U.S., Cuba clash over immigration at start of historic talks

[Yahoo! News]

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By Daniel Trotta HAVANA (Reuters) - The United States and Cuba clashed over U.S. immigration policy on Wednesday at the first session of high-level talks seeking to restore diplomatic ties between the Cold War adversaries. The Americans vowed to continue granting safe haven to Cubans with special protections denied to other nationalities while Cuba complained the United States encourages Cuban doctors to defect, calling it a "reprehensible brain drain practice." The talks will continue on Thursday with the two sides set to discuss restoring diplomatic relations and eventually opening up full trade and travel ties. The two days of meetings are the first since U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17 they would work to restore diplomatic ties that were broken off by Washington in 1961. Besides the 20,000 Cubans given visas each year, another 25,000 arrived from around the world without visas in 2014 and were welcomed to the United States under the U.S. law called the Cuban Adjustment Act.

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