Cuba to host meeting on prohibition of nuclear arms next week 
Cuba will host next week the 18th period of ordinary sessions of the Organization for the Prohibition of Nuclear Arms in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), OPANAL Secretary General Chilean Edmundo Vargas said Saturday. 

Vargas told reporters that the meeting, to be held at Havana's Conventions Palace on Wednesday and Thursday, will mark an important step in the implementation of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (Treaty of Tlatelolco). 

During the meeting the region will be declared as the first nuclear-arm-free zone in the world. 

Vargas termed Cuba's adherence to the Treaty of Tlatelolco last year as a token of Havana's political will to strengthen the regional efforts for a safer world. 

Signed in 1967 in Mexico, the Treaty of Tlatelolco has become one of the international prestigious legal instruments for disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear arms. 

150 delegates from the signatories of the Treaty of Tlatelolco and the United Nations are expected to attend the Havana meeting. Among the participants will be representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Arms and the Latin American Energy Organization. 

The meeting aims to set common policies in terms of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, as well as to devise mechanisms to strengthen the international regime for these effects, according to the meeting's official program. 

In addition, relations with the five nuclear powers of the world -- the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China -- will be examined, in order to revise the declarations made on the occasion of the ratification of additional protocols years ago.

New UN anti-corruption treaty helps poor: Annan 
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday welcomed the adoption of an anti-corruption convention by the UN General Assembly, hailing it as a "remarkable" achievement. 

"Corruption hurts the poor disproportionately -- by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government's ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice, and discouraging foreign investment and aid," he said in a speech to the 191-nation assembly. 

"Corruption is a key element in economic under-performance and a major obstacle to poverty alleviation and development." 

Negotiating the new convention and adopting it were remarkable achievements and the accord complemented another landmark instrument, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which entered into force a month ago, he said. 

The anti-corruption treaty "makes a major breakthrough by requiring member states to return assets obtained through corruption to the country from which they were stolen," he said. 

"Corrupt officials will, in future, find fewer ways to hide their illicit gains. This is a particularly important issue for many developing countries where corrupt officials have plundered the national wealth and where new governments badly need resources to reconstruct and rehabilitate their societies." 

The convention, which took 130 UN member delegations two years to draft, has 71 articles covering topics that include public procurement, bribery, illicit enrichment, embezzlement, misappropriation, money-laundering, protecting whistle-blowers, freezing of assets and cooperation between states. 

It calls on governments to establish in their national laws a long statute of limitations for prosecuting cases and to enable themselves to suspend the statute "where the alleged offender has evaded the administration of justice."

13-year-old surfing star loses arm in Hawaii shark attack 
A 13-year-old US surfing star lost her left arm in a sudden shark attack in Hawaii, local TV reported Saturday. 

Bethany Hamilton was lying on her board off Kauai's North Shore, when a shark bit once and then disappeared with her left arm. 

"Nobody saw it happen. She just yelled, 'A shark bit me!'" her father, Tom Hamilton, told the Honolulu television station KGMB. 

"My arm was hanging in the water, and it just came and bit me, "Bethany said. She remained in a stable condition after the attack.  

Bethany said the shark pulled her back and forth, "but I just held on my board, and then it let go." 

Doctors at Wilcox Memorial Hospital said Bethany's top condition as a competitive athlete helped her survive the attack. "It was a very clean amputation," Dr. David Rovinsky said. 

"This is a woman who is a highly trained athlete, and because of that she's able to handle a huge blood loss really well," Rovinsky said. 

After the attack, lifeguards went out on personal watercraft to warn people about the shark, said Cyndi Ozaki, spokeswoman for Kauai County. County officials also closed the area between Ke'e and Wainiha beaches. 

The beaches were reopened Saturday afternoon, after officials flew over the area and saw no evidence of other sharks. 

Bethany is a competitive surfer who already had secured sponsorships and was expected to go professional. 

In August, she won the explorer women's division of the National Scholastic Surfing Association's Open and Explorer event on Kauai. In May, she won the women's division at the Local Motion-Ezekiel Surf Into Summer contest at Ala Moana on Oahu, beating out older surfers.