Liputra's Trends

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba convicted six people of cutting down African mahogany trees in the National Botanical Gardens and sentenced them to eight and 10 years in prison, Communist Party newspaper Granma said Friday. The men felled nine trees on two occasions in December and harvested a total of $122 worth of wood, according to the court sentencing printed alongside the article. Mahogany sells for considerably more than that elsewhere, listing for $10 to $15 per board-foot on some U.S. websites. Angela Leiva, the director of the reserve, told Granma that the 30- to 40-year-old trees were important to the ecology of the gardens and their loss cannot be repaired in the short or medium term....