Cuba lifts ban on energy-hogging appliances

Latin American News Photos

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2012 file photo, a man transports a new Chinese made refrigerator in the trunk of a old car in Havana, Cuba. Cuba has authorized individual imports of appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators and microwave ovens, lifting a ban imposed in 2005 amid a wave of energy shortages and blackouts. Islanders can now bring up to two such appliances per person into the country for noncommercial purposes, according to a law enacted with its publication Monday, May 20, 2013 in the Official Gazette. The list of approved items includes air conditioners with a capacity of less than 1 ton, ovens that consume less than 1,500 watts and microwaves under 2,000 watts. It also covers things including water heaters, toasters and irons. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes, File)

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Cuba lifts ban o... FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2012 file photo, a man transports a new Chinese made refrigerator in the trunk of a old car in Havana, Cuba. Cuba has authorized individual imports of appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators and microwave ovens, lifting a ban imposed in 2005 amid a wave of energy shortages and blackouts. Islanders can now bring up to two such appliances per person into the country for noncommercial purposes, according to a law enacted with its publication Monday, May 20, 2013 in the Official Gazette. The list of approved items includes air conditioners with a capacity of less than 1 ton, ovens that consume less than 1,500 watts and microwaves under 2,000 watts. It also covers things including water heaters, toasters and irons. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes, File)
Jailed Rios Mont... La foto del viernes 10 de mayo de 2013 muestra al ex dictador guatemalteco Efraín Ríos Montt en un tribunal antes de que entre el juez para anunciar el veredicto de su juicio por genocidio en ciudad de Guatemala. La corte encontró culpable a Ríos Montt por cargos de genocidio y crímenes contra la humanidad, y le impuso una sentencia de 80 años de prisión. El ex general de 86 años es el primer ex líder latinoamericano en la historia hallado culpable de semejante cargo. La guerra entre las fuerzas del gobierno y la guerrilla de izquierda dejó más de 200.000 muertos y terminó con la firma de acuerdos de paz en 1996 (AP Foto/Moisés Castillo).
Now Venezuela is... A woman who just bought toilet paper at a grocery store reads her receipt as she leaves the private store in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities _ toilet paper. Economists say Venezuela's shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Ex-Arg. dictator... FILE - In this June 1978 file photo, Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla talks to journalists at the Buenos Aires Government Palace, in Argentina. The former Argentine dictator died of natural causes Friday, May 17, 2013, while serving life sentences at the Marcos Paz prison for crimes against humanity. Videla took power in a 1976 coup and led a military junta that killed thousands of his fellow citizens in a dirty war to eliminate "subversives." He was 87. (AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia, File)
Argentine dictat... Banners with names of some of 22 townspeople who disappeared during the Argentine dictatorship hang from an entrance to the municipal cemetery in Mercedes, Argentina Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Residents of Mercedes, the hometown of the Argentine dictator Jorge Videla, are upset at the prospect that he may be buried there. Authorities said Wednesday that his family has yet to arrange his burial in the municipal cemetery in Mercedes, where the Videlas have two family crypts. But even the prospect of receiving his remains is upsetting people in this town, where they've put up banners outside the cemetery's two entrances honoring the 22 townspeople who were kidnapped by the dictatorship's death squads and never seen again. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Bolivia's challe... In this April 12, 2013 photo, Paneton pastries made by Ebococa sit in the factory in Villa Tunari, Bolivia. Urged on by President Evo Morales, Bolivians had been trying to turn coca leaf, the base ingredient of cocaine, into popular treats ranging from candies to pastries. Yet as coca processing factories were built and products were marketed, a stubborn problem kept getting in the way of Morales' grand plan: Most people, including many Bolivians, just don't like eating coca food. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Venezuela parlia... Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during the departure of Simon Bolivar's school sailing ship at the naval dock in La Guaira Venezuela, Monday, May 20, 2013. The ship with 175 people on board starts his twenty-fifth cruise abroad instruction. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Protesters hurl ... Drenched protestors run from a water cannon near the Chilean Congress where President Sebastian Pinera delivered his final state of the nation address, in Valparaiso, Chile, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. Thousands gathered to protest against Pinera's public policy on education, work and health. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)
Mexico cartel do... In this May 20, 2013 photo, a masked and armed man belonging to a local self-defense group stands guard in the town of Cuemalco, Mexico. Self-defense groups started to spring up in February to fight back the Knights Templar drug cartel which is extorting protection payments from cattlemen and lime growers, butchers and even marijuana growers. The federal government sees both the self-defense forces and the cartel as dangerous enemies. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)