MIAMI: A bipartisan group of US Senators has sent a letter to Cuban President Raul Castro urging the release of an American contractor jailed in Cuba for nearly three years, saying his detention is “a major obstacle” to improving relations.
The letter, signed by 44 senators, is the strongest appeal yet by members of Congress in the case of Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year sentence for illegally setting up Internet networks in Cuba. In the letter, the senators urge Cuba to release Gross, 63, on humanitarian grounds, saying he has lost 105 pounds (47.63 kg) since his arrest and suffers from degenerative arthritis and an untreated mass behind his shoulder. “He also suffers from mental anguish because of separation from his family,” the letter states, noting that his daughter is being treated for breast cancer and his 90-year-old mother has also been diagnosed with inoperable cancer.
Canadian hospitalised with new swine flu
OTTAWA: A Canadian man has been hospitalised in southwestern Ontario with a new variant of the swine flu virus that caused a 2009 pandemic, a public health official announced yesterday. The adult male patient became ill “after close contact with pigs,” Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Arlene King, said in a statement. He is being treated for the influenza virus, which rarely spreads from animals to humans or from humans to humans, and is being closely monitored at an undisclosed hospital, she said. No information was provided on the man’s condition.
20 miners trapped by fire in Canadian mine
OTTAWA: A fire at a potash mine in Canada’s western Saskatchewan province yesterday trapped 20 miners underground, the company said. Potash Corporation official Dale Stangeland said the miners took refuge at an emergency station in the mine, and are not in any immediate danger as crews battle the fire. The mine is about 200km from the provincial capital Regina.Agencies
