New spin on Cuba embargo resolution

Cuba introduced a slight twist at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to its 17th annual resolution calling for an end to the American economic embargo. Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque linked the embargo to the American presidential campaign, noting that the embargo was older than Senator Barack Obama. Whoever is elected, Mr. Roque said, will have to decide either to admit that the embargo has discredited the United States or to persist in trying "to defeat the Cuban people through hunger and disease." The final vote against the embargo, habitually lopsided in the past, was 185 to 3, with 2 abstentions. Israel and Palau joined the United States in supporting the embargo, in place since John F. Kennedy was president. Mr. Obama has said he would ease the embargo under certain conditions, while Senator John McCain has insisted it needs to be maintained.