Dave Sherwood

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday, damaging buildings and sending ​thousands into the streets, but the country appeared to escape widespread destruction or deaths.

Cuban housewife Yuamilka Hechavarria was asleep last Tuesday when water rushed into the cistern of the crumbling tenement where she lives in old Havana.

Cuba's top trade ​official dismissed reports that companies linked to US President Donald Trump had come to Cuba this year to talk business, while calling ‌the US trade embargo the biggest impediment to the roll-out of historic free-market reforms.

Cuba's energy grid suffered ​a total collapse ‌on Friday, the energy ministry said ​in a ​post to social media, ⁠causing a nationwide ​blackout on the ​island of about 9 million people.

The U.S. embassy in Havana issued a health alert for Cuba on Friday, warning travelers and residents of a spike in ​intestinal illnesses and diarrhea caused by failing water and electricity supply, even ‌as the Trump administration continued to hold back fuel shipments necessary for power generation on the island.

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's Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro — the grandson of former Cuban leader Raul ​Castro — has said that he is open to negotiating with U.S. President ‌Donald Trump, according to an interview published by USA Today on Monday.

Cuba began to slowly restore power on Monday after the country's national electric ​grid collapsed earlier in the day, the latest blow to an island already suffering ‌from severe energy, fuel and medicine shortages.

Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved sweeping reforms backed by the Communist ​Party and former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of the country's socialist economy in a bid to survive punishing U.S. sanctions.

Cuba`s prime minister on Thursday ​presented lawmakers with sweeping measures ‌backed by the Communist Party and former leader ​Raul Castro that would ​privatize a vast swath ⁠of its socialist economy ​in a bid ​to survive punishing U.S. sanctions.