[NYTr] Cuban Radar Newsbriefs - Dec 6, 2007

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Progreso Weekly - Dec 6, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=265&Itemid=1

Cuban Radar Newsbriefs - Dec 6, 2007
A service by the Radio Progreso Alternativa Havana Bureau

* Who is last in line?
* Candidates will meet with constituents
* Fidel's Assembly Nomination a Sign He Is Recovering
* Banks capable of assuming credits
* Dominican president will visit Cuba


* Who is last in line?

Beyond the usual and well received speech by Chairman of the
International Festival of New Latin American Cinema Alfredo Guevara,
everything begins at the queues with the question “Who’s last in line?"

The 29th edition of the festival was inaugurated on the night of
December 4 with a concert by famous Argentinean singer/songwriter Fito
Páez and the screening of Redacted, by U.S. director Brian de Palma.
The film, which won the Silver Lion for best director at the Venice
Festival, is based on the true story of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl gang
raped and murdered by U.S. soldiers.

A total of 500 films will be screened throughout the country during the
festival.


* Candidates will meet with constituents

The 614 candidates aiming to become members of the National Assembly of
Popular Power (Cuban parliament) will meet in the next few days with
voters in their respective electoral districts. The meetings, mandated
by electoral law, should be lively for among the issues to be discussed
between candidates and voters are the concerns and proposals by the
population following acting president Raúl Castro’s speech on July 26th.


* Fidel's Assembly Nomination a Sign He Is Recovering

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque explained that Fidel Castro’s
nomination as candidate to the National Assembly of Popular Power is an
indication of the recovery of the ailing leader.

"It shows that he is advancing in the process of recovery,” he said to
the media at the Mexican Embassy in Havana. Speaking on the relations
between both countries, Minister Pérez Roque confirmed the political
will of the Cuban government toward the normalization of relations with
President Felipe Calderón’s government.


* Banks capable of assuming credits

An article in Juventud Rebelde assures the reader that Cuban banks are
capable of assuming all credits for the payment of electrical
appliances sold to the population as part of the Energy Revolution.

According to the newspaper, “The Cuban banking system has financed, up
to the present, 4,572,313 electrical appliances distributed to the
population at a cost of 9 billion pesos.”


* Dominican president will visit Cuba

Deputy Mayor of Santo Domingo Alexandra Izquierdo, who is visiting
Havana, confirmed that Dominican President Leonel Fernández will arrive
in Cuba in mid December.

According to the Prensa Latina news agency, Izquierdo declared that the
visit will “consolidate the excellent relations between both
countries.”