EU to conditionally lift Cuba sanctions; U.S is critical
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The European Union agreed Thursday to lift its diplomatic sanctions against Cuba but imposed tough conditions on the communist nation.
The move follows the stepping down of ailing President Fidel Castro on the communist island.
But the United States, which has maintained a decades-long trade embargo against Cuba, criticized the move, saying there were no significant signs that a dictatorship on the island was easing.
The Associated Press story says that the the diplomatic sanctions, which banned high-level visits to EU nations by Cuban officials, have not been in force since 2005, and that the move is largely symbolic.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City