President Barack Obama has announced that the US and Cuba will reopen their embassies in Havana and Washington, heralding a “new chapter” in relations.

Cuba has released all 53 prisoners it had promised to free, senior US officials have said, a major step toward détente with Washington.

Cuba has completed the release of 53 political prisoners that was part of last month’s historic deal between the United States and Cuba, the US said.

Bells tolled in celebration and teachers halted lessons as President Raul Castro told his country Cuba was restoring relations with the United States after more than 50 years of hostility.

President Barack Obama has spoken to Cuban President Raul Castro about normalising full diplomatic relations between the long time foes.

Rumours are growing about the health of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro after a Venezuelan doctor claimed the 86-year-old had suffered a massive stroke.

The Pope’s visit to Cuba is another milestone for a country still wary of religion but any change will come slowly, writes David Adams

Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba’s communist economic model does not work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.

Officials from the Cuban Roman Catholic Church today revealed the names of five more political prisoners who will be released into exile in the coming days under a landmark agreement with President Raul Castro’s government.

MINISTER for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said he is going to Cuba with “an open mind” and insists he will raise issues of human rights when he meets senior ministers of Raul Castro’s administration in Havana today.

Fidel Castro threw his first punch at President Barack Obama after several weeks of praise for the new leader, demanding the US return Guantanamo Bay military base to Cuba and criticising the US defence of Israel.

US president George Bush chastised the majority of the international community today for “a sad and curious pattern” of doing little to speak out against human rights and political abuses in Cuba.

Nearly 50 years of rule by Fidel Castro ended in Cuba tonight as parliament chose his brother Raul to replace him – a transition that leaves the island’s communist system unshaken.

The chief of the US military said the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison camp should be closed as soon as possible because negative publicity about the treatment of terror suspects had been “pretty damaging” to America’s image.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met for more than four hours with Fidel Castro and state media today published two new official photos of the men together, but provided no new details about the ailing Cuban leader’s health.

Alarmed tourists jammed Caribbean airports for flights out of Hurricane Dean’s path as the storm threatened to engulf Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in charge again after undergoing intestinal surgery, according to friend and ally Hugo Chavez.

FIDEL CASTRO’s call to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s radio talk show has fuelled expectations that he will recover enough to reappear in public.

Fidel Castro's surprise call to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's radio talk show has fuelled expectations that he could recover enough to reappear in public.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro – in his first live comments since falling ill more than six months ago – declared that he feels “more energetic” and his country is running smoothly without him at the helm.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s health has improved following a post-intestinal surgery period in which the ageing revolutionary icon temporarily stopped eating, Venezuela’s ambassador to Cuba said today.

Spanish authorities confirmed today that a leading surgeon who treats ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has flown to Havana to examine whether he should undergo more surgery.

A leading Spanish surgeon has flown to Havana to treat ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a Spanish newspaper reported today.

The ailing Fidel Castro made his first public appearance in more than a month, walking and ridiculing rumours of his death in a video aired on Cuban state television.

Communist officials have rallied hundreds in outdoor meetings to publicly declare their support for ailing leader Fidel Castro to reassure Cubans’ worried about their long-ruling leader.

DISSIDENTS in Cuba’s eastern provinces say the country’s military has beefed up its presence on the streets and is telling citizens they have permission to respond with force against anyone who speaks out against the Government.

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage sought to dispel growing speculation about Fidel Castro’s health, saying he does not have stomach cancer and is recuperating well after surgery that prompted him to step aside temporarily.

Fidel Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, rebuffed repeated US attempts to oust him and survived communism’s demise almost everywhere else, temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul last night because of surgery.

AILING Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in a new statement which was released yesterday that he has lost more than 41 pounds in about a month since undergoing intestinal surgery but he added the “most critical moment has been left behind”.

The European Parliament today urged EU member states to increase their pressure on Cuba to release all political prisoners.

A former Cuban citizen who says she was tortured with drugs and electricity as a political dissident filed a £5m (€7.3m) lawsuit against Cuban President Fidel Castro and others in his government in Tampa, Florida.

Fidel Castro today led hundreds of thousands of people past the American mission to demand the arrest of a Cuban militant who is living in Miami while Venezuela tries to extradite him for a deadly airliner bombing.

Bacardi Ltd, the world’s biggest rum maker, asked a Washington court to give it the right to sell Havana Club rum in the US, the latest step in a decade-long battle with the Cuban government and Pernod Ricard SA for control of the brand.

THE elation of the Americans and British at the capture of Saddam Hussein did not surprise me, and neither did the hypocrisy shown by the so-called coalition of the willing. I remember not so long ago American and British outrage at the appearance of US prisoners on Iraqi television.

US president George Bush was observing today what the United States considers Cuban independence day by meeting Cuban dissidents and former political prisoners at the White House.

The Cuban government was tonight threatening to storm a hijacked ferry to free hostages being held by armed men who tried to force the crew to sail it too Florida.

A Cuban boat was hijacked today and was drifting in international waters about 60 miles off Key West, Florida, the FBI said.

Sixteen Cubans who were travelling aboard a Cuban airliner that was hijacked over the island nation and diverted to Key West, Florida, have returned home.

Hurricane Isidore has buffeted Cuba’s small Isle of Youth with strong winds and drenching rains as it moved slowly on a steady track toward the western tip of the main island and the Gulf of Mexico.

The leader of a Cuban spy ring has been sentenced to life in prison for trying to infiltrate U.S. military bases.

A Pentagon intelligence analyst who attended war games conducted by the US Atlantic Command in 1996 was charged with spying for Cuba.

A migrant-smuggling boat on a night run from Cuba to the US capsized in rough seas, dumping more than two dozen people in the water, the US Coastguard said.