US pastor's ashes to be be laid to rest in Cuba

A Cuban official says the ashes of a U.S. pastor who led annual pilgrimages of aid volunteers in defiance of Washington's decades-old trade embargo will be taken to the island in accordance with his wishes.

Kenia Serrano is president of the Cuban Friendship Institute. Serrano says the Rev. Lucius Walker's ashes will be placed in their final resting spot in a Havana park July 30.

Walker headed the nonprofit Pastors for Peace. He led 21 relief trips to Cuba since 1992, bringing everything from walkers and wheelchairs to computer monitors and clothing.

He died of a heart attack in New York last September at the age of 80.

Serrano's comments appeared Friday on Cuban state-run Web portal Cubadebate and in other official media.