during China Expo 2000 at the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend.
Visitors are reminded to bring their phonebooks so they can make their FREE call
at the CommRad.com exhibit (Booth B-3 on the main show floor.)
SOURCE: CommRad.com | 