Cuba's Castro to travel to New York for UN General Assembly

Castro and Barack Obama along with leaders of Russia and China and Iran's president to speak at the gathering

UNITED NATIONS: Cuban President Raul Castro is set to address the UN General Assembly this month, the United Nations announced on Tuesday, the first time the Cuban leader will visit the United States as the island nation's head of state.

The latest public schedule for the General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders - the so-called General Debate - lists Castro as speaking on the afternoon of September 28. US President Barack Obama and the leaders of Russia and China and Iran's president are also due to speak on the same day.

Neither the White House nor the Cuban government had an immediate response to queries about whether Castro and Obama might meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting, which begins on September 25 with a speech by Pope Francis ahead of a three-day summit on global development. It ends on October 3.

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The White House has not yet released details of Obama's schedule while in New York. In addition to his September 28 speech to the General Assembly, the United Nations says he is due to address the development summit on September 27.

It would be the first visit to the United States as president for Castro, 84, who took over for his ailing brother Fidel provisionally in 2006 and definitively in 2008.

Castro has made only one known visit to the United States, briefly visiting Houston in 1959 shortly after the Castro brothers led the revolution that toppled US-backed strongman Fulgencio Batista.

Castro and Obama stunned the world last December 17 by announcing détente following more than half a century of Cold War animosity between the two countries separated by 90 miles (145 km) of sea. That led to the restoration of diplomatic relations on July 20 after a 54-year break.

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Fidel Castro holds the record for the longest speech at the United Nations at four and a half hours. "We shall endeavor to be brief," he told the United Nations General Assembly in 1960, before launching into his marathon address.