Cuba

AFP - Powerful Hurricane Florence headed toward the US East Coast Tuesday, prompting authorities to order more than a million people to evacuate the path of the extremely dangerous storm forecasters said could soon intensify.

Residents scrambled to flee as the menacing Category 4 storm packing winds of 140 miles (220 kilometers) per hour moved closer.

Cuba on July 10 reauthorized private businesses after a year-long freeze, but with tighter controls than before on a segment of the economy that now makes up 13 percent of the Communist island's workforce.

A man who owns a hotel adorned with items inspired by the Cuban culture in Turkey's southwest was detained in Cuba on April 18. His family is now calling on Cuban authorities to release him, saying his detention is unjust.

Turkey's Global Ports Holding (GPH) has announced it has signed a 15-year management agreement with the Cuban company Aries S.A. for the operation of the cruise port in Havana, Cuba.

The only three survivors of Cuba's worst aviation disaster in three decades were clinging to life May 19, a day after their passenger jet crashed in a fireball in Havana's rural outskirts with 113 people on board.

HAVANA (AP) — Mariela Castro, a Cuban lawmaker and daughter of Communist Party chief Raul Castro, says she will push for gay marriage to be included in a constitutional reform process expected to begin in July.

BBC - Miguel Díaz-Canel has been sworn in as Cuba's new president, replacing Raúl Castro who took over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2006.

It is the first time since the revolution in 1959 that a Castro is not at the helm of the government.

Mr Díaz-Canel had been serving as first vice-president for the past five years.

HAVANA - Through the Space Age, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Internet era, Cubans held one constant: A Castro ruled the nation.

That is about to change.

Cuba is preparing for the end of an era next week when Raul Castro steps down as president, ending his family's six-decade grip on power and paving the way for a younger leader.

Cuba will designate on March 12 the 605 members of its National Assembly, an electoral process without surprise since there are as many candidates as seats.