Castro Embarks on Asia Tour

HAVANA - President Fidel Castro has left Cuba for a trip to Asia that will include stops in Vietnam, China and Malaysia, where he will attend next week's Non-Aligned Movement summit.

The Cuban government announcement of the trip came Thursday, hours after the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said Castro would arrive there Friday. Castro has visited communist Vietnam twice before, in 1973 and 1995.

On Sunday, Castro will go to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, for the Non-Aligned summit. The dates of his stay in communist China were not announced.

The Non-Aligned Movement groups 114 mostly small and developing countries. It was formed during the Cold War to steer a neutral path between the United States and the Soviet Union and has since reinvented itself to confront challenges of globalization and U.S. military and economic might.

Castro's flight to Asia was delayed by almost four hours while he participated in a question-and-answer session with more than 100 Americans in town for business summits, participants said.

Castro excused himself shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday to go to the airport after meeting with farm industry representatives and a group of female business leaders from Seattle led by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Cuba last year bought a shipment of apples, peas and lentils from Washington state under an exception to the U.S. trade embargo. Cuban officials are also negotiating tens of millions of dollars worth of new food purchases with farm representatives attending the conference.

The irony and hypocrisy is thick enough to cut with an apple knife. Castro's "charm offensive" is being used to get government backed loans to finance sales to his communist island. The goods all will be controlled by Castro and will enable him to free up his money to export anti-Americanism and continue to support terrorism. Tourists visiting Casto's island help support communism and terrorism.

Fidel Castro - Cuba

Cuba's Castro to Visit Vietnam [Full Text] HANOI (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro, revered in communist Vietnam, will visit the southeast Asian country this week to deepen diplomatic and commercial ties, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The Cuban leader -- hailed by Hanoi as a revolutionary ally -- is expected to arrive in Hanoi Friday and meet top officials the next day. It will be Castro's third visit to Vietnam.

"The visit is aimed at enhancing the friendship" between the countries, Phan Thuy Thanh, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry told reporters. She added there would also be discussions about economic, trade and investment ties.

Castro is en route to a February 24-25 Kuala Lumpur meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, a grouping of 114 developing nations. Vietnam is sending President Tran Duc Luong.

Both Vietnam and Cuba have long admired each other, and share a history of clashes with the United States although the southeast Asian country has restored diplomatic and trade relations with its former Vietnam War adversary. [End]

Director Stone shows human side of Cuba's Castro - "…even our prostitutes are university educated"*** "I say it is one of the achievements of the revolution that even our prostitutes are university educated," Castro says. Stone's next project will be about Alexander the Great starring Colin Farrell. But he is set to court controversy again with another project, "Persona Non Grata," a film about Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, set to air in June in America.

After Castro, Stone said he could imagine interviewing another U.S. enemy, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "I would try to get on with him in the same way ... Who knows who he is. The American media makes him into a monster."***

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