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WORLD NEWS Friday 17 January 2025
Cuba starts freeing prisoners a day after

the U.S. said it would lift terror designation

ends on Jan. 20, officials said.
Hours later, the Cuban for-
eign ministry said the govern-
ment informed Pope Francis
it would gradually release
553 convicts as authorities
explore legal and humanitar-
ian ways to make it happen.
Havana did not link the pris-
oners’ release to the U.S. de-
cision on lifting the designa-
tion but said it was “in the
spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee
of the year 2025 declared
by His Holiness,” referring to
Cuban and American flags fly in the wind outside the American the Vatican’s once-every-25-
embassy in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Jan.14, 2025. year tradition of a Jubilee, in
Associated Press which the Catholic faithful
By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ Among those freed was tat- make pilgrimages to Rome.
Associated Press tooist Reyna Yacnara Barreto Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba start- Batista, 24, who was de- Rodríguez did not mention
ed releasing some prisoners tained in the 2021 protests the release on Wednesday
Wednesday as part of talks and convicted to four years consistent with his stance the
with the Vatican, a day af- in prison for attacks and pub- day before, indicating they
ter President Joe Biden’s ad- lic disorder. were separate issues but
ministration announced his She was released from a mentioned removing Cuba
intent to lift the U.S. designa- prison in the province of from the list of states sponsors
tion of the island nation as Camagüey, and told The of terrorism.
a state sponsor of terrorism. Associated Press that eight “You can reverse a coun-
More than a dozen people men were also freed along try’s status on that list, but
who were convicted of dif- with her. the tremendous damage
ferent crimes and some of On Tuesday, the U.S. govern- to U.S. foreign policy cannot
them were arrested after ment said it notified Congress be undone,” he told the AP.
taking part in the historic about the intent to lift the “It has been proven that this
2021 protests were released designation of Cuba as part list is not a tool or instrument
during the day, according to of a deal facilitated by the in the fight against terrorism,
Cuban civil groups following Vatican. Cuban authorities but rather a brutal and mere
the cases of detainees on would release some of them tool of political coercion
the island. before Biden’s administration against sovereign states.”q

American accused of assaulting a Pennsylvania

student is being extradited from France to the US

By NICOLAS VAUX-MON-
TAGNY, SYLVIE CORBET and
MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — French Appeal
Court prosecutors said an
American man accused of
sexually assaulting a Penn-
sylvania college student in
2013 and later sending her
a Facebook message that
said “So I raped you” was
being extradited Thursday
to the United States.
The Appeal Court prosecu-
tors’ office in Metz, in north-
eastern France, said Ian
Cleary was handed over This undated wanted poster, provided by the U.S. Marshals,
to U.S. authorities at Paris shows Ian Cleary, of Saratoga, Calif. U.S
Charles de Gaulle airport. Associated Press
Cleary, 31, of Saratoga, Cali- than a decade, said the when survivors persist with
fornia, was detained in April news gave her “renewed the help and support of fam-
in Metz after a three-year faith” in the justice system. ily, friends, advocates, and
search. “This arrest and extradition attorneys,” Keeler said in a
Former Gettysburg University give me renewed faith that, press release issued through
student Shannon Keeler, who after many years of waiting, her attorney.q
pursued the case for more the justice system can work,