In brief: Cuba may receive first summit invite

PANAMA CITY – A senior State Department official said Wednesday the U.S. is prepared to welcome Cuba for the first time to a regionwide summit but wants heads of state to focus attention on the communist government’s human rights record.

At the urging of Latin American leaders, host country Panama plans to invite Cuban President Raul Castro to the Summit of the Americas in April. Cuba was excluded from six previous summits because Washington said it didn’t meet the region’s standards for democracy. U.S. lawmakers, led by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, are urging Panama to reconsider its invitation this time around.

President Barack Obama is expected to attend the summit.

Hurricane season tamest since ’83

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – This year’s Atlantic hurricane season is shaping up to be one of the weakest in decades, with only five named storms in the region so far.

That is the fewest named storms since the full Atlantic season of 1983, when there were four. The 1994 season also had only five named storms into October, then two hurricanes formed in early November of that year.

Forecasters have projected another two named Atlantic storms for the rest of this year’s season that ends Nov. 30. But there are no signs of any new ones spinning off Africa’s west coast during what is usually the season’s peak period – mid-August to late October.

A typical June-November hurricane season has 12 named storms, nine of them hurricanes and three of those major.

Of the five named storms so far this year, four grew into hurricanes, one of them major. That one, Hurricane Edouard, was in mid-September.