News stories by IPS Correspondents, page 38

HAVANA, Dic 19 (IPS) - The deterioration of Cuba's economy is coming to an end, largely because the country did not give up its socialist orientation, Vice-President Carlos Lage said Monday.

WASHINGTON, Dic 19 (IPS) - Three years of targetted research by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have provided "conclusive evidence" that human-made chlorine in the stratosphere is the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole.

PORT OF SPAIN, Dic 19 (IPS) - Officials at the state-owned oil company Petrotrin are scrambling now to find a new plan for the Point Fortin Refinery after attempts to sell the plant failed.

MEXICO CITY, Dic 19 (IPS) - The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) took 34 towns and cut off seven main roads in the southern state of Chiapas, ending the cease fire in force since Jan. 12, an EZLN report said on Monday.

WASHINGTON, Dic 19 (IPS) - Nepal's environmental activists have scored a major victory: the World Bank's new inspection panel finds that a proposed dam project may violate key Bank policies.

MEXICO CITY, Dic 19 (IPS) - The Mexican army began on Monday to reopen the roads that had been blockaded by rebel forces, which Chiapas governor Eduardo Robeldo said had been cut off by "peasant organisation sympathisers," contradicting earlier claims made by the insurgents.

LONDON, Dic 19 (IPS) - Since the Republican Party routed Bill Clinton's democrats and won control of the United States Congress in elections last month there has been virtually no coverage of the likely impact on the Angolan peace process.

MOZDOK, North Ossetia, Dic 19 (IPS) - Russian regions neighbouring the rebellious republic of Chechnya are reporting a massive influx of refugees as Russian military forces close in on the Chechen capital, Grozny.

ROME, Dic 19 (IPS) - A handful of votes in parliament will decide the destiny of the right-wing government headed by media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, who will be faced on Wednesday with censorship motions from opposition and former allied parties.

WASHINGTON, Dic 19 (IPS) - As the Bill Clinton administration pitched its international plans for population and development Monday, the message was clearly crafted for the new boys in town.