Cuba criticizes Microsoft blocking Messenger

HAVANA: Cuba criticized Microsoft on Friday for blocking its Messenger instant messaging service on the island and in other countries under U.S. sanctions, calling it yet another example of Washington's ``harsh'' treatment of Havana.The technology giant recently announced it was disabling the program's availability in Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea to come into compliance with a U.S. ban on transfer of licensed software to embargoed countries.The move ``is just the latest turn of the screw in the United States' technological blockade against the island,'' a technology writer said in an article published by state youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde.