The announcement comes amid talks by Washington and Havana to work toward the restoration of diplomatic relations between the former Cold War foes. The Cuban and Cosmos teams conducted their own negotiations in January, during a CONCACAF Under-20 tournament in Jamaica.

U.S. lawmakers have renewed scrutiny of a nearly 30-year-old program that allows people from dozens of countries to travel to the U.S. without the bureaucratic hassle of obtaining a visa.

The home-court detente with the United States on Monday and Tuesday has once again accentuated Cuba's ingrained gradualism, which has been the hallmark of the island country's diplomacy and economic development for years in its pursuit of security and political correctness.

China has voiced its concerns regarding Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployment in South Korea, offering Seoul to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) launched by Beijing in 2014.

Belden found himself leading his band Animation in Tehran, with Iranian listeners cheering him on. That performance last month made him the first American musician to play Iran since the country's 1979 revolution and, perhaps, the spearhead of a kind of cultural diplomacy.

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian is the first Iranian artist to have a solo exhibition at the museum. Many others are featured at gallery spaces across the U.S.

The service is a venture bringing together Turner Broadcasting’s CNN International and the Philippines conglomerate Nine Media Corporation. Broadcasting predominantly in English but with localized content and an accompanying website, it takes over the frequencies occupied by Nine’s 9TV.