Breaking News

By Steve Holland ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday played down President Barack Obama's handshake with Cuban leader Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela's memorial in South Africa, saying it went no further than pleasantries and does not signal a policy change. "Nothing was planned in terms of the president's role other than his remarks," the deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, told reporters traveling with Obama. "He really didn't do more than exchange greetings with (dignitaries on the podium) on his way to speak, it wasn't a substantive discussion." While the United States has relaxed prohibitions on family travel and remittances to Cuba and taken other steps to allow for greater contacts between the two countries, points of friction remain in the relationship, Rhodes said. "We continue to have the same grave concerns about both the human rights situation in Cuba and Alan Gross," Rhodes said, referring to a U.S. government contractor who has been in jail in Cuba for committing what a Cuban judge called a crime against the state.

A new $85 billion U.S. budget deal reached on Tuesday should win passage in the House of Representatives with Republican support, said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, the top Republican negotiator. He called the deal a "step in the right direction," that would avoid threats of another government shutdown in January, when current funding expires, and in October next year, when the next fiscal year starts. I'm getting more deficit reduction. According to a statement released by Ryan and the top Democratic negotiator, Senator Patty Murray, the two-year deal would shift $63 billion worth of automatic spending cuts to other savings over a decade.