Minister Bruno Rodriguez and Raul Castro

Cuba: The U.S. State Department has completed the review of Cuba status and recommended that the White House remove Cuba from the "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list, where the Caribbean island has stayed since 1982, according to Xinhua China. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez held a closed-door meeting Thursday night, the highest-level meeting between the two sides since 1961 before the Obama-Castro talks that followed. He attributed the recent "historical" changes between the United States and Cuba to the new approach, saying that while there were significant differences between the two countries, he believed "the pursuit of mutual interest will help to make the progress." Following simultaneous announcement by Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, on Dec. 17 last year, the two countries have so far conducted three rounds of talks to restore diplomatic relations. On Saturday, Obama and Castro held "substantive" talks, the first between the two countries' heads of state since 1956. On March 1, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Guatemala, met with presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras. Besides headline-capturing developments in U.S.-Cuba relations, the United States has also moved recently to win favor of several other Latin American countries. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.