Via AFP:
The White House on Wednesday dismissed Republican criticism of President Barack Obama's handshake with Cuban leader Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela's memorial service.
Obama has faced a backlash from Republican rivals after exchanging pleasantries with Castro, the leader of a Communist-run country that has been bitterly estranged from the United States since 1961.
The White House has insisted the gesture was not "pre-planned" while a Cuban government-run website noted hopefully that the handshake could "be the beginning of the end of the US aggressions against Cuba."
White House spok...
