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Washington (CNN) -- A political standoff that spanned five decades and 10 presidents began to crumble Wednesday with President Barack Obama's move to normalize relations with Cuba.

The announcement was the product of a year of clandestine back-channelling between the U.S. and Cuba, facilitated by the Canadians and the Vatican and with personal involvement from the Pope.

"Today, America chooses to cut loose the shackles of the past, so as to reach for a better future for the Cuban people, for the American people, for our entire hemisphere and for the world," Obama said in a statement announcing his decision.

He added: "It's time for a new approach."

Obama said he's instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to immediately begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations, and that the U.S. will re-open an embassy in Havana. The administration will also allow some travel and trade that had been banned under a decades-long embargo instated during the Kennedy administration.

"Neither the American nor Cuban people are well-served by a rigid policy that's rooted in events that took place before most of us were born," Obama said.

READ: Obama announces historic overhaul of relations

Obama's move risks triggering another fight with Congress, which will come under the full control of Republicans in January.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer he would do everything in his power to block any potential U.S. ambassador to Cuba even receive a vote.

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Obama: Isolation didn't work

President Barack Obama said the U.S. will end more than half a century of isolation of Cuba, initiating talks to resume diplomatic relations, opening a U.S. embassy in Havana and loosening trade and travel restrictions on the nation.

The steps effectively end one of the last remnants of the Cold War, one that has been sacrosanct in U.S. domestic politics. They come as Cuba has sought a shift to gain economic support as its longtime patrons, Russia and Venezuela, have lost influence and been squeezed by plummeting oil prices.

The changes follow a rare private intercession by Pope Francis, the Catholic Churchs first Latin-American pontiff, secret meetings between Cuban and American delegations at the Vatican and in Canada, and an extraordinary telephone conversation lasting more than 45 minutes yesterday between Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro.

Neither the American nor Cuban people are well served by a rigid policy thats rooted in events that took place before most of us were born, Obama said today at the White House in a statement that coincided with remarks by Castro in Havana.

The White House announced the steps after Cuba released American Alan Gross on humanitarian grounds. Following high-level talks between the governments since the spring, the U.S. and Cuba also made a parallel prisoner exchange of three Cuban intelligence agents for a U.S. intelligence asset who has been imprisoned for more than 20 years, according to administration officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity before Obama speaks.

Prisoners Released

Cuba also agreed to release 53 people the U.S. considers political prisoners, some of whom have already been released, the officials said.

The White House plans to move swiftly. The administration expects to issue regulations within weeks and open an embassy as soon as is logistically possible, according to White House officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity before Obama spoke. Obama said he will work with Congress to lift the full trade embargo.

Travelers will be able to use credit and debit cards in Cuba and Americans will be able to legally bring home up to $100 in previously illegal Cuban cigars treasured by aficionados.

U.S. companies will be permitted to export to Cuba telecommunications equipment, agricultural commodities, construction supplies and materials for small businesses. U.S. financial institutions will be allowed to open accounts with Cuban banks.

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Obama to Announce Easing in U.S.-Cuba Trade, Travel Relations

Published December 17, 2014

President Barack Obama on Wednesday cut short prison time for eight drug convicts as part of his new initiative to reduce harsh sentences under outdated guidelines, a step that could lead to a vast expansion of presidential clemency in his final two years in office.

The president also is pardoning 12 convicts for a variety of offenses. But the commutations are particularly significant because they are the first issued under new guidelines announced earlier this year designed to cut costs by reducing the nation's bulging prison population and grant leniency to nonviolent drug offenders sentenced to double-digit terms.

A pardon forgives a crime without erasing the conviction, typically after the sentence has been served. A commutation leaves the conviction and ends the punishment.

The White House said the eight new commutations Obama granted were for prisoners who likely would receive a substantially lower sentence today and would have already served their time. For example, they include Barbara Scrivner, who was sentenced to 30 years in 1995 when she was 27 years old for a minor role in her husband's meth ring. Obama ordered her sentence to expire June 12, while others will expire April 15.

Administration officials say they expect Obama to grant more clemency petitions in his final two years in office under the changed policy he ordered from the Justice Department. The White House said 6,561 people already have applied in the past year, compared to 2,370 the year before.

"I think there is an awareness out there that this president is interested in granting clemency on these kinds of matters," White House counsel Neil Eggleston said in an interview.

The clemency policy changes aren't limited to drug offenders, who comprise about half of the roughly 216,000 federal prisoners, but the criteria makes it clear they are the main target.

To be eligible, inmates must have already been behind bars for at least 10 years, have a nonviolent history, have no major criminal convictions, have a good behavior record in prison, and be serving a sentence that, if imposed today, would be substantially shorter than what they were given at the time.

The old sentencing guidelines subjected tens of thousands of blacks to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient sentences to those caught with powder who were more likely to be white. It was enacted in 1986 when crack cocaine use was rampant and considered a particularly violent drug. Under that law, a person convicted of possessing five grams of crack cocaine got the same mandatory prison term as someone with 500 grams -- 100 times -- of powder cocaine.

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Obama commutes sentences for 8 drug inmates under new policy

Obama, Rita Ora, Speaks at the Christmas in Washington Celebration
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Obama, Rita Ora, Speaks at the Christmas in Washington Celebration - Video

President Obama, First Lady`s Double Date Phot
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By: world news

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President Obama, First Lady`s Double Date Phot - Video