Protests erupt in Havana as Cuba struggles to restore electricity

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By Dave Sherwood and Ayose Naranjo Reuters Scattered protests broke out across Havana on Tuesday evening, with residents banging pots, honking horns and shouting “turn on the lights” as millions ‌of Cubans remained without power amid a six-month-long U.S. fuel blockade. Cuba experienced a nationwide outage on ‌Monday — its third this year — but while authorities said most of the country had been reconnected to the island’s grid by late ​Tuesday, many remained in the dark and without electricity as the island doesn’t have enough fuel. The country’s grid operator UNE said it had reconnected the grid from Pinar del Rio, in far western Cuba, to Holguin in the east. Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second-largest city, remained disconnected and without power, authorities said. The U.S. in January ‌cut off Cuba’s fuel supply, then ⁠imposed fresh sanctions that have prompted an exodus of foreign businesses and a near-complete collapse o...
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Kurdish PKK disbands and ends Turkey insurgency, PKK-linked agency says

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By Daren Butler Reuters

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has been locked in bloody conflict with the Turkish state for more than four decades, decided to disband and end its armed struggle, a news agency close to the group reported on Monday.

The PKK decision is set to have far-reaching political and security consequences for the region, including in neighbouring Iraq and also in Syria, where Kurdish forces are allied with U.S. forces.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

“The PKK has completed its historic mission,” the group said, according to the Firat news agency, which published what it said was the closing declaration of a congress that the PKK held last week in northern Iraq where it is based.

The PKK held the congress in response to a call in February from its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to disband.

“The PKK 12th Congress decided to dissolve the PKK’S organizational structure, with the practical process to be managed and carried out by Leader Apo, and to end the armed struggle method,” the statement said, using Ocalan’s nickname.

“The PKK struggle has broken the policy of denial and annihilation of our people and brought the Kurdish issue to a point of solving it through democratic politics,” the statement said.

The PKK’s decision will give President Tayyip Erdogan the opportunity to boost development in the mainly Kurdish southeast, where the insurgency has handicapped the regional economy for decades.

Omer Celik, spokespeson for Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, said the PKK’s decision to dissolve was an “an important step toward a terror-free Turkey”.

Turkey’s foreign ministry did not immediately comment on the announcement, which Ankara had been expecting.

The lira was flat at 38.7375 against the dollar while the main share index rose 2.4%.



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/yoUOkWc

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