Tampa donations build Cuba church

Tampa donations build Cuba church
Times wires
Monday, October 27, 2014 9:17pm

Cuba has allowed construction of the country's first new Catholic church
in 55 years, the church said Monday. Experts said it's a sign of
improving relations between the Vatican and Cuba's communist government.
The church, funded by donations from Catholics in Tampa, will be built
in Sandino, a citrus and coffee-growing town in the far-western province
of Pinar del Rio. The church publication Christian Life said it will
have space for 200 people. "The construction of a church is a clear
demonstration of a new phase, of an improvement, in relations between
the church and the state," said Enrique Lopez Oliva, a professor the
history of religions at the University of Havana.

A delivery mission to the International Space Station was called off
Monday after a sailboat got too close. Orbital Sciences Corp. got to
within the 10-minute mark for the launch of its unmanned Cygnus capsule
from Wallops Island, Va. But a sailboat ended up in the restricted
danger zone, and controllers halted the countdown. The company will try
again this evening. The capsule holds 5,000 pounds of cargo for NASA.

South African state prosecutors said Monday that they planned to appeal
the conviction and sentence handed down to track star Oscar Pistorius
after a seven-month trial that ended last week in ferocious debate over
the magnitude of his punishment. In a post on Twitter, Nathi Mncube, a
spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, said the organization
"will be appealing both the conviction and sentence." Pistorius, 27, was
sentenced to a five-year prison term for culpable homicide, equivalent
to manslaughter, in the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29,
on Feb. 14, 2013. Under the terms of the sentence, he may be released
into house arrest after 10 months.

A portion of a Columbian mammoth skull and tusks have been uncovered in
southeastern Idaho, and experts say a rare entire skeleton might be
buried there. Experts estimate the mammoth was about 16 years old and
lived 70,000 to 120,000 years ago in what was a savanna-like country
populated with large plant-eaters and predators.

Source: Tampa donations build Cuba church | Tampa Bay Times -
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