US, Cuban leaders in historic talks

AFPPanama CityUS President Barack Obama and Cuba’s Raul Castro held unprecedented face-to-face talks in Panama yesterday, ditching decades of Cold War-era antagonism. In the first substantive talks between leaders of both nations since 1956, Obama thanked Castro for his “spirit of openness”, while the communist leader stressed that the negotiations would require patience. The talks were the climax of their surprise announcement on December 17 that, after 18 months of secret negotiations, they would seek to normalise relations between their two nations.