Cuba

US President Barack Obama's administration is working to resume more direct contact with Cuba as part of a US effort to establish dialogue with foes from Iran to North Korea to Burma. The State Department held talks with Cuba this month in Havana to discuss resuming direct postal service between the two countries. It sent Bisa Williams, acting deputy assistant secretary in the bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, on Sept. 17, making her the most senior State Department official to visit Cuba since Obama took office in January. The talks were described as exploratory and technical and no date was set for the resumption of mail. Williams met with Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez. (Bloomberg, AP)