Cuba will release 2,900 prisoners for humanitarian reasons in a sweeping amnesty, ahead of a visit next spring by Pope Benedict XVI. Those to be pardoned do not include American Alan Gross, serving 15 years in prison for setting up internet equipment on the island under a secretive US programme, in a case that stalled progress in US-Cuba relations.
The ruling Council of State granted the amnesty in a decision that President Raul Castro, in a separate speech to the National Assembly, said had "taken into account" the upcoming papal visit and requests by, among others, top Roman Catholic Church officials in Cuba and family members of the prisoners.
