- Bayern hit nine, Real Madrid and Liverpool win as new Champions League kicks off
- Author John Grisham joins bid to save Texas death row inmate
- Venezuela arrests fourth American over alleged 'plot' against Maduro
- 'Happy' Mbappe strikes on Madrid Champions League debut win over Stuttgart
- Man Utd hit Barnsley for seven in League Cup rout
- Dolphins quarterback Tagovailoa facing concussion layoff
- Stylish Liverpool strut past Milan in confident Champions league opener
- Kane scores four as Bayern put nine past Zagreb in the Champions League
- Mbappe strikes on Madrid Champions League debut win over Stuttgart
- More than 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
- Harris calls Trump as assassination scare sparks tensions
- Dow edges down from record as some eye a smaller Fed rate cut
- Sommer vows Inter will 'defend with all we have' to stop Haaland
- Report links meatpacking companies to 'war on nature' in Brazil
- Bolivian ex-leader Morales, backers set out on weeklong protest march
- Smith grateful to McCullum for launching his England career
- Arizona to ask court to rule on voting rights
- Villa make perfect start on Champions League return after 41-year absence
- Israeli supply chain infiltration likely behind Hezbollah pager blasts: analysts
- Rodgers backs Celtic to be 'really competitive' in Champions League
- Spacewalk an 'emotional experience' for private astronauts
- Storm Boris toll rises to 22 in central Europe
- Nine dead, 2,800 wounded as Lebanon's Hezbollah hit by pager blasts
- Boeing, union resume talks as strike empties Seattle plants
- Over 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
- Australia's Zampa accepts Ashes chances remote as 100th ODI looms
- UN General Assembly debates call for end to Israeli occupation
- Marseille complete signing of French international Rabiot
- Easterby to fill in as Ireland coach while Farrell is with the Lions
- Hezbollah in Lebanon hit by wave of deadly pager blasts
- Postecoglou taken aback by criticism of his second season success claim
- US, European stocks rise on retail sales, rate cut expectations
- Fendi sees Roaring 20s at Milan Fashion Week in challenging times
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr part ways with coach Castro
- Scottish government backs Glasgow to stage troubled 2026 Commonwealth Games
- Storm Boris toll rises to 21 in central Europe
- Instagram, under pressure, tightens protection for teens
- Inflation slows again in Canada to 2%
- US, European stocks rise on eve of Fed rate decision
- EU bans Algerian spread toasted on social media
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs charged with racketeering, sex trafficking
- Trump returns to campaign trail after assassination scare
- Activist urges repatriation of Native Americans dead in Paris 'human zoo'
- US retail sales see slight rise, beating expectations
- US Fed begins two-day meeting set to end with rate cut
- Exploding Hezbollah pagers wound hundreds across Lebanon
- Runners-up Yokohama thrashed 7-3 in AFC Champions League goal fest
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs to plead not guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking
- Jihadist group claims rare attack on Mali capital
- 'I am a rapist,' Frenchman tells trial over mass rape of wife
Hurricane Ian leaves Cuba without power, takes aim at Florida
Powerful Hurricane Ian left a trail of destruction and caused a widespread blackout in Cuba on Tuesday, while Florida residents braced for a direct hit from the "extremely dangerous" storm that is already pummeling the US state with high winds.
Ian hit Cuba's western regions for more than five hours early Tuesday morning, before moving out over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Insmet meteorological institute said.
The storm damaged Cuba's power network and plunged the island into darkness, leaving it "without electrical service," state electricity company Union Electrica said on Twitter.
Only the few people with gasoline-powered generators had access to electricity on the island of more than 11 million people. Others had to make do with flashlights or candles at home, and lit their way with cell phones as they walked the streets.
In the western city of Pinar del Rio, AFP footage showed downed power lines, flooded streets and a scattering of damaged rooftops.
"Desolation and destruction. These are terrifying hours. Nothing is left here," a 70-year-old resident of the city was quoted as saying in a social media post by his journalist son, Lazaro Manuel Alonso.
About 40,000 people were evacuated across Pinar del Rio province, which bore the brunt of the storm, local authorities said.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said it expects Ian to gain strength before hitting the west coast of Florida on Wednesday as an "extremely dangerous" major hurricane.
Calls to heed evacuation warnings were echoed from local Florida officials on up to US President Joe Biden, who said Ian "could be a very severe hurricane, life-threatening and devastating in its impact."
In its latest bulletin, the NHC said to be prepared for "life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding" in the Florida peninsula.
Tropical-storm-force winds are already battering the Florida Keys, the chain of islands off the southern tip of the state's mainland, the NHC said.
- 'Apocalyptic' -
In Cuba, authorities are just beginning to assess the damage, but residents described "destruction" and posted images on social media of flooded streets and felled trees.
At the time of impact, the NHC reported Ian's maximum wind speeds at 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour, making it a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Wind speeds have since dropped slightly to 120 miles per hour.
No deaths or injuries have yet been reported.
In Consolacion del Sur, southwest of Havana, Caridad Fernandez, 65, said her roof was seriously damaged and water came through her front door.
"Everything we have is damaged," she said. "But we'll get through this, we'll just keep moving forwards."
In San Juan y Martinez, a growing hub for Cuba's vital cigar industry, "it was apocalyptic, a real disaster," Hirochi Robaina, from the Robaina tobacco plantation, said on Facebook.
- 'Life and death' -
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said 2.5 million people were under evacuation orders as officials scrambled to prepare for the storm's landfall.
DeSantis warned that although Ian's exact path was still uncertain "the impacts will be far far broader."
"When you have five to ten feet (1.5 to 3 meters) of storm surge that is not something that you want to be a part of. Mother Nature is a very fearsome adversary," DeSantis said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden spoke with DeSantis -- a potential 2024 election challenger -- on Tuesday evening to discuss preparations for the storm.
The NHC warned that "widespread catastrophic flash, urban, and river flooding is expected across central and west Florida beginning midweek."
Thirty-year-old Chelsea Thompson, who was helping her parents board up their home in a mandatory evacuation zone southwest of Tampa, said that "the closer it gets, obviously with the unknown, your anxiety gets a little higher."
The Pentagon said 3,200 national guardsmen had been called up in Florida, with an additional 1,800 coming later.
Authorities in several municipalities, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, were distributing free sandbags to help residents protect their homes from flooding.
And Tampa International Airport suspended operations from Tuesday at 5:00 pm (2100 GMT).
Biden has preemptively approved emergency aid in Florida through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), while even NASA on the state's east coast took precautions, rolling back its massive Moon rocket into a storage hanger for protection.
Like DeSantis, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell highlighted the danger of storm surge, saying it was the agency's "biggest concern."
"If people are told to evacuate by their local officials, please listen to them. The decision you choose to make may be the difference between life and death," she said.
Half a million residents in the US territory of Puerto Rico were still without power, according to a tracking website.
O.Karlsson--AMWN