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Czech supermodel held in Cuba over photographs


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Czech supermodel Helena Houdova was detained by police in Cuba after she was caught taking photographs in a poor suburb of Havana, she said in an interview published Friday.

"They held us for 11 hours, it was not nice at all," the blonde former Miss Czech Republic told the daily Dnes by telephone from the Cuban capital. "They did not allow us to contact our embassy."

Houdova, now living in the United States, said she went to Havana on a humanitarian project for poor and handicapped children.

The police "even shouted that we were terrorists," she said. "We are now under house arrest and we cannot go out of Havana before we leave Cuba."

Relations between Prague and Havana are rocky as the Czech Republic is one of the leading proponents for a tougher international stance against Fidel Castro's regime.

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AFPLifestyle-fashion-Czech-Cuba-Houdova

AFP 271519 GMT 01 06

COPYRIGHT 2004 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.

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