The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to renew demands that governments refuse to enforce and not promulgate national laws endorsing the U.S. trade embargo and other commercial and financial measures against Cuba. The 191-nation assembly voted 179-4 to adopt a resolution calling on governments "to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures" declared unilaterally by the United States against Cuba, including the "Helms-Burton Act" of 1996 that allowed Washington to penalize foreign investors in Cuba and to finance anti-Cuba activities. The countries to oppose the measure were the United States, Israel, and the former U.S. protectorates Palau and the Marshall Islands. The resolution "once again urges states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime". The assembly first adopted a resolution in 1992 that called on Washington to repeal its economic sanctions on Cuba, which it imposed after Fidel Castro's revolutionary troops swept over the Caribbean island in 1959 and appropriated U.S. properties. --More 0052 Local Time 2152 GMT
