Cuba

The Rolling Stones unleashed two hours of shrieking, thundering rock and roll on an ecstatic crowd of hundreds of thousands of Cubans and foreign visitors Friday night, capping one of the most momentous weeks in modern Cuban history with a massive celebration of music that was once forbidden here.

Thousands of jubilant Cubans and tourists swarmed the site of the Rolling Stones' free concert in Havana on Friday, calling it an historic moment for a country that once forced rock fans to listen to their favorite music behind closed doors.

Friday night's concert will come three days after President Barack Obama wrapped up a visit to the communist-run island during which he declared an end to the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas.

Obama: Time to bury 'last remnants' of Cold War in Americas

Obama issued a presidential memorandum and separate action plan Monday that sets forth a series of goals for the federal government. They include sharing more information about drought risks with state, regional, tribal and local authorities, and improving coordination of federal drought-related activities.

Brushing past profound differences, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro will sit down Monday at Havana's Palace of the Revolution for a historic meeting, offering critical clues about whether Obama's sharp U-turn in policy will be fully reciprocated.

It's a historic milestone for U.S.-Cuban relations as President Barack Obama leaves today for the first presidential visit to the island nation in nearly 90 years.

The United States is removing Cuba from its list of countries deemed to have insufficient security in their ports, eliminating a major impediment to free flow of ships in the Florida Straits. The move marks one more step toward normalized relations ahead of President Barack Obama's historic trip to Cuba.

Cuban officials announced Tuesday night that they have detected the first case of the Zika virus transmitted inside the country, ending Cuba's status as one of the last nations in the hemisphere without domestic cases of the disease that has been linked to birth defects.

President Barack Obama alone will decide whom to meet with when he lands in Cuba on a history-making trip later this month, the White House said Friday as it sought to dispel any notion that Cuban officials would have a hand in choreographing the president's activities on the island.