Web posted at: 2/4/2007 7:19:15
Source ::: Agencies
BOGOTA • A group of Cubans say they defected from medical and social
cooperation programmes in Venezuela by crossing the border to Colombia
but are trapped in Bogota after the US government refused them visas.
Speaking in a house in a low-income neighbourhood, the Cubans, who said
the group included 10 doctors, social workers and sports trainers, had
asked for visas under a program aimed at medical professionals but had
their applications denied at the U.S. Embassy.
For decades, Havana has sent doctors overseas as part of Fidel Castro's
ideological battle with Washington. Cuba has 30,000 doctors and medical
staff working in foreign countries, but cases of participants fleeing
rarely surface in public.
"Once out, we became deserters from a medical mission and that is a
crime in Cuba," Leticia Viamonte said.
Anne Heche's husband files for divorce
LOS ANGELES • Anne Heche's husband has filed for divorce after five
years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. In documents filed
on Thursday, Coleman Laffoon asked the court to award him spousal
support and joint custody of the couple's 4-year-old son, Homer.
The filing lists as separate property his earnings from the date of
separation and "miscellaneous jewelry and other personal effects."
Heche, 37, and Laffoon, a motion picture cameraman, were married in
September 2001. The couple met while working on a documentary about
Ellen DeGeneres' return to standup comedy.
An after-hours message for Heche's publicist, Lisa Kasteler, was not
immediately returned Friday. Kasteler announced the couple's separation
nearly a week ago, but did not elaborate on the reason for the split.
10 tourists die in Chilean hotel fire
SANTIAGO • Ten tourists from Argentina, Germany and the Netherlands died
in a hotel fire in the far south of Chile yesterday, the head of the
local fire service said.
The fire broke out at around 3.00 a.m. (0600 GMT) in the Blue House
hotel in Punta Arenas, Chile's most southerly city.
"Twenty-one tourists were staying there, 11 of whom managed to get out,
six with injuries," said Rene Mancilla, head of the city's fire service.
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