CUBA: President Obama is expected to take executive action next month to remove the 54-year-old blockade against Cuba. VENEZUELA: President Nicolas Maduro again rejected sanctions signed by Obama against his government. BOLIVIA: The country has been officialy accepted as a member of the southern common market bloc MERCOSUR. COLOMBIA: The FARC delegation to the peace talks in Havana issued an apology to the people of Bojaya, Colombia, for the events of 2002, when 79 people were killed. IRAQ: The Iraqi Kurdish forces battling Islamic State militants scored a major victory. ISRAEL: Former President Shimon Peres said that a Palestinian state is necessary in order to "have a democratic Jewish state".
