Cuban baseball seeks assylum in Bahamas

The former Cuban baseball star, Orlando Hernandez, who defected earlier this week, is seeking assylum in the Bahamas rather than accepting an offer to go to the United States.

Mr Hernandez, who arrived in the Bahamas with his wife and a group of friends in a small boat, was given permission to enter the US on Wednesday.

But the Bahamian authorities said Mr Hernandez has now written to them seeking assylum.

Correspondents say Mr Hernandez could negotiatie a lucrative contract with any team in the US Baseball League almost immediately if he became a resident of a country outside the US.

Mr Hernandez, who's the brother of the Miami Merlins star player Livan Hernandez, had been banned from Cuban baseball last year accused of planning to defect

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service