DAMASCUS: Syrian Foreign Minister Walidal-Moualem said resuming peace talks with Israel would be useless without a commitment by the Jewish state to withdraw from the Golan Heights. Responding cautiously to an Israeli offer to open the talks without preconditions, Moualem reiterated Syrian calls for an Israeli commitment to restore the Golan and described it as "not a precondition but a requirement for peace". "If Israel does not honour these requirements then there is no point of conducting useless negotiations," Moualem said. "Negotiations will be futile if there is no true Israeli will to make peace and no U.S. involvement. We will not go back to wasting time," he told Syrian state television.
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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