A Russian convicted of hate crimes has been arrested in Cuba and could soon be extradited to Moscow, a Russian diplomat in Havana told Agence France Presse Monday.

"Ultra-nationalist Russian Maxim Martsinkevich, wanted at the international level, was arrested January 17 in Cuba, and in the coming days a decision will be made about his extradition to Russia," the embassy official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Friday the bloc may revise its relations with Cuba after a decade of friction over the communist island's human rights record.

The European Union suspended relations with Cuba in 2003 after the Cuban authorities threw 75 dissidents into jail, all of whom have since been released.

The European Union is preparing to normalize ties with Cuba following a decade-long dispute over human rights, EU diplomats said Thursday.

Experts from the EU's 28 member states this week "agreed on the principle of reviewing relations with Cuba," an EU diplomat told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

A military panel has recommended transferring a Yemeni detainee from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, reversing earlier orders for him to be held indefinitely without trial, officials said Friday.

The move came as part of a renewed effort by President Barack Obama's administration to close the controversial jail at the U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba.

Cuba and the United States resumed talks Thursday on implementing a nearly two-decade-old agreement to encourage safe and legal migration, a U.S. diplomatic source said.

An official with the U.S. Interests Section in Havana confirmed that the talks began on schedule Thursday morning and will end on Friday.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has appeared in public for the first time in nine months, attending an art gallery opening near his home, the local press reported Thursday.

"He greeted artists and residents who applauded the new arrival with emotion," the official Communist Party newspaper Granma said, describing Castro's outing Wednesday evening to the Kcho Estudio Romerillo.

The three last Uighurs who had languished in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay for over a decade despite facing no charges have been freed and sent to Slovakia, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

"This transfer and resettlement constitutes a significant milestone in our effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement, thanking Slovakia for taking the three men in.

Cuban President Raul Castro warned Saturday his country could remain estranged from the United States for decades if Washington does not drop political demands.

"If we really want to make progress in bilateral relations, we have to learn to respect each other's differences and get used to living peacefully with them. Otherwise, no. We are ready for another 55 years like this," Castro said at the legislature's closing session.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro spoke in praise Thursday of his brother Raul's brief encounter and handshake in South Africa with U.S. President Barack Obama.

"I congratulate comrade Raul for his brilliant performance, and especially for his firmness and dignity when with a friendly but firm gesture he greeted the head of government of the United States and said to him in English: 'Mr President, I am Castro.'"

The Pentagon said Monday the United States had transferred two Guantanamo detainees to Saudi Arabia, bringing the total number of inmates remaining at the U.S. prison in Cuba to 160.

After a "comprehensive review" of their cases, Saad Muhammad Husayn Qahtani and Hamood Abdulla Hamood were "designated for transfer by consensus of the six departments and agencies comprising the task force," said a statement by Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale.