Cuba announced plans for the release of political prisoners last week. Observers debate whether the prisoner release represents significant change for Cuba and how the United States will respond.

President Bashar al-Assad traveled to Latin America to encourage investment at home while boosting Syria’s profile abroad.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico drew help from Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Meanwhile, fears about the oil spreading into the Caribbean have prompted a quiet dialogue between the United States and Cuba.

Following a rare meeting between Cuban President Raúl Castro and Roman Catholic Church leaders, reports revealed that the Cuban government agreed to transfer political prisoners to jails closer to their hometowns and to move sick prisoners to hospitals.

Even by Raúl Castro's admission, worker productivity under Cuba's repressive labor system is abysmal.

An AS/COA panel moved the Cuba-policy conversation beyond talk on the embargo, looking into the actual conditions and potential for reform inside different sectors. Read a summary.

With the recent death of a Cuban hunger striker and harassment of the Ladies in White dissident group in Havana, U.S. President Barack Obama criticized human rights conditions on the island. His March 24 statement came ahead of a large Miami-based rally supporting dissidents.