Saturday, October 25, 2008 SANAA: At least 14 people have drowned and around 35 are missing in Yemen after torrential rain left swathes of the impoverished country underwater, officials said on Saturday.At least 500 homes have been damaged and hundreds of families displaced by the floods that swept the south-eastern provinces of Hadramout and Mahra following 30 hours of heavy rainfall, they said.Yemeni authorities have declared the eastern provinces to be a disaster area and President Ali Abdullah Saleh visited some of the worst hit areas on Friday.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...
Comments