The Ruth Page Center for the Arts and Cuba's National School of Ballet continue their collaborative and historic programming with a joint performance. [...] The result marked the first official exchange between two eminent cultural institutions since the normalization of relations between Cuba and the U.S.A. After obtaining official permission from the Cuban Ministry of Culture, the RPSD initiated the first step in the landmark cultural exchange program that would focus on the sharing of knowledge on dance, especially ballet and contemporary dance.

Increasing Internet access will be a key component to boosting Cuban businesses, according to President Obama. In remarks made alongside Cuban President Raul Castro as well as a separate forum on Cuban entrepreneurship, the President emphasized the Internet’s role in improving and expanding the country’s ability to innovate.

For the first time, Cuba will be included [...] in the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, which brings 200 outstanding mid-career professionals [...] to the United States for non-degree study and related professional experiences, and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, which offers grants for U.S. undergraduates of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or internships abroad.

Players as pawns in political games is not always a bad thing. Major League Baseball is about to visit Cuba on a "Goodwill" tour that marks the Dec 17 meeting last year between Barack Obama and Raul Castro when the two presidents agreed to start to "normalise" the relationship between the countries.

President Barack Obama met his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, on Tuesday at the United Nations — all smiles after both renewed their calls for an end to the US trade embargo against Havana.[...] “The president also highlighted steps the United States intends to take to improve ties between the American and Cuban peoples, and reiterated our support for human rights in Cuba,” it said. 

In his first major address during a 10-day trip combining visits to the long-isolated but neighboring nations of Cuba and the United States, Pope Francis on Sunday gave a wide-ranging treatise on the Christian call to be at service to one another. [...] [T]he pope continued: "Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people."

Pope Francis, who has taken a public role in U.S.-Cuba relations, will visit Cuba on the way to the United States this fall, the Vatican announced Wednesday. (...)Pope Francis, who followed his predecessors Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II in visiting Cuba and calling for an end to U.S. travel and financial restrictions on the nation, wrote letters to Obama and Cubaan President Raúl Castro urging them to settle outstanding issues and clear the way for a deal.