lunes, 23 de marzo de 2009

Japan Advances to Finale of 2009 World Baseball Classic

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Defending champions Japan advanced to a showdown with South Korea in Monday’s 2009 World Baseball Classic final by defeating Team USA on Sunday 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Right-handed ace Daisuke Matsuzaka, the 2006 Classic’s Most Valuable Player, improved to 6-0 over the two events, yielding only two runs and striking out four in 4 2/3 innings while four Japanese relievers allowed only two runs the rest of the way.

The Americans had won their four prior games against Japan, two at the Beijing Olympics - including the bronze medal game - plus another at the 2007 World Cup in Taiwan and in the second round of the inaugural 2006 Classic.

Trailing 2-1 entering the fourth inning, Japan struck for five runs to seize command. The Americans, who stranded 10 base runners, responded in the eighth when Mark DeRosa hit a two-run double down the left-field line to lift the US squad within 6-4. But the Japanese answered with three runs in the eighth to seal victory.

Monday's all-Asian title matchup will be Japan’s fifth meeting with their arch-rivals in this Classic, having split four games against the reigning Olympic champions. In this Classic, Japan beat South Korea 14-2 in Tokyo but lost 1-0 in a first-round rematch there. In round two at
San Diego, the Koreans won 4-1 to seal a semi-final spot but lost a rematch for seeding 6-2.

The South Koreans reached the final by ousting a Venezuela major-league all-star lineup 10-2 on Saturday.


(Japón venció a Estados Unidos y hoy defenderá su título)

Hugo Chavez Asks Barack Obama to End Blockade of Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez insisted on Sunday that Washington should end its economic blockade of Cuba and warned US President Barack Obama that he should respect everyone if he wants good relations with the Latin American and aribbean region.

"His moral obligation is to end this criminal blockade and to comply with the resolutions of the UN General Assembly," Chavez said.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, during his weekly radio and television program 'Alo, Presidente', the Venezuelan leader confirmed that he will attend the upcoming Summit of the Americas that will take place next month in Trinidad and Tobago. He also criticized the exclusion of Cuba from this event and stressed that he will address the issue during the meeting.

"Why is Cuba absent if it is a friend of all of us? We can't continue to accept US imperial impositions. This continent has to be free," Chavez concluded.

(Pide Chávez a Obama finalizar bloqueo a Cuba)

Cuban Drug Raises Survival Rate in Brain Tumor Operations

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Cuba is broadening the use of a biological drug, produced locally, which has raised the survival rate of people who have undergone brain tumor surgery, especially children.

A Prensa Latina report explains that the drug, named Nimotuzumab (CIMAher), was produced by experts at the Molecular Immunology Center (CIM) in the island. It consists of a monoclonal antibody that inhibits the tumor growth and has been proved effective in the treatment of head
and neck tumors, when applied in combination with chemotherapy.

It is currently used on children in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, City of Havana, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba, and is currently registered in several countries of Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

CIMAher has been denominated an "orphan drug" by the European Medicines Agencies (EMEA) for the treatment of gliomas (a type of cancer that tarts in the brain) and pancreas cancer; and by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for gliomas.

The term orphan drug refers to a pharmaceutical agent that has been developed specifically to treat a rare medical condition.

Researches continue in Cuba to determine if the drug is equally efficient for the treatment of other solid tumors such as breast, prostate, pancreas and lung cancer.

(Biofármaco cubano aumenta supervivencia de pacientes)

Russian Politician Demands Release of Cuban Five

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Guennadi Ziuganov, a former Russian presidential candidate assured that the U.S Supreme Court should listen to the calls by world personalities claiming the release from jail of the five Cuban antiterrorists held in that country.

Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez, known as the Cuban Five, have been imprisoned in the .S since 1998 for having infiltrated Miami-based anti-Cuba groups to prevent criminal actions against the Cuban people and government leaders.

The Deputy in the State Duma (Lower Chamber of Parliament) and leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation said the Amicus Curiae procedure, supported by world personalities has no precedent.

Signed by former presidents, legislators and important personalities, including ten Nobel Prize winners, the Amicus Curiae constitutes a legal tool that is very effective for an appeal to the Supreme Court, reports Granma newspaper.

Ziuganov noted that numerous people worldwide, from different political and philosophical trends have united in defence of the freedom of the Cuban Five. For that reason, he insisted, it is impossible to ignore their claim.

The Russian politician also added that the U.S economic blockade against Cuba is unjustified and urged president Barack Obama to lift it.

(Exige líder político ruso liberación de Los Cinco)

Dominican Minister Thanks Cuba for Development Assistance

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Dominica's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Labor, Vince Henderson, today expressed his appreciation for the Cuban contribution to the economic and social development of that small Eastern Caribbean country.

Henderson, who arrived in Havana on Sunday, said Cuban experts in different fields have worked in his country as part of collaboration programs between the two nations.

Henderson said that more than 300 Dominicans have graduated in Cuban educational institutions, while a brigade of doctors from the larger Caribbean nation is currently working in his country.

He also noted the Cuban support in the agricultural and sports fields, for which he expressed his appreciation.

We know in depth about the way in which Cuba has helped Caribbean countries, especially in areas of education and public health, he said.

The Dominican Minister said this official visit is an opportunity to further strengthen bonds, established at a diplomatic level on May 18, 1996.

In other statements, Henderson expressed rejection of the U.S economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba.

The Dominican minister said the visit to Cuba is expected to give a fresh impetus to the mechanism of consultation between the foreign affairs ministers of the two countries, established since the year 2000.

As part of his official program in Cuba, the Dominican minister paid tribute to the national hero Jose Marti by placing a floral wreath in Revolution Square in Havana, accompanied by the Dominican deputy foreign minister Alejandro Gonzalez.

(Agradece Dominica contribución de Cuba a su desarrollo)

The sugar: decisive line in the economy of Camagüey

By Oscar González Vázquez

The sugar: decisive line in the economy of Camagüey. The sharp economic crisis that shakes to the planet forces us in particular to the people of Camagüey to be more efficient for the sake of substituting to the maximum the imports and at the own time to work with dedication to increase the exportable lines and to already fulfill the commitments those traditional.

Steps have been taken in that sense and the county showed in the 2008 an increment in these indexes, modest still to my way of seeing, convinced that they still exist potentialities and reservations to explode.

Because although the economy of Camagüey finished last year with positive balances, more than half hundred of its productive units of important sectors accused losses for around 123 million pesos.

Anything enviable maximum result when its main characters were entities of the agriculture, and of the Basic, Slight industries and Sugar bowl., this last one with a fundamental weight in the economy not only of the county but of the country.

I bring up this since as it is known the prices of most of the matters cousins that export the countries of the third world are depressed and among them figure the relatives to lines that meant a strong entrance in foreign currencies for Cuba in the last years.

The opposite happens in these moments with the sugar that has elevated its rate in the international market, that that together to the descent in the price of the fuels claim of the sugar workers the maximum of consecration and efficiency for the sake of taking to happy term the campaign.

But the execution of the plan of the candy assigned to the county requires in these moments, when the harvest goes into in April, of the decisive effort of the agroindustrial in the first place, but also of the support of popular mobilizations toward the cane cuts.

It is needed therefore to recover the left tons of sugar of taking place for that which is necessary to take advantage of to the maximum the installed capacities, not to leave neither a single cane in the field and bigger demand in the execution of the daily norm so much in the manual cut as in the automated.

It is necessary to take advantage of what subtracts of March, period in the one that historically behave high the yields of the gramineous to enter him of full and under better conditions to the month of April and in that way to reissue the victory reached in the last harvest and to dedicate the execution of the plan of sugar to the VI Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and to the anniversary 48 of the victory of Beach Girón.

Projects of the ALBA favor investments in Camagüey

Havana, March 23 (AIN) More than 20 projects of investments are executed in the county of Camagüey with the support of the Bolivarian Alternative for the America (ALBA), with a view to substitute imports and to elevate the exports.
The Factory of Cement 26 de Julio, of Nuevitas, will improve their industrial technologies.

In the agricultural branch the work is in ten plans, among these those of the Poultry Company, with the construction of a factory of food. Other programs are guided to produce seeds and fruit-bearing, and to develop the livestock ovino-caprino, informs Rebellious Radio in it digital edition.

Also six shops of the slight industry will be created that will give employment to people with physical problems, works will be enlarged and will improve technologies in the Geominer Company the Cocktail of Fertilizers and the Factory of Cement 26 de Julio, all in the municipality of Nuevitas.

Several centers of the alimentary industry will also be benefitted, Iris Cruz territorial delegate of the Ministry of External Trade explained , for the counties of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey.