Obama diary: The first 100 days
Barack Obama was elected on a message of change. Now he is in office, change is expected both in foreign and domestic policy. Here the BBC's team in Washington tracks developments in the first 100 days of the Obama presidency.
TUESDAY 10 MARCH - DAY 50
2200 EST Cuba policy review
Sarah Morris: It must be one of the longest trade embargoes in history. For more than half a century the US has held the Castro regime in Cuba at arm's length.
But now there are signs - very small ones - of a loosening up.
The Senate has just voted to approve two clauses of the Spending Bill, one which will allow Cuban-Americans to travel to their homeland every year instead of once every three years and another which will make it possible for a small, select group of US businesses to go to the island to market and sell agricultural and medical equipment.
President Obama and other administration members feel that after 50 years, and Fidel Castro's retirement, it's time to review US policy towards the Cuban government.
However, we're unlikely to see planeloads of US holidaymakers bound for sandy Cuban beaches and the urban delights of Havana anytime soon. Mr Obama has made it clear that the trade embargo should stay firmly in place without evidence of democratic reforms.
As for the new bits of legislation on the books tonight - they didn't go through without a fight.
Senators from states with large populations of anti-communist Cuban-Americans were less than happy. Two of them - New Jersey's Robert Menendez and Florida's Bill Nelson, both Democrats, only agreed to vote in favour (and thus ensure the legislation got passed) after receiving reassuring letters from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
----------------From BBC
