*By Gwynne Dyer - South Korea’s Defence minister, Kim Tae-Young, was forced to resign after criticism that he was too slow to respond when North Korea attacked the island of Yeonpeong killing at least four people. But what was he supposed to do? What can his replacement, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Kwan-jin, do?
China said on Thursday it was willing to support Euro zone countries through the region's debt crisis. We are ready to support the Euro zone countries to overcome the financial crisis and realize economic recovery, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
Spain's oil major Repsol YPF said on Thursday it had sold 3.3% of its Argentine unit YPF to investment funds for 500 million US dollars as part of an effort to redirect investments to less mature markets.
China has defended its economic and trade relations with African nations. In the first policy paper on the subject, Beijing said China-Africa co-operation helped Africa to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals, and boosted common prosperity and progress.
After more than two and half years of pressure by Greenpeace and the famous “Tokyo Two” trials, officials with the Japanese Fishing Agency publicly admitted Thursday that they received whale meat as gifts from private companies contracted by the government to slaughter whales, reports Greenpeace USA blog.
The Swedish government Wednesday said it would close five embassies next year due to budget constraints, among them offices in Argentina.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been named Man of the Year by France's Le Monde newspaper, one of the five publications to cooperate with the whistleblowing website on its its latest release of leaked documents.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced Wednesday the appointment of Major-General Raul Gloodtdofsky Fernandez from Uruguay as head of the United Nations mission in India and Pakistan.
The European Union has strongly criticized European airports for failing to deal with recent freezing weather, which has left thousands of travellers stranded. Around 1,000 flights were cancelled across the continent on Tuesday.
Oil World has for a second time in two weeks reduced Argentina soybean crop hopes warning that, thanks to dry weather, it could be on course for a fall of more than 20%.