"The whole world should feel that this tragedy is its own," National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon said.
Heavy rainfall lashed western Cuba and downed power lines when Katrina swung across Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico, but the island escaped the devastation seen in the United States.
"The news pained and saddened Cubans. In their name, we wish to express our profound solidarity with the people of the United States, state and local authorities and the victims of this catastrophe," Alarcon added.
Castro, dressed in his trademark green military fatigues, stood with his head down for the minute of silence.
Alarcon said devastation in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama was the most costly natural disaster in the history of the United States, Communist Cuba's ideological enemy for four decades.
Poor, mainly black Americans were the hardest hit by Katrina in the number of deaths and homes lost, he said...."
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/01/cuba.katrina.reut/
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