Massive explosion damages hotel in Cuban capital, 8 deaths reported

HAVANA: A powerful explosion badly damaged a hotel in the Cuban capital on Friday and officials reported at least eight people had died.

The blast that ripped away large sections of the outer wall at the Hotel Saratoga, a 19th-century structure in Old Havana, apparently was due to a gas leak, according to the Twitter account of the office of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who went to the site.