US, Cuba seek to normalize relations: sources

SHARE US, Cuba seek to normalize relations: sources
536239942_50846431_999x679.jpg

Supporters rally on behalf of imprisioned US citizen Alan Gross, calling for US President Barack Obama to help free Gross, who has been in a Cuban prison for 4 years, during a rally in Lafayette Park December 3, 2013, across the street from the White House, in Washington, DC. Cuba has freed Alan Gross -- a US contractor jailed on the communist-ruled island since 2009 -- on humanitarian grounds at the request of the United States, a US official said on December 16, 2014. | Paul J. Richards / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — American officials say the U.S. and Cuba will start talks to normalize full diplomatic relations as part of the most significant shift in U.S. policy toward the communist island in decades.

Officials say the U.S. is also looking to open an embassy in Havana in the coming months. The moves are part of an agreement between the U.S. and Cuba that also includes the release of American Alan Gross and three Cubans jailed in Florida for spying.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, said the agreement includes normalizing banking and trade ties with Cuba.

JULIE PACE, Associated Press

MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

The Latest
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”
That the Bears can just diesel their way in, Bronko Nagurski-style, and attempt to set a sweeping agenda for the future of one of the world’s most iconic water frontages is more than a bit troubling.