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The World This Week: Cigar diplomacy: Cuba and US on road to friendship

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18/04/2015

Cigar diplomacy: Cuba and US on road to friendship

BBC World Service - The World This Week, Cigar diplomacy: Cuba and US on road to friendship

A handshake between two presidents ended 50 years of enmity. Was it written in the stars?

A handshake between Presidents Obama and Castro brought to an end half a century of enmity between the US and Cuba.  Our man says it must have been written in the stars.

Cuba and the United States reached a historic turning point when Presidents Obama and Castro shook hands in Panama and set their countries on the path to friendship.  President Obama also promised an end to meddling in the rest of Latin America -- a region once seen as America's back-yard.  How did it happen?  Apparently, it was written in the stars.

Also in this podcast: how Iran is playing a diplomatic blinder; the continuing tragedy of would-be migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean; why Turkey is cross with the Pope; and the little gifts that came to mean much, much more.

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