Amnesty International yesterday urged US President Barack Obama to drop the “immoral” US embargo against Cuba, warning that millions were being denied proper healthcare and medicine.
The London-based rights organization issued the appeal days before an annual deadline for the US president to renew its decades-long embargo against Cuba under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
“This is the perfect opportunity for President Obama to distance himself from the failed policies of the past and to send a strong message to the US Congress on the need to end the embargo,” Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The group, which published a report yesterday on the economic impact of Washington’s embargo, said Cuba was unable to import medicines, medical equipment and related technologies from the US or any US company based abroad.
“The US embargo against Cuba is immoral and should be lifted. It’s preventing millions of Cubans from benefiting from vital medicines and medical equipment essential for their health,” Khan said.
“Products patented in the USA or containing more than 20 percent US-manufactured parts or components cannot be exported to Cuba, even if they are produced in third countries,” she said.
The US requires that Cuba make progress on democracy before ending the economic embargo on its neighbor, which has been in place since 1962.
Obama has said he would be prepared to make changes in US-Cuban relations and so far has allowed Cuban-Americans to travel home more often and ended limits on the amount of money they send home.
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for