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| Yoko Ono celebrates John Lennon's 70th Yoko Ono and her son Sean Ono Lennon sing ''happy birthday'' on what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. bbc.co.uk |
Serbia holds 19 football suspects Serbia arrests 19 football fans suspected of causing trouble at this week's abandoned Euro 2012 qualifier with Italy. bbc.co.uk |
Time for the Cuban travel ban to go | Stephen Wilkinson The US has stalled over moves to end the nonsensical travel ban on Cuba. But with reform afoot in Havana, the time is ripeOf all the misguided policies that the US has towards Cuba, perhaps the most nonsensical, counterproductive and downright hypocritical is the travel ban. Cuba is the only country in the world that Americans cannot visit. Under the current restrictions, brought in by George W Bush, only Cuban-Americans and, through a complex licensing regime, a few businessmen, journalists, students and academics can travel to Cuba. Because tourism is not allowed, 99% of their compatriots just can't go. Quite why the citizens of what is supposed to be the bastion of freedom should be not be free to travel wherever they choose is a question that not even the supreme court has adequately addressed. It's a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and makes the US call for human rights in Cuba ring very hollow. The US is the only nation in the world with a Cuba travel ban. If it believes it appropriate to ban Americans from visiting nations that have a deplorable human rights record then why doesn't the US declare dozens of other countries off limits? Americans are free to visit China and Saudi Arabia, as well as Iran, Syria and North Korea – so why not Cuba?According to opinion polls, most Americans and, indeed, even Cuban-Americans are now in favour of ending the travel ban and the overwhelming majority of Cubans I have known – of all political stripes, including dissidents – have wanted the US travel ban ended, too.So you'd think it a no-brainer. But you'd be wrong.As this summer opened, it looked as though the United States was going to have a new policy. Two bills were making steady progress through congress, either of which would effectively remove the ban on US tourists from visiting Cuba. In addition, it was widely rumoured that the White House was, in any case, preparing to relax the licensing restrictions on non-tourist travel and allow more academics, journalists, religious groups and businessmen to visit the island. The Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers the ban, was instructed to draw up new regulations and it was widely leaked to the press in August that Obama was about to make an announcement that would return the situation to that which pertained at the time of the Clinton presidency.But then, as the midterm elections approached, both these initiatives were stalled through the vehement opposition of the strongly anti-Castro US Senator Robert Menendez and a group of other leading Democrats who were nervous that any change in the policy would damage their re-election prospects. Sources in Washington have told me that, in September, Menendez visited Obama and made a deal – that he should wait until after the elections to announce the change.If that is true, he shouldn't wait any longer. As soon as the elections are over, the White House should take the opportunity to ease the ban. The move is long overdue: 18 months ago, when he relaxed the restrictions on Cuba-Americans visiting their families, Barack Obama said he could not do any more to ease the embargo until Cuba made improvements in human rights and moved towards a free-market system. Since then, Raúl Castro has agreed to release some 56 political prisoners and has started a reform process that will create an internal market in goods and services, in which an estimated half million self-employed entrepreneurs will eventually participate. President Obama should now reciprocate and keep his side of the bargain. Removing the travel ban is by far the easiest and least controversial thing he could do. For Americans and for Cuba, it's time to go.CubaUnited StatesObama administrationUnited StatesUS CongressUS supreme courtStephen Wilkinsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Panama's President: Trying on a Strongman Role? Critics complain that Ricardo Martinelli's autocratic streak is getting in the way of democracy and government feedproxy.google.com |
Sticks and Stones: The Top 5 Cablegate Insults The latest WikiLeaks dump includes a quarter million state department documents and almost as many diplo-disses feedproxy.google.com |