- Far-right candidate surprises in Romania elections, setting up run-off with PM
- Left-wing candidate Orsi projected to win Uruguay election
- UAE arrests three after Israeli rabbi killed
- Five days after Bruins firing, Montgomery named NHL Blues coach
- Orlando beat Atlanta in MLS playoffs to set up Red Bulls clash
- American McNealy takes first PGA title with closing birdie
- Sampaoli beaten on Rennes debut as angry fans disrupt Nantes loss
- Chiefs edge Panthers, Lions rip Colts as Dallas stuns Washington
- Uruguayans vote in tight race for president
- Thailand's Jeeno wins LPGA Tour Championship
- 'Crucial week': make-or-break plastic pollution treaty talks begin
- Israel, Hezbollah in heavy exchanges of fire despite EU ceasefire call
- Amorim predicts Man Utd pain as he faces up to huge task
- Basel backs splashing the cash to host Eurovision
- Petrol industry embraces plastics while navigating energy shift
- Italy Davis Cup winner Sinner 'heartbroken' over doping accusations
- Romania PM fends off far-right challenge in presidential first round
- Japan coach Jones abused by 'some clown' on Twickenham return
- Springbok Du Toit named World Player of the Year for second time
- Iran says will hold nuclear talks with France, Germany, UK on Friday
- Mbappe on target as Real Madrid cruise to Leganes win
- Sampaoli beaten on Rennes debut as fans disrupt Nantes loss
- Israel records 250 launches from Lebanon as Hezbollah targets Tel Aviv, south
- Australia coach Schmidt still positive about Lions after Scotland loss
- Man Utd 'confused' and 'afraid' as Ipswich hold Amorim to debut draw
- Sinner completes year to remember as Italy retain Davis Cup
- Climate finance's 'new era' shows new political realities
- Lukaku keeps Napoli top of Serie A with Roma winner
- Man Utd held by Ipswich in Amorim's first match in charge
- 'Gladiator II', 'Wicked' battle for N. American box office honors
- England thrash Japan 59-14 to snap five-match losing streak
- S.Africa's Breyten Breytenbach, writer and anti-apartheid activist
- Concern as climate talks stalls on fossil fuels pledge
- Breyten Breytenbach, writer who challenged apartheid, dies at 85
- Tuipulotu try helps Scotland end Australia's bid for Grand Slam
- Truce called after 82 killed in Pakistan sectarian clashes
- Salah wants Liverpool to pile on misery for Man City after sinking Saints
- Berrettini takes Italy to brink of Davis Cup defence
- Lille condemn Sampaoli to defeat on Rennes debut
- Basel backs splashing the bucks to host Eurovision
- Leicester sack manager Steve Cooper
- IPL auction records tumble as Pant, Iyer break $3 mn mark
- Salah sends Liverpool eight points clear after Southampton scare
- Key Trump pick calls for end to escalation in Ukraine
- Tuipulotu try helps Scotland end Australia's bid for a Grand Slam
- Davis Cup organisers hit back at critics of Nadal retirement ceremony
- Noel in a 'league of his own' as he wins Gurgl slalom
- A dip or deeper decline? Guardiola seeks response to Man City slump
- Germany goes nuts for viral pistachio chocolate
- EU urges immediate halt to Israel-Hezbollah war
Lights still out in Cuba after Hurricane Rafael
Cubans on Thursday were assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Rafael which lashed the island and plunged it into darkness but caused no reported fatalities so far.
Rafael hit western Cuba on Wednesday as a major Category 3 hurricane and swept across the island in two and a half hours before losing intensity as it entered the Gulf of Mexico.
It came just two weeks after Hurricane Oscar, which left eight dead in the east of the island during a national electricity blackout that lasted four days.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that the provinces of Artemisa, Havana and Mayabeque were worst hit.
Writing on the social platform X, he said that authorities were working to restore power to the center and east of the island and were assessing the damage to infrastructure in the west "to start recovery (of power) there too."
In Havana, residents used brooms, shovels and buckets to clear branches, garbage, mud and pieces of cement from the streets.
The highway from the capital west to Artemisa was dotted with fallen electricity pylons and the streets of towns along the route were strewn with branches, tiles and pieces of concrete from damaged homes.
In the town of Candelaria, around 40 km from where Rafael made landfall, 49-year-old housewife Lidia was in despair.
"Now, the hurricane is leaving and we have another blackout, meaning we won't have water," she said standing outside her house. "What are we going to cook? What water are we going to drink?"
Cuba has been suffering hours-long power cuts for months -- a symbol of the island's worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, a key ally and financial backer, in the early 1990s.
The UN General Assembly last week renewed its long-standing call for the US to lift its six-decade trade embargo on the communist island.
H.Seidel--BTB