It was not immediately clear what had happened, with spokeswoman Heather Nauert saying there were no “definitive answers about the source or cause”.

Reports suggest US diplomats could have suffered hearing loss related to the use of covert sonic devices.

Cuba’s foreign ministry said it was investigating the allegations.

It called the expulsion of its staff unjustified but said it was willing to co-operate with Washington to clarify what had happened.

“Cuba has never, nor would ever, allow the Cuban territory to be used for any kind of action against accredited diplomats or their families,” the ministry said.

The Associated Press reports the diplomats’ hearing loss could have been linked to sonic devices which emit inaudible sound waves that can cause deafness.

US officials, speaking to the agency anonymously, said investigations had determined devices had been deployed either inside or outside diplomats’ homes.

Investigators are also considering the possibility that a third country, such as Russia, was behind the incidents, officials familiar with the inquiry told AP.

About five diplomats, including some spouses, had been affected, but no children were involved, US officials said.

Ms Nauert said staff began complaining of the strange symptoms late last year.

While they were not life-threatening, she revealed that a number of people had been brought home to the US as a result.

Ms Nauert said the government was taking it “very seriously, and there is an investigation currently under way”.

It is understood that the two expelled Cuban diplomats left Washington DC in May, the BBC’s Will Grant reports from Havana.

Cuba’s state security closely monitors US diplomats, many of whom live in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.

Washington and Havana only re-established ties in 2015, following 50 years of hostilities between the two countries.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio said the alleged incidents were just the latest examples of harassment toward US diplomats in Cuba.

“The Cuban government has been harassing US personnel working in Havana for decades,” he said.

“This has not stopped with President Obama’s appeasement.

“Personal harm to US officials shows the extent the Castro regime will go and clearly violates international norms.”

If true, the use of sonic devices to cause harm to diplomats would be unprecedented.

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Source: BBC

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However, it says it will still co-operate with its larger neighbour.

Speaking earlier in Miami, Florida, Mr Trump said he was reimposing certain travel and trade restrictions eased by the Obama administration, condemning a “completely one-sided deal”.

But he is not reversing key diplomatic and commercial ties.

“The government of Cuba denounces the new measures toughening the embargo,” Cuban state TV said.

But it also reiterated “its willingness to continue the respectful dialogue and cooperation”.

Barack Obama attempted to thaw relations by loosening trade and tourism bans.

President Trump says his new policy will tighten rules on travel and on sending funds to Cuba.

Announcing the changes on Friday, he cited human rights concerns, saying doing a deal with the “brutal” Castro government was “terrible” and “misguided”.

Later that night, Cuban state news was also talking tough.

“Any strategy aimed at changing the political, economic and social system in Cuba – whether by pressure or imposition or through more subtle means – is destined to fail,” it said.

However, President Trump is not rowing back on all parts of Obama’s deal.

He will not close the US embassy in Havana, commercial flights from the US will continue, and Americans will still be able to return home with Cuban goods.

What are Cubans in Miami saying?

“The embargo should continue. Why give credit to a country where the people don´t see a penny? They are still starving and there is no freedom whatsoever. Why should we keep feeding the people who are on top when they repress their own people.” Jose Nadal

“I am 100% Republican. I agree 150% with everything Trump says and does. They should impose more sanctions against Cuba. When Obama made the agreement and restored relations with the Cuban government, he gave them everything they asked for. We received nothing from the Cuban government. This is why Trump wants to strengthen the sanctions.” Cathy Henderson

“I am against the embargo. The Cuban tyranny uses the embargo as a pretext to justify that it has failed. Everything bad that happens in Cuba, they blame the embargo.” Santiago Portal

Courtesy of BBC Mundo

A history of the US trade embargo with Cuba

1959: Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro leads a guerrilla army into Havana overthrowing the Batista regime.

1960: In response to Castro’s communist reforms, US breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba and imposes a trade embargo.

1962: Castro agrees to allow the Soviet Union to deploy nuclear missiles on the island bringing the US and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war.

April 2009: President Barack Obama lifts restrictions on family travel and the sending of remittances to Cuba.

July 2015: The US and Cuba reopen embassies in each other’s capitals and restore full diplomatic ties.

March 2016: President Obama makes a three-day visit to Cuba and holds talks with President Raul Castro. He expresses hope the embargo will be ended, but it can only be lifted by the US Congress which is controlled by Republicans who oppose the move.

Aug 2016: US commercial flight arrives in Cuba for the first time in more than half a century.

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Source: BBC

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“The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening (03:29 GMT Saturday),” President Raul Castro said.

Fidel Castro ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost 50 years before Raul took over in 2008.

His supporters said he had given Cuba back to the people. But he was also accused of suppressing opposition.

Ashen and grave, President Castro told the nation in an unexpected late night broadcast on state television that Fidel Castro had died and would be cremated on Saturday.

There would now be several days of national mourning on the island.

Raul Castro ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: “Towards victory, always!”

Barring the occasional newspaper column, Fidel Castro had essentially been retired from political life for some time, the BBC’s Will Grant in Havana reports.

In April, Fidel Castro gave a rare speech on the final day of the country’s Communist Party congress.

He acknowledged his advanced age but said Cuban communist concepts were still valid and the Cuban people “will be victorious”.

“I’ll soon be 90,” the former president said, adding that this was “something I’d never imagined”.

“Soon I’ll be like all the others, “to all our turn must come,” Fidel Castro said.

Castro – who had survived many assassination plots – was the longest serving non-royal leader of the 20th Century.

Castro temporarily handed over power to his brother in 2006 as he was recovering from an acute intestinal ailment.

Raul Castro officially became president two years later.

Cuba’s revolutionary leader
Throughout the Cold War, Fidel Castro was Washington’s bete noire.

An accomplished tactician on the battlefield, he and his small army of guerrillas overthrew the military leader Fulgencio Batista in 1959 to widespread popular support.

Within two years of taking power, he declared the revolution to be Marxist-Leninist in nature and allied the island nation firmly to the Soviet Union.

Yet, despite the constant threat of a US invasion as well as the long-standing economic embargo on the island, Castro managed to maintain a communist revolution in a nation just 90 miles (145km) off the coast of Florida.

Despised by his critics as much as he was revered by his followers, he outlasted ten US presidents and defied scores of attempts on his life by the CIA.

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Source: BBC

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