US judge awards massive damages against Cuba

A United States judge has ordered Cuba to pay more than a hundred and eighty million dollars in damages to the families of three Cuban-Americans whose light aircraft were shot down by the Cuban airforce last year.

The case was the first to be heard in the United States under a law allowing US citizens to sue foreign countries for allegedly terrorist actions.

An international inquiry ruled the planes were shot down in international airspace.

Cuba refused to recognise the authority of the court, and says it will ignore the outcome.

Any payment to the families would come from Cuban assets frozen in the United States.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service