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Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (191)	2/28/2002 3:09:49 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 21057

No, ice skating is the most attractive winter sport. I just don't care for it on much the same basis as gymnastics, plus I have the overall sense of alienation from the Olympics.

To: E who wrote (191)	2/28/2002 3:27:55 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

Wake me up when that discussion is over.

To: E who wrote (191)	2/28/2002 3:29:04 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Respond to of 21057

Seems we're not the only ones with an illegal immigrant problem. cnn.com Cubans crash into Mexican embassy February 28, 2002 Posted: 5:27 AM EST (1027 GMT) By CNN Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- A busload of Cuban citizens -- using a Mercedes bus -- crashed through a gate at the Mexican embassy just before midnight Wednesday with the apparent intention of seeking asylum. According other eyewitnesses, about dozen Cubans made it into the compound and were seen on the roof of the embassy, crying out anti-government slogans and threatening to jump if police entered the embassy grounds. Some of the people on the bus were injured during the gate-crashing incident, according to a news agency cameraman and producer at the scene, who said they were attacked by police with batons to prevent them from videotaping the events. Hundreds of police with dogs and plain-clothes government agents soon flooded the area, blocking off access to journalists and passersby. Hundreds of people, including whole families, had started to gather around the embassy. Busloads of pro-government groups -- many armed with sticks -- were then brought in to confront any would-be asylum seekers, a common government tactic to deal with government opponents, according to CNN Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman. International news organizations have been forbidden from broadcasting images of what happened. Cuban authorities said the transmission from the government television station has been suspended for "obvious reasons." The break-in came on a day of tension outside the embassy in the upmarket Miramar district after rumors swept the capital that Mexico was offering to take in Cubans wanting to leave the communist-run island, Reuters reported. At one stage, Cuban President Fidel Castro visited the scene to try to restore calm. Mexican dip lomats said the rumors were false and there was no offer of asylum. Andres Ordonez, a spokesman for the embassy, said the rumors may have started through an incorrect interpretation of some comments by Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda in Miami, which were transmitted to Cuba via the Florida-based anti-Castro radio station Radio Marti. "This is a rumor, we are not opening our gates," he told Reuters. Rare violence The incident raised memories of a mass invasion of the Peruvian Embassy in Havana -- also sparked by a bus break-in which killed a Cuban guard in the melee -- by thousands of asylum-seekers in 1980. That incident prompted Castro to temporarily ease immigration restrictions, leading to a famous exodus of some 125,000 refugees to the United States. In 1994 a group of 124 Cuban asylum- seekers occupied the residence of the Belgian ambassador in Havana but left voluntarily a month later. In Wednesday's rare show of public violence, police reacted aggressively to the bus break-in, chasing, beating and detaining people in the street. Two Reuters journalists were among those beaten with batons in chaotic scenes after the incident at about 10 p.m. (0300 GMT). Soon after midnight, Castro turned up at the scene, staying for about 20 minutes in the vicinity of the residence, and apparently trying to calm the atmosphere. "Tomorrow we must get up early, there's work to be done," he told some members of the crowd after arriving. Castro was accompanied by Vice-President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. By the time of Castro's arrival, the crowd of asylum-seekers had been dispersed and replaced by truckloads of government supporters, many carrying batons, and members of pro-state Rapid Response Brigades. They chanted: "Fidel! Fidel!" Cuban and Mexican sources said that between one and two dozen asylum-seekers were still in the embassy Thursday morning, including most of those who entered in the bus, and possibly others who got in earlier during the day.