By Ben Dummett Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES TORONTO (Dow Jones)--Leisure Canada Inc. (LCN.V) hopes to start construction before the end of the year on what would be Havana's first hotel/conference center built to North American building standards, expecting a continued thawing in Cuba-U.S. relations to spur an influx of visitors to the Caribbean island. Located on the beach in the area of Havana known as Embassy Row, Leisure Canada's Monte Barreto development will consist of a 750-suite hotel, a conference center and vacation club, including a fractional ownership component. It will be built to Florida hurricane standards, and meet the room size and other standards used by the Hiltons and other well-known hotel operators, said Robin Conners, Leisure's chief executive.

The Seattle Times editorial board calls for the end of the U.S. embargo of Cuba. SEN. Maria Cantwell calls our attention to a law, signed by President Obama, allowing Cuba to buy U.S. farm produce and pay after the goods are shipped. The law reverses a Treasury ruling during the Bush years that Cuba had to pay in advance ˜ a ruling that stopped the trade altogether. This page favors the new law, which will allow a few of our state's farmers to make a little bit of money. But we would go much further. We would end altogether the embargo, which was imposed under President Kennedy almost a half-century ago.

By James Anderson (AP) August 28, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO DE PAULA, Cuba — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that he's just a governor on a trade mission and carries no message from the U.S. government as he visits Cuba this week. But he does plan to report his impressions to President Barack Obama. Richardson spoke outside Havana while visiting Ernest Hemingway's former home, where he donated a replica of a telephone used by Hemingway to curators on behalf of his state. He said all U.S. citizens should be able to visit such cultural gems. "I think enhancing cultural and artistic and educational ties is a prelude to diplomatic and commercial ties. It always happens that way," Richardson told The Associated Press. "I'm for enhanced tourism travel for Americans." Richardson said that travel should go beyond the so-called people-to-people educational and cultural contacts promoted by the Bill Clinton administration.

BY Anahi Rama SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (Reuters) The Organization of American States lifted its 47-year suspension of Cuba on Wednesday in a move backed by Washington, but Cuban state-run TV said Havana had no interest in rejoining the group. "Cuba has not asked for nor does it wish to return to the OAS, which is steeped in a submissive and shady history," said anchorman Randy Alonso. There was no immediate reaction from officials of Cuba's communist-run government. But former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in April that Cuba had no desire to rejoin the OAS, which he has criticized as an instrument of U.S. policy, and did not want to "hear the vile name of that institution." The 34-member hemispheric body, meeting in Honduras, unanimously scrapped a 1962 decision at the height of the Cold War that barred Cuba as revolutionary leader Fidel Castro took it toward communism and an alliance with the Soviet Union. While leftists in Latin America hailed the OAS vote as a diplomatic victory for Cuba, Washington said it had succeeded in ensuring that Cuba could not rejoin the group without moving toward democracy and respect for human rights. U.S. President Barack Obama has taken…