Cuba Makes New Overture to Obama

HAVANA TIMES, Dec. 16.— Cuba’s President Raul Castro repeated Monday his willingness to hold talks with US President-elect Barack Obama to try and improve US-Cuban relations. The Cuban leader had made an initial overture in an interview by Sean Penn shortly before Obama was elected. Numerous US business groups are calling for a new Congress and administration to drop the travel ban on US citizens wanting to visit Cuba and to allow for normalized trade between the two neighboring countries. Obama takes office on January 20, 2009.