For the past three decades, Brazilian “telenovelas” have helped Cubans forget their litany of woes for an hour a day. But today, dozens of South Korean soap operas are earning wide audiences. Following in the footsteps of South Korean films and K-pop, “doramas” — South Korean soaps dubbed into Spanish — first appeared on Cuban televisions earlier this year.

Some Republicans and Cuban-American lawmakers are criticizing President Obama for shaking President Raúl Castro’s hand at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. Their reaction to a gesture of common courtesy should come as no surprise given Washington’s senseless commitment to a failed 50-year policy toward Cuba.

Members of congress representing countries across the world, converged on Bogota for the 35 Annual Parliamentary Forum, showing support for ongoing peace talks between Colombia’s government and FARC rebels. At the start of the event, Ross Robertson, president of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), said, “to fight for peace, we are here to give positive energy. We sustain peace. We are legislators and we can make the difference, we can alert our institutions to support the Colombian peace process.”

While China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba officially claim to be communist states, the country that adheres most strictly to communist principles, according to Oxford University scholar Robert Service, is North Korea. He should know, he wrote the book on it — Comrades! A History of World Communism. Today, he says, Karl Marx would hardly recognize his manifesto. "In it's original form, it's long been dead," said Service.

During Tuesday's memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela, as tens of thousands gathered in the FNB stadium in Johannesburg and millions more watched on television, an entirely different story emerged: the ten-second interaction between U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro.

Cuban Jewish leaders say they have visited a U.S. government subcontractor imprisoned on the island. A statement from Beth Shalom Temple says they met with Alan Gross, of Maryland, on Thursday. The visit came two days after Gross marked four years in custody, and on the last day of Hanukkah.

On the fourth anniversary of his imprisonment in Cuba, former U.S. government contractor Alan Gross said he fears his country has “abandoned” him and appealed to President Obama to personally intervene in his case. In a letter to the president, sent via the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, Gross describes his isolation from the world, adding that his daughter and mother have been stricken by cancer, his wife has had to sell the family home in Maryland, and “my business and career have been destroyed.”

During an official visit by Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos to the White House on Tuesday, President Obama reiterated his government's support for continued peace talks between the Colombian government and the Marxist rebel group, FARC. The meeting between the two hemispheric leaders focused on the ongoing peace talks, being held in Havana, Cuba, and on other issues like human rights and trade.