The United States on Friday issued regulations easing restrictions on US companies seeking to do business in Cuba and opening up travel in the latest action to weaken the trade embargo amid warming relations with the Castro brothers regime.
The former Chargé d'affaires at the Cuban Embassy in the United States, Jose Cabañas, on Thursday presented his diplomatic credentials as ambassador to U.S. President Barack Obama in a new step toward the normalization of bilateral relations.
The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday in a nod to concerns about a weak world economy, but left open the possibility of a modest policy tightening later this year. In what amounted to a tactical retreat, the US central bank said an array of global risks and other factors had convinced it to delay what would have been the first rate hike in nearly a decade.
Consumer prices in the United States fell in August as petrol prices dropped and a strong dollar curbed the cost of goods, the US Department of Labor has said. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) slipped 0.1% last month, the first decline since January. But in the 12 months to August, the CPI rose 0.2% after a similar gain in July.
US Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush has picked the UK's former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, as his choice for the face of the $10 bill. The former Florida governor made the surprise suggestion during a televised debate for the top Republicans vying for the presidential nomination.
As the Federal Reserve gets ready to debate its interest rate policy stance next week, a poll released Thursday finds a strong majority of US voters surveyed want central bankers to refrain from boosting short-term interest rates, and to instead concentrate on using monetary policy to further boost the job market.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump has bowed to pressure from the party establishment and signed a pledge not to run as an independent candidate in the November 2016 presidential election.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday is proposing a faster timetable for buying a new heavy icebreaker for the U.S. Arctic, where quickly melting sea ice has spurred more maritime traffic, and the United States has fallen far behind Russian resources.
Shares rise and oil prices jumped 9% after revised figures showed the US economy grew by far more than had been thought between April and June. The economy grew by an annualized rate of 3.7%, up from the first estimate of 2.3%. Growth of 0.6% in the first three months of the year was not revised.
The US has announced sanctions against four alleged members of Colombia's Farc rebel group, accusing them of drug trafficking and money laundering. The four men used a shop in Switzerland as a front for their activities, the US treasury department said. It says the Farc still use drugs to fund their “ruthless operation”.