Cuba

HAVANA (AP) — Hurricane Ian was growing stronger as it approached the western tip of Cuba on a track to hit the west coast of Florida as a major hurricane as early as Wednesday.

Ian was forecast to hit the western tip of Cuba as a major hurricane and then become an even stronger Category 4 with top winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) over warm Gulf of Mexico waters before striking Florida.

As of Monday, Tampa and St. Petersburg appeared to be the among the most likely targets for their first direct hit by a major hurricane since 1921.

HAVANA, Sept 23 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Cuba, with 400 doses per 100 inhabitants, leads the world’s vaccination process against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.

Such a result is possible thanks to a campaign carried out in Cuba in a staggered manner with homemade vaccines.

Recently, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) ratified that the Cuban-made Abdala vaccine has proved to be safe, effective, and well tolerated.

20 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia will fund a mosque in Cuba serving the island's Muslim community, according to Havana's envoy to Saudi Arabia.

In an interview broadcast on Saudi state TV, Vladimir Gonzalez, said: "Because of this donation from the Saudi side, today we can say that we're building in Havana the first mosque in our country."

HAVANA (AP) — Puerto Ricans braced for severe wind and rain as Tropical Storm Fiona bore down amid expectations it would grow into a hurricane before striking the U.S. territory’s southern coast on Sunday.

Forecasters said “historic” levels of rain were expected to produce landslides and heavy flooding, with up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) forecast in isolated areas.

“It’s time to take action and be concerned,” said Nino Correa, Puerto Rico’s emergency management commissioner.

HAVANA (AP) — Tropical Storm Fiona was expected to become a hurricane as it neared Puerto Rico on Saturday, threatening to dump up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain as people braced for potential landslides, severe flooding and power outages.

HAVANA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cuba will again submit a resolution against the U.S. trade embargo at this year's United Nations General Assembly in November, Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said Thursday.

"After more than 60 years of siege, that policy impacts, like never before, Cuban families inside and outside of the country," he posted on Twitter, noting it will be the 30th time to present the resolution.

The resolution calling for an end to the embargo has consistently won the overwhelming support of UN members.

HAVANA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Cuba said on Friday it sought U.S. technical assistance in cleaning up after a massive fire at an oil storage facility that killed 16 fire fighters.

Experts from Cuba and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency met virtually on Wednesday to discuss the clean-up effort at the Matanzas supertanker port east of Havana in what the Cuban foreign ministry characterized as a “professional and fruitful exchange.”

HAVANA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Specialists and firefighters from Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela are making progress in controlling the fire at a fuel storage facility in Matanzas Province, according to reports from local authorities on Wednesday.

The fire was triggered by a lightning strike on a tank containing 26,000 cubic meters of Cuban oil on Aug. 5, and later consumed three nearby tanks, leaving one dead, 14 missing and 125 injured.

HAVANA (AP) — A deadly fire that has consumed at least half of a large oil facility in western Cuba and threatened to worsen the island’s energy crisis has been largely controlled after nearly five days, authorities said Wednesday.

Flames that recently consumed the fourth tank in the eight-tank facility in Matanzas were almost quelled, although the third tank remains on fire and surrounded by smoke, according to an unidentified Cuban firefighter.

“We can’t go in for now,” he told Cubavisión, a government TV channel.

Aug 8 (Reuters) - An inferno at Cuba's largest oil storage facility has killed at least one firefighter, injured many more, and threatens to further swell the fuel import bill for the impoverished island nation that relies on foreign oil for everything from transportation to its power grid.

Cuban officials may need to scramble to set up expensive floating storage capacity to handle imports aimed at easing an acute fuel scarcity, sources and experts said on Monday.