Communist party's office attacked in Cuba over outages

HAVANA: Anti-govt protesters attacked a Communist party office in northern Cuba early on Saturday, a state-run newspaper said, in a rare outburst of dissent triggered by worsening blackouts, exacerbated by a US oil blockade.

A rally against power cuts and food shortages appeared to begin peacefully in the city of Moron late on Friday then turned violent in the early hours of Saturday morning, Invasor newspaper said. Videos on social media showed a large fire and people throwing rocks through the windows of a building as voices shouted "liberty" in the background. Reuters was unable to confirm the authenticity of videos that posters said showed unrest in Moron.

US President Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to slap tariffs on any country that sells Cuba oil, piling pressure on the economy already struggling with shortages of food, electricity and medicine. The Cuban govt said Friday it had begun talks with Washington to try to defuse the crisis. Reuters