President Barack Obama is expected to announce that he is accepting a recommendation from the State Department to take Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terror list, sources told NBC News. The announcement, which could come as soon as Thursday, is timed to remove a major obstacle toward normalization of relations with Cuba, just as Obama is set to meet Cuban President Raul Castro on the sidelines of a Latin American summit in Panama on Friday and Saturday. Cuba was added to the terror list on March 1, 1982 and until this year, had been blocked by the U.S. from attending Summits of the Americas, the annual meetings of western hemisphere heads of state.