Cuba says U.S. hunger striker’s treatment in prison ‘dignified’

By Daniel Trotta HAVANA (Reuters) – A U.S. contractor who has launched a hunger strike while serving a long prison term in Cuba is receiving "dignified and decent treatment" in a hospital ward where he is in stable health, a Cuban official said on Wednesday. Cuba's communist government said it was concerned by a statement from Alan Gross's lawyer on Tuesday that said his client had begun a hunger strike last week to protest his treatment by both the Cuban and U.S. governments. Gross, 64, is serving a 15-year prison term for trying to start an illegal Internet service for Cuban Jews while working as a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).