Thursday, November 05, 2009 LISBON: A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Wednesday hundreds of kilometres off Portugal's Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, US and Portuguese geologists said.The US Geological Survey said that the quake struck 445 kilometres (277 miles) south of the islands at a depth of 10 km at 4:41 pm (1841 GMT), but it was not felt in the region.The remote islands form a quake-prone Portuguese archipelago located some 1,500 kilometres from Lisbon and are home to some 240,000 Azoreans. "The event was not felt in the region," said the Azores's volcanic and seismic activity institute, CIVISA.
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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