Friday, August 28, 2009 ANKARA: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen joined Turkish leaders at a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner Thursday in what he described as a manifestation of his respect for Islam. The former Danish foreign minister's bid for NATO's top post had met with harsh objections from predominately Muslim Turkey, partly due to his stance during the crisis over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in Denmark in 2005. "Please see my presence here tonight as a clear manifestation of my respect for Islam as one of the world's great religions," Rasmussen said at the iftar, or the evening meal when Muslims break their dawn-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan."Fasting is meant to teach patience, modesty, self-restraint and giving and reaching out to the less fortunate. These are all universal human values that go beyond cultures and religions," he said. Rasmussen praised Turkey's role as "a bridge between Europe, the Arab world and Central Asia" and pledged to work for better ties between NATO and Muslim countries."I'm confident that we will make real progress in building trust and cooperation between the Alliance and partners in the Mediterranean and the Middle East," he said.Rasmussen had invoked freedom of expression to defend the publication of a series of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper in September 2005, which triggered outrage and deadly unrest among Muslims worldwide. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a practicing Muslim who had vocally criticised Rasmussen, said the NATO chief's participation in the iftar "will be a meaningful message to the people of my country and the Muslim world." Erdogan angrily rejected the labeling of extremist violence as "Islamist terrorism" and urged Western respect for Islam. "Drawing on isolated incidents to portray a whole religion and all its followers as potential terrorists, trying to disseminate such perceptions and tolerating such attitudes is, to say the least, a crime against humanity," he said.
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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