THE long-standing enmity between Cubaand the us has taken a bizarre turn withCuba accusing the us government at theUN of waging a "biological attack"against it by introducing a plague of tiny,juice-sucking bugs that are now reportedly wreaking havoc on crops in threeof its provinces. In a statqment presentedrecently to Kofi Annan, the UN secretary,general, Cuba said a crop duster aircraftused by the us state department for antidrugs operations repeatedly released a"white or greyish cloud of unknownsubstances" while flying above its territory last October. This was followed bythe appearance of an insect pest knownas Thrips palmi Karay two months later:in the Matanzas province beneath the US,aircraft's route. The insect was notknown to have existed in Cuba beforethis incident. It has damaged potato,tomato and beans crops. A plant protection expert from the Food andAgriculture Organization visited Cubain April and confirmed the presence ofThrips but he could not ascertain the origins of the insect outbreak.