We hope in the normalization process, the people of cuba will change cuba. In the words of raul castro, cuba agreed to nothing. Several senior i. S. I. L. Military leaders have been killed. Iraqi Kurdish Forces launched a major offensive. Therell be challenges down the road that require patients. The United States blame hackers working for north korea. This is something treated as a security matter. See people inhibited by fear and terror. Its tragic. We need to raise strong and independent individuals. Mistakes. Teach children how to deal with disappointment. The accused boston bomber was in court today. Fairly routine hearing, set for an outburst of support. We pray for you. We here for you, we know you innocent we begin with a passionate debate over the historic decision to restore diplomatic ties with cuba after 60 years of hostility. The president had the leaders of burma and china to the United States. For that reason i wouldnt rule out a visit from president castro in havana, many were news. Translation i am happy. I hope this will be the beginning of the end of illogical things that have no reason to exist and are shown to be awesome. The Obama Administrations community. Its an awful day for cuba, i think the deal was dad. The cubans didnt get anything. Anything that brings day. The majority of americans favoured normalizing relies, and a recent Florida International poll found that 68 of cuban americans do as well. Many older cuban americans say that this deal may benefit the cuban government, not the people. Its sad. Seeing the precedent is doing some sort of of negotiation return. Further. The implications of this decision extends beyond cuba, it has a Chilling Effect on democracy and freedom. Joining us from havana, is Chris Gillett, correspondent. The news had a mixed reception there, among dissidents and human rights activists. Thats true. The average cuban has taken the news very positively. They look at the renewal of ties between cuba and the United States as a real opportunity to improve their lot, but the dissidents are quite unhappy with the Obama Administration. Yesterday, we went to a meeting in which they they remarked on their dissatisfaction saying that they felt betrayed by the president Obama Administration. They say that the Obama Administration promised to notify them beforehand if there were to be any sort of opening with cuba, or any other moves to loosen the trade embargo and reestablish political ties, and they feel like the administration has left them dangling in the wind as a result of the president s announcement two days ago. Where is fidel castro. That seems to be a big question of the day. Hes elderly and sick. He makes the occasional public statement. After more than five decades of demonizing the u. S. , do we have this . We dont. I think you could make a fairly safe bet that hes well aware of what happened and probably had input in president raul castros speech last night. He has been ill, he resigned in 2009, and has since not made many public appearances. Truth is, we simply dont know what his condition is at this time, or how much input he had brother. I know cuban blogger has received a bit of International Acclaim is among those who think that this is great for the regime. She tweeted that raul castro must have had the bitter taste of surrender when he made the announcement about opening relations with the United States. What sense do you get from cuban officials . Well, im not sure the bitter taste of defeat would be the terminology i use. The cuban officials recognise that the country needs to change in a fundamental way and in particular, in the economic area. They dont are not anxious for a political change, obviously, but are anxious to move the country forward economically, they seem to recognise that the two go hand in hand, and without economic prosperity, theyll have political problems, so they are very anxious to restore some economic vib ransy. The country is experiencing very difficult times at this at this stage, and very Uncertain Times in terms of the economy. So there is a recognition amongst the officials that some sort of change needs to be made. Chris gillett of the associated press, thank you for your time. Joining us via skype. Ambassador vicky huddle ston, former chief of mission at the United States, havana, 1989, she was director of Cuban Affairs at the state department from 1989 to 1993 and during the Clinton Administration she led a Brookings Institution project and wrote a book. Ambassador, its good to see you. I believe you think this opening to cuba was long overdue. Was it a good deal. In the days that you were dealing with cuba, the u. S. Always approached negotiations requiring reforms from the cuban government on human rights and democracy. We got none of that here. In my opinion this is what should have been done 10 years ago, 20 years ago. What this does, the obama bold moves on diplomatic relations, on removing the communication, the financial parts of the embargo, on taking cuba off the paris list that will probably happen within the next six months, here is a chance for Cuban Civil Society to build a democratic cuba. And a prosperous cuba. We dont need to negotiate it away. We need to get the information and opportunity for cubans to make those changes. The washington post. They had a harsh editorial, calling the president naive saying a 50yearold failed regime got a new lease on life and any progress towards democracy is arrested by the president s shortsited move. Are you concerned this could be a gift to the regime, a bail out ending up not capitalizing performances like cuba. Absolutely not. Let me give you an example. When i was in cuba i passed out amfm handheld. Fidel castro threatened to throw me out of cuba and had a rally of 20,000 people to denounce this activity. Theres nothing more that the cuban government feared more than free communications, interaction. With these majors, there can be sales, gifts of radios, televisions, thumb drives, computers, it will provide the equipment and the interaction that will allow not just cuban, just Cuban Civil Society to connect with people around the world. Its also what happened in Eastern Europe. The electronic sophistication time. Certainly the openness in Eastern Europe helps. I hope you are right in cuba. You heard Chris Gillett talk about the economy, how its struggling and facing difficult times. Cuba likely is on the ropes because plunging oil prices are likely to stop the patron venezuela. They wont be act subsidise the cuban economy. Are you not concerned that this could be a comprehensive bailout. Those are the words of the wall street journal. Not at all. I remember to well in the early 90s. I had a conversation with fidel castro. And at that point the soviet union was breaking up. Cuba was losing its 4 billion annual subsidy, and people in miami, cuban mens were saying christmas in havana. Things could not have gotten worse in havana, other than that is when we pressed the cuban democracy act which cut off a lot of medicines and food to third countries. Here is a moment when cuba was on the rails and they made it through. To believe cuba will fail prolongs getting the support and information into cuba that is going to grow the economy and give cuban young people in particular a real opportunity for a future looking at it from the other side though, is this really not the game changer that as it has been portrayed by supporters. Fully normalizing relations means lifting the embargo altogether. I know you said this is the beginning of the removal of the trade embargo. Theres still a lot of opposition in washington. And it will be a majority Republican Senate and congress. As the cubans like to say. Obama did the hard part. He took the historic, the full move bound to get criticism. Its up to the cuban and American People to deepen and broaden this and allow it to work. Not to be rolled back. Raul castro appeared in military fatigues, he had usual rhetoric saying that cuba agreed to restore full diplomatic relations. Will the castros and the regime change . Well, they say well, their one from is to stay in power. It has always been that. But the embargo helped them to stay in power. Isolation helped them stay in power. What will weaken the cuban government is when the young people have the opportunity to get on the internet and find out what is going on. To interact with each other to get help from outside the country for their meetings on what they want to do, how they want to do blogs, what is happening in the world, things like that. I just think that if theres no information in cuba, then the change does not take place. What we want is a Democratic Change in cuba. The way it was headed was basically raul castro would turn the government over to the military and the party. In other words it would continue as it is. This gives the chance, an opening for change in cuba that could lead to democracy. Abbing ambassador, former head of cuba section. Good to get your perspective joining me from Miami Florida is president of brothers to the rescue, a miami group searching the strait for rafters escaping cuba, they oppose the government. Their plains drop leaflet over cuba and four members were killed in International Waters when the cuban government shot down their planes in 1996. Its a pleasure to have you with us. I know you are happy that alan gross was released. Four members of your group are shot down, you barely escaped. I know you were upset that alan gross was released and three cuban spies were released and they were convicted of an involvement in the shoot down. This is personal for you. It is very much so. Im glad that alan gross has been released. Hes been used as a pawn, a trading chip on this thing. Unfortunately, circumstances and the results of this deal may not be the best for us, the cuban people. I know you oppose the deal. What do you say to the argument that isolating cuba has not worked. That its been a failure for 54 years, going the same thing difference . Im not arguing about the political benefits much king of doing this, which may be goed or bad. Knowing what the cuban government does, theyll take advantage of everything out of the deal and give nothing in exchange. This is not negotiated, its a give away by the president Obama Administration. Cuba will hold on to it, take advantage and stay in power as much as they can. What would you have lined to have seen in order for the deal to be acceptable. First of all, this should within announced before it happened. This is something that has been done unilaterally by paula, ignoring that the government, the United States, has three powers, legislative, judicial and executive. In this case the executive power, on his own, taking to make all these decisions, ignoring the others, thus throwing in the garbage can what the judicial did, which is put in gaol this individual that were assisting the murder of four pilots in 1996. They were send to gaol. Two of them had life sentences for murder, again. This was murder. And they are just being traded as if what they did had no zaps, and the sentence pronounced by the judicial power is being altogether ignored. I believe president obama is number one breaking the law. Number two, doing something people. Couldnt it be good for the cuban people, because you have opposed the castro, the castro regime is in power, they live comfortably while the cuban people suffer shortages and have little freedom. We had the former head of the u. S. Group of havana on the show. She said it could help with the fall of communism. Dont you thing this is the case . This is not the case of history, this is the case of two individuals that held power in cuba, have done so for 50 years, believe they open the country and act as such. I dont think they are going to let go because of this deal, if it can be called a deal, because its a unilateral action undertaking by the government of the United States directed entire by mr president obama. The person that makes all the decisions and this in particular was not consulted to the judiciary or the legislative or for all that matters to the American People. As you know, the u. S. Has issues with the communist Chinese Government and how it treats its people and other governments around the world. That does not stop us having international relations. Different. The u. S. Hold relations with cuba for a long time under the table. Im a witness for that. The pilots killed. And the men that i directed, the group to the rescue the day they were attacked, the government or the u. S. Knew about it and did nothing to prevent it. The government and the u. S. Have been in cahoots many times, and this under the table, and through the executive power. And the people of cuba, the people of the United States, the American People have been ignored in this negotiations. Although on the other hand polls show most americans do want diplomatic relations, we are seeing a generational shift among cuban americans, where the younger cuban americans some as young as 90 , want the embargo to end and want the diplomatic relations with cuba. What do you see the future being now that this has happened . I question your numbers because i dont thing where you are getting the 90 from. International. The cuban people, i believe is divided on that. Certainly divided. Theres a Florida University poll finding that the majority of all cuban americans want the establishment of relations with havana. Things have changed. I appreciate your perspective. I know that potentially this must be a difficult moment. Good to have you with us. Now for more stories from around the world. We begin in moscow where Vladimir Putin struck a defiant tone saying he would not back down on ukraine. The russian president urged both sides in ukraine to keep the country as a single entity and negotiate a peace deal. He blamed we were nations for creating the conflict, comparing the west to a bloodthirsty opponent wanting to tear out the clause and teeth of the russian bear. Next we head to northeastern nigeria, where suspected militants stormed a village, killing more than 30 people, kidnapping 200. Witnesses say gunmen set the village on fire. News got out because it took days for survivors to reach a town and tell their story. A nigeria courtmartial sentenced 54 soldiers to death for refusing to fight boko haram. The soldiers complained not something enough ammunition or food. Boko haram is accused of killing 2,000 people alone. Bombing suspect appeared in court since an arraignment since july last year, the the Boston Marathon bomber. Near the end of the arraignment. A woman stood up and shouted support, the motherinlaw of a man shot to death by the fbi. He pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges and could face the death penalty. That is some of what is happening around the world. Coming up, news of a big win against i. S. I. L. Tempered by word from the u. S. Military that it could take years to turn the tide against the group the sony hacking was north korea behind the attack that led the country to pull a major movie from theatres. What do you think. Join the theres more to finical news than the ups and downs of the dow. For instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month . Have you thought about how Climate Change can effect your grocery bill . Could Rare Minerals in china effect your cell phone bill . Or, how a hospital in texas could drive up your health care premium. Ill make the connections from the news to your money real. Now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. Get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. A global perspective wherever you are. The major headlines in context. Mashable says. Youll never miss the latest news they will continue looking for survivors. The potential for Energy Production is huge. No noise, no clutter, just real reporting. The new Al Jazeera America mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. Download it now kurdistan peshawar fighters on thursday say they won a key battlefield victory over i. S. I. L. And northern iraq, while the u. S. General warned years of patience would be needed to reach a turning point in the fight against the group, which he referred to using the arab acronym dash. We have patience in the relationship to call it dash. They have proved to be resilient. You are tacking three years. The siege on mt sinjar, since august, when i. S. I. L. Attacked killing thousands forcing girls and women into slavery. They continued to battle. We are joined by rear admiral john kirby. Good to see you. We heard general terry urging patients patience saying it could be a minimum of three years. Saying the targeted strikes kill. Is the bombing being more successful than we thought or heard. We know over time. More you do, the more youll decrayed and damage the organizations ability to operate, communicate and lead itself. We know we are having an effect. So what you saw are two practical, tactical representations of that effect. Well i think the other one you are talking about is the kurds saying that they opened a corridor in the area of mt sinjar, allowing them to reach the refugees besieged by i. S. I. L. The kurds say its the single biggest military offensive. The most successful so far. How important is this victory. Im no