[Cincinatus' Wife]

Well-known Democratic fundraiser dead in shooting at Signature Grand (banquet hall) *** Miami businessman Jerome Berlin, once described as the country's most powerful Democratic fundraisers, died in a murder-suicide this morning at the Signature Grand, the huge and popular Davie banquet hall in Davie that he owned with partner Michael Pecora. ***

(Drug Smuggler Made Clinton Donation in Cuba, Investigators Say By DON VAN NATTA Jr. New York Times April 4, 1997 MIAMI -- Jorge Cabrera, a drug smuggler who has emerged as one of the most notorious supporters of President Clinton's re-election campaign, was asked for a campaign contribution in the unlikely locale of a hotel in Havana by a prominent Democratic fund-raiser, congressional investigators have learned. snip her only strong memory of Cabrera is at the fund-raising dinner on Dec. 3, in Coral Gables, Fla., at the home of Jerome Berlin, a lawyer who was indicted in 1990, and later acquitted, of federal conspiracy charges of bribing public officials.)

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba: Council Re-Election an Endorsement (AP) {Full Text] HAVANA - Cuba's re-election to the U.N. Human Rights Council is a recognition of the island's contribution to human rights around the world, Fidel Castro's government said Wednesday. Another three-year term for Cuba on the U.N. panel "is undoubtedly a recognition of the Cuban Revolution's work in human rights in favor of all our people," said a government statement published in the Communist Party daily Granma. It's an endorsement of "the contribution thousands of Cubans have made over four decades to the human rights of people in more than 100 countries," the statement added. Cuba said it presented 10 projects to the U.N. commission last year defending social rights and denouncing the burden of foreign debt on developing countries.

U.S. delegates walked out of a U.N. meeting in protest Tuesday when Cuba's re-election was announced. The communist country's election came weeks after Castro's government sentenced 75 dissidents to long prison terms on charges of collaborating with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist regime. It also followed the April 11 execution of three Cubans who hijacked a ferry packed with passengers in an attempt to reach the United States. No one was hurt in the hijacking. Governments and human rights groups worldwide condemned the executions and the crackdown. Cuba argued the executions were necessary to avoid a migration crisis provoked by the United States.

During this year's annual six-week session which ended Friday, the U.N.'s top human rights watchdog narrowly passed a resolution calling on Cuba to accept a visit by a human rights monitor but failed to approve an amendment criticizing Cuba's crackdown. Under U.N. rules, regional groups decide who fills seats on U.N. bodies.Latin America chose Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru for six open seats. Cuba said its re-election was a "victory" that "contrasted with the United States' embarrassing defeat in 2001" when the United States lost its place on the panel. The United States recovered its seat in 2002. Cuba has been on the 53-member U.N. rights commission since 1989. [End]