Cuba

HAVANA (AP) — A deadly fire that began at a large oil storage facility in western Cuba spread Monday after flames enveloped a third tank that firefighters had tried to cool as they struggle to fight the massive blaze.

At least one person has died and 125 are injured, with dozens of firefighters reported missing ever since lighting struck one of the facility’s eight tanks on Friday night. A second tank caught fire on Saturday, triggering several explosions.

HAVANA (AP) — A fire set off by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility raged uncontrolled in the Cuban city of Matanzas, where four explosions and flames injured 121 people and left 17 firefighters missing. Cuban authorities said a unidentified body had been found late Saturday.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban firefighters were joined by special teams sent by Mexico and Venezuela on Sunday as they battled for a second day to control a fire blazing at a big oil tank farm in the western province of Matanzas.

The blaze began Friday night when lightning struck a storage tank during a thunder storm, and the fire spread to a second tank early Saturday, triggering a series of explosions, officials have said.

HAVANA (AP) — A fire set off by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility raged uncontrolled Saturday in the city of Matanzas, where four explosions and flames injured nearly 80 people and left 17 firefighters missing, Cuban authorities said.

HAVANA, July 30 (Reuters) - The Cuban capital of Havana will begin electricity blackouts in August, has canceled carnival and is taking other measures as the country’s energy crisis worsens, state media reported on Saturday.

The capital, home to a fifth of the population of 11.2 million and center of economic activity in Cuba, had been spared the daily power outages of four or more hours that the rest of the island has endured for months.

HAVANA, July 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Belarus has become the first European country to approve the emergency use of a Cuban-made Covid-19 vaccine, the center that produces the jab said on Wednesday.

Belarus “approved today the use of Soberana Plus,” said the Finlay Vaccine Institute on Twitter.

Soberana Plus is one of three covid vaccines developed in Cuba, none of which have yet been approved by the World Health Organization.

HAVANA, July 20 (NNN-ANSA) — The electricity supply in Cuba’s capital city is showing increasingly recurrent cuts as the aging power plants seem to be reaching their point of technical exhaustion.

Local authorities have said the country’s energy situation was “very complex and tense, but with a solution,” which should feature foreign investment and “projects with friendly countries,” including the arrival of tankers with fuel to assist a population who undergo daily power cuts lasting several hours.

VARADERO (Cuba), May 9 (NNN-EFE) — Cuba is seeking to diversify its tourism offerings via its music, typical dances, culinary and artistic traditions, the Ministry of Culture (Mincult) announced.

To achieve that, the ministry is featuring tourism options that range from “promoting academic events to performances of the prestigious Cuban National Ballet,” Mincult’s events director, Lis Cuesta, said during a presentation on the subject at the International Tourism Fair, FitCuba 2022.

HAVANA, May 9 (Reuters) - Cuban rescue workers combed through vast piles of rubble from the Hotel Saratoga in the early hours of Monday, uncovering four more bodies overnight after the hotel was hit by an explosion and bringing the death toll to at least 31, a local official said.

HAVANA (AP) — Crews worked through a second night searching for victims of a hotel explosion that killed at least 27 people in Cuba’s capital and left more than a dozen missing amid the rubble.

The Hotel Saratoga, a luxury 96-room hotel in Old Havana, was finishing renovations when an apparent gas leak produced a massive explosion on Friday.