The seductive port of Havana is an unlikely accident of geography and history, a rum-tinged cocktail of Caribbean exotica, colonial Spanish elegance and Cold War-era politics. Through its years of post-revolution isolation it has evolved differently from the rest of the world, so that Havana feels like it belongs to some parallel universe. In a homogenized world of 'McCities' subject to the same trans-national fads and fashions, Havana is defiantly unglobalized and proud to play by its own rules. Parts ...

Nearly 7,000 Mexican soldiers and federal police arrived in the U.S.-Mexico border city of Ciudad Juarez this week to restore security to a city plagued by a long-standing, bloody drug war. Random vehicle checkpoints, patrols of masked soldiers and police in SWAT gear are some of the signs of the massive military buildup ordered by Mexico's president, Ciudad Juarez police spokesman Jaime Torres Valadez said Thursday. Another 1,500 soldiers are expected to join the 3,500 that rolled into Juarez earlier ...

At a time when the U.S. Postal Service says it is experiencing a financial crisis, it purchased a $1.2 million home from an employee so he could relocate, a CNN investigation has found. Postal Service spokesman Greg Frey said the home will be resold, as others have been. "It's not like we threw away a million dollars," Frey told CNN. "We are hoping it's going to go for the appraised value." But a real estate agent in the area said ...

With its energy-gobbling casinos, Atlantic City, New Jersey, isn't exactly known as a city that conserves electricity. Its motto: "Always turned on." This oceanside gambling mecca seems an unlikely place for a pioneering solar energy project. But at a ceremony scheduled for Thursday, city and state officials were to commemorate the city's convention center, newly powered in part by the largest single-roof solar-panel array in the United States. The 13,321 photovoltaic panels will produce an average of 26 percent ...

A prison riot Wednesday in the troubled Mexican border town of Juarez left 20 dead and 15 wounded, an official said. None of the dead were police or military officials, said Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the joint operation at the Cereso Estatal de Ciudad Juarez prison. Authorities called in 200 federal police agents and 50 army soldiers to help put down the riot; two helicopters and an airplane also were employed, he said. The uprising occurred among members of ...

Two people remained missing in the rubble of an archive building that collapsed in Cologne's city center, a spokesman for the city's fire department said Wednesday. The two missing men were in a residential building next to the archive building when it collapsed Tuesday afternoon. The building they were in was heavily damaged by a second building that collapsed, spokesman Stefan Besslich said. One person in that adjacent building was injured, he said. Authorities haven't yet determined what brought down ...

Rescuers in Germany reduced the number of people they were searching for in a building collapse from nine to two, a fire department spokesman said late Tuesday. Seven people who earlier had been reported missing contacted authorities to say they were safe, the spokesman explained. The two remaining victims are men missing from a residential building heavily damaged when another building collapsed, said the spokesman. The spokesman said it was too dangerous to enter the residential building and that the ...

Hundreds of German rescue workers are searching the ruins of a collapsed building in Cologne for nine people who may be trapped beneath the rubble. The collapse of the city's historic archive damaged two other buildings, according to Carlo Schlender, a reporter for German TV station RTL, a CNN affiliate. Firefighters were using dogs to help search the rubble, and police said heavy-lifting equipment was on the way, CNN's Ben Brumfield reported from the scene. Rescuers do not know if ...

Police in Lahore have launched an intensive search for at least 12 gunmen believed to be responsible for Tuesday's deadly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team which left six security personnel dead and eight players hurt -- including two with gunshot wounds. The Sri Lankan players were traveling by bus to the city's Gaddafi Stadium for the third day of the second test match against Pakistan at around 9 a.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) when the attack occurred. ...

Israel will hit back at Palestinian-controlled Gaza with a "sharp, painful and strong response" if rocket attacks do not stop, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday. Rocket fire from Gaza, which is run by the militant Hamas movement, was the main reason cited for Israel's three-week assault on the territory in December and January. The air and land campaign left about 1,300 Palestinians dead. Thirteen Israelis died. But rocket attacks into Israel continue. Over the weekend Palestinians ...