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- <text id=89TT0092>
- <title>
- Jan. 09, 1989: Grapevine
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Jan. 09, 1989 Mississippi Burning
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 37
- GRAPEVINE
- </hdr><body>
- <p> NO CIGAR. Fidel Castro gave up his trademark Havanas in
- 1985, but only now has the reason been disclosed: according to
- Soviet officials, doctors discovered a small malignancy in a
- lung. Castro, 62, is under regular treatment that has slowed but
- not checked the course of the cancer. His public appearances
- have become less frequent, and he seems to have lost weight.
- Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who canceled a trip to Cuba
- last month after Armenia's earthquake, wants to reschedule as
- soon as possible, perhaps as early as this month. High on
- Gorbachev's Havana agenda: a discussion of possible successors
- to Castro.
- </p>
- <p> THOSE SOUTHERN NIGHTS. Vietnamese officials may not admit
- it, but Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) has become the
- country's unofficial winter capital. Virtually the entire 14-man
- Politburo, including 75-year-old General Secretary Nguyen Van
- Linh, prefers the balmy climate of the former imperialist
- bastion to the damp cold of Hanoi, the capital, which is 700
- miles to the north. But the old warriors are careful to maintain
- appearances: when they have to receive foreign ministers and
- issue government announcements, Politburo members return --
- briefly -- to Hanoi.
- </p>
- <p> MR. NICE GUY. Later this year West German Chancellor Helmut
- Kohl will launch a program to refurbish U.S. military bases and
- improve community relations with American troops in the Federal
- Republic. Why is Kohl playing Mr. Nice Guy? Bonn sources say he
- is concerned that shabby barracks and lack of contact with
- German civilians can turn G.I.s into ambassadors of ill will
- when they return home. He also hopes to head off any "German
- bashing" by Bush over Bonn's contributions to its own defense.
- </p>
- <p> HOW ABOUT GOLF? Amin Gemayel is a man in search of a
- purpose. After his six-year term as President of Lebanon ended
- in September, Gemayel left the country because of pressure from
- the Phalangist militia once controlled by his murdered brother
- Bashir. Gemayel is now staying in Paris, where he receives
- visitors in a friend's well-guarded luxury apartment. A wealthy
- man, Gemayel talks vaguely of moving to the U.S. and taking
- English-language courses at Harvard.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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