Obama, Castro hail new day for US-Cuba relations

US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro vowed in Havana to set aside their differences in pursuit of what the US President called a new day for the relationship between the neighbours. At a historic joint conference yesterday, Cuban President Raul Castro and President Barack Obama agreed to work together, despite wrangling over human rights. Mr Castro said, more needed to be done to lift the US embargo on trade with Cuba and that the Guantanamo Bay



detention camp must close. 

Trying to draw a line under past heavy handed US intervention in the island's affairs, Obama vowed that Cuba's destiny will not be decided by the United States or any other nation. But he insisted that Washington was not going to give up pressing for political freedoms in Cuba, where the Communist Party controls politics, the media and the economy. He said, the United States will continue to speak up on behalf of democracy.