Sunday, August 09, 2009 BRUSSELS: France has called for the "immediate release" of a French lecturer and a Franco-Iranian employee at its Tehran embassy who are being tried in an Iranian court.Paris considered the charges against 24-year-old Clotilde Reiss "devoid of any foundation" and those against embassy staffer Nazak Afshar to be "non-existent", the foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.France also objected to the fact that their embassy had not been informed in advance that they would be appearing in court, "in conformity with international rules and consular protection," the statement added.The ministry said it deplored the fact that neither of them had been represented by a lawyer in court.Reiss and Afshar were among more than 10 other defendants brought before the court for a mass hearing on charges related to huge protests that erupted across Iran after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, was declared winner of the June 12 election.
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...
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