Bush Urges Cuba to Expand Freedoms
Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 01:16 PM - North America
Bush Urges Cuba to Expand Freedoms. An international issues article.
President Bush today challenged Cuba's communist government to make recent economic reforms "meaningful" by allowing freedom of expression and announced a new policy that allows Americans to send cellphones to relatives in Cuba.

In a speech in the East Room of the White House to an audience that included prominent Cuban Americans, Bush marked the 106th anniversary of Cuba's independence yesterday by denouncing continued human rights violations by the government of President Raul Castro and calling for the release of Cuban political prisoners.

He suggested that the reforms introduced by Castro, who formally succeeded his older brother, Fidel, as president in February, amount to "nothing more than a cruel joke" on the Cuban people. Fidel Castro, 81, underwent emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006 and ceded power to his brother, who turns 77 next month. He has not appeared in public since he took ill, although he occasionally has been photographed meeting with foreign leaders.

Among the "so-called reforms" announced by the government in Havana, "Cubans are now allowed to purchase mobile phones and DVD players and computers, and they've been told that they will be able to purchase toasters and other basic appliances in 2010," Bush said. "If the Cuban regime is serious about improving life for the Cuban people, it will take steps necessary to make these changes meaningful." - See Bush Urges Cuba to Expand Freedoms for the full report.

Fifteen killed in Mexico drug battle near U.S.
Saturday, April 26, 2008, 04:46 PM - North America
Fifteen killed in Mexico drug battle near U.S.. An international issues article.
Fifteen Mexican drug gang members were killed near the U.S. border on Saturday, their bodies scattered along a road after one of the deadliest shootouts in Mexico's three-year-long narco-war.

Rival factions of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border battled each other with rifles and machine guns in the early hours of the morning, police said.

Fourteen bodies were lying in pools of blood on a road near assembly-for-export maquiladora plants on the city's eastern limits. The corpses were surrounded by hundreds of bullet casings, and many of their faces were destroyed.

The 15th body was found nearby. Eight men were injured and six others were arrested, but some gang members are thought to have escaped.

"By the way this happened and the guns used, we believe the men are from the same cartel, the Arellano Felix gang," said a senior police officer in Tijuana who declined to be named.

Two of the dead are believed to be senior hit men for the Arellano Felix cartel and were identified by the large gold rings on their fingers. The rings carried the icon of Saint Death, a ghoulish figure that gangsters believe protects them, police said. - See Fifteen killed in Mexico drug battle near U.S. for the complete report.

Bush, Harper, Calderon to tackle economy, security
Monday, August 20, 2007, 10:30 AM - North America
North America leaders to tackle economy, security. An international issues article.
North America's leaders gather at a Canadian resort to promote integrated trade and security on Monday, a plan protesters outside the meeting say tramples on the rights of ordinary citizens.

U.S. President George W. Bush will also review the credit crunch and global market turmoil with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the two-day summit in Montebello, Quebec.

They are meeting as partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, to develop what they have called a Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP.

That was drafted in 2005 after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 to try to ensure that North America is a safe place to live and do business. The seemingly innocuous move has upset activists on the left and the right who are concerned about a loss of national sovereignty.

Fences 3 meters (10 feet) high were erected around the hotel grounds to keep away anti-capitalist protesters expected to descend on Montebello, about 70 km (40 miles) east of Ottawa.

Convoys of school buses from Montreal and Ottawa were expected to bring some 2,000 protesters to the site shortly before the meetings begin.

The SPP's critics say the talks are being carried out behind the backs of ordinary citizens and without any votes planned in the Canadian Parliament or U.S. Congress, yet in close consultation with corporate leaders.

"This summit represents the kinds of policies and politics that mean the entrenchment of poverty and control of people's movements," said Mandeep Dhillon of People's Global Action of Montreal. - See Bush, Harper, Calderon to tackle economy, security for the full report.