Castro appears on TV after surgery, NO More Dollars in Cuba
Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared on television Monday with an arm sling to give weight to an announcement on the ban of transactions in US dollars in his country.

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Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared on television Monday. No more "dollar" in Cuba. Cubans and foreigners must exchange dollars for "convertible pesos" and a 10% commission.

Shown from the chest up, the 78-year-old leader said the issue was so important that he had to be on the program despite a surgery last week following an accident in which he fell and fractured a knee and an arm.

"Beginning on Nov. 8, the convertible peso will begin to circulate in substitution of the dollar throughout national territory," a state television personality read the resolution with the uniform-clad Castro looking on.

According to the decree of the Central Bank, the dollar will no longer be accepted in shops as of Nov. 8. Cubans and foreigners will have to exchange them for "convertible pesos" with a 10 percent commission.

The move was partly induced by the US Federal Reserve's decision in May to fine UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, 100 million dollars after the bank allegedly sent US dollars to Cuba, Libya, Iran and Serbia and Montenegro in violation of US sanctions against those countries.

The punishment, together with some other measures by the US earlier this year to curb the flow of remittances and tourist dollars to Cuba, finally get the country to make the decision and radically change the way business has been done on the island since Castro was obliged to legalize the US dollars in 1993 to ease economic crisis.

Chile rejects remarks of Bolivian president
The Chilean government rejected and lamented the words of Bolivian President Carlos Mesa that his Chilean counterpart is "extremely temperamental," local daily El Mercurio reported Monday.

The Chilean authorities, however, said it opted not to "fall in the game" with Mesa and keep the discussion in the field of bilateral relations, based on respect for international laws and treaties.

It has expressed friendship with concrete gestures, the government added.

Chilean right-wing leader Joaquin Lavin also voiced support for President Ricardo Lagos Escobar, despite their many differences on domestic politics.

"There is a single voice and we back him a hundred percent," Lavin said. "He deserves, as the president of Chile, all the respect of his counterparts."

Mesa's remarks are part of Bolivian diplomatic offensive to pressure Chile to return the coastal territories taken from it at the end of the 19th century.

Last Wednesday, the 100th anniversary of the peace and friendship treaty that defines the border, Mesa repeated demands to renegotiate the 1904 accord, saying Bolivia's economy has been hurt by the loss of a seaport.

The treaty established the territorial limits between both countries after the War of the Pacific (1879-1884). Chile occupied 120,000 square kilometers of territory belonging to Bolivia and Bolivia has aspired to reclaim sea access ever since.

Mesa insisted on Bolivia's sovereign control over a port in the Pacific Ocean. But the Chilean president replied that there are no pending issues with respect to sovereignty and the 1904 accord was final.
 

Brazil's nuclear program not for military purposes: minister
The Brazilian government said there does not exist any possibility that its nuclear program could be used for military purposes, the local media reported Monday.

"It is clear we'll only make a peaceful use of nuclear energy. It is a decision established by the Constitution itself that our nuclear program has to be that way," Eduardo Campos, Minister of Science and Technology, was quoted as saying.

Campos made the remarks in response to an article issued in the latest edition of the journal Science, which said Brazil would have the capability of producing nuclear warheads and would have purchased uranium-enrichment technology from foreign scientists.

The article indicated that if the Brazilian government manages to limit the inspections of the experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran could claim the same treatment.

Last week, IAEA inspectors were allowed to enter the nuclear-fuel plant in Resende, Rio de Janeiro State, but their visual access to uranium enriching devices was restricted.

"As it is not possible to patent this equipment, the only way to preserve its uniqueness is not giving visual access to technicians from other countries, who would identify the differences through this contact," said Campos.

He said the accusations against his country had reproduced an economic dispute, derived from the growth of the nuclear-energy market and because of the fact that Brazil's uranium-enrichment devices could have a performance superior to foreign equipment.

"Brazil is a country with great abundance of this mineral, with70 percent of our territory yet to be investigated," he said.

"In 11 or 12 years time, nuclear energy will represent 25 percent of our energy production and we want to be self-sufficient by 2010. It is quite clear this potential places us in an important group," said the minister.

Brazil in early October agreed to allow the IAEA to inspect some of its nuclear facilities. The tentative compromise is aimed at allowing inspectors to verify that Brazil has neither enriched uranium to weapons-grade levels nor diverted the nuclear material to other places.

But the country has refused to allow IAEA inspectors to conduct a full visual inspection of the Resende plant, saying the plant's advanced technology could be stolen by other countries should outsiders be allowed into it.