President Clinton has reportedly decided to allow Cuban Americans to resume sending money directly to relatives on the island, and to permit charter flights from the United States to Cuba, in an effort to capitalize on a changed atmosphere in Cuba inspired by the visit of Pope John Paul II, this according to senior administration officials in The Washington Post today. In addition, the president will instruct the Treasury Department and other agencies to simplify licensing procedures for exporting medicine and medical devices to Cuba and to expedite the processing of license applications. The White House is expected to announce the changes today. They describe the president’s decision, senior officials, as an effort to bolster the status of the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba and decrease the dependence of the Cuban people on state organizations. Clinton’s decision marks the first relaxation of U.S. policy toward Cuba since Cuban jet fighters shot down two small planes operated by a Miami-based Cuban exile group in January of 1996, killing four crew members.

President Bill Clinton faces protests from campaigners for a ban on anti-personnel land mines on his six-nation visit to Africa next week. African Campaigns to Ban Land Mines, a nongovernmental organization working for the eradication of the mines, said in a statement it would call on Clinton to sign and ratify the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines. The United States has been blasted internationally for declining to join 123 states that have signed the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel land mines. The weapons are blamed for the killing of 25,000 people worldwide each year.

In the second major human rights verdict delivered in Turkey this month, a provincial court sentenced five police officers to seven-and-a-half-year jail terms for beating a journalist to death. Human rights advocates said the sentences were far too light. The slain journalist, Metin Göktepe, was detained by the police during a funeral for two leftists in January of '96. Forensic specialists who testified at the trial said he'd been beaten and kicked and died of brain hemorrhage and internal bleeding. Officials of foreign governments, including the U.S., had said they were following the case closely and considered it a key test of Turkey’s willingness to prosecute abusive police officers.

The FBI is investigating a deadly fight at one of California’s most violent prisons, along with allegations that guards at another of the state’s high-security lock-ups set up brawls between prisoners. The fights at the High Desert and Pelican Bay penitentiaries were the latest to come under investigation by the FBI, which announced yesterday that it’s widening its probe into the California prison system. A day earlier, eight guards from Corcoran State Prison pleaded innocent in federal court to staging gladiator-type fights between inmates of rival gangs. In a February 4 clash at High Desert in the northeast corner of California, 10 Asian prisoners attacked eight Latino prisoners in an exercise yard. Guards trying to end the fight shot and killed David Torres, a 29-year-old Latino, and wounded two other prisoners. The FBI is investigating whether the guards were justified in shooting Torres, and may expand its probe to other disturbances at the prison.

This news from Los Angeles: The federal government was sued yesterday over a law that makes it illegal to aid the lawful and nonviolent activities of foreign groups the State Department has deemed to be terrorist organizations. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court on behalf of six organizations and two individuals who want to continue helping two so-called terrorist groups, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, which seeks independence for Kurds in Turkey, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, which advocates self-determination for Tamils in Sri Lanka. Court papers filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights claim that two provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996 are unconstitutional. In the court papers, the CCR said the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that fundraising for the lawful activities of a foreign terrorist organization is protected by the First Amendment. The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction barring the government from prosecuting individuals and organizations under the act.

Despite caution from the White House, talk of a possible impeachment probe is quickening in the House. House Republican Whip Tom DeLay used a floor speech yesterday to call the allegations against the president serious and say lawmakers may have to act. DeLay’s remarks are seen as the bluntest yet on the subject of any member of the leadership. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Judiciary Chair Henry Hyde said they’re considering several possible responses, should independent counsel Kenneth Starr refer evidence of possible impeachable offenses to lawmakers.