Russia is back. President Vladimir Putin wants the world to acknowledge that Russia remains a global power. He is making his stand in Syria. The Soviet Union acquired the Tartus Naval Port in Syria in 1971 without any real purpose for it. With their ships welcomed in Algeria, Cuba or Vietnam, Tartus was too insignificant to be developed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lacked the funds to spend on the base and no reason to invest in it.
With the world undergoing a “great transition,” it is time for a new kind of inclusive dialogue about decolonization, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, calling for fresh approaches to resolve the situations of the remaining 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories.
US-EU plans to join forces via a free-trade agreement are taking on shape. During his Berlin visit, US Secretary of State John Kerry described the planned pact as a priority for President Barack Obama's second term and marked out the agreement as a key element in cementing transatlantic ties.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica admits that relations between Uruguay and Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez can be “an impossible mission”, but at the same time praised Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez “as the most generous head of state he has ever met”.
Mexico’s Carlos Slim, probably the world’s richest man according to Forbes has referred to Argentina with certain irony when he was asked about the current foreign currency restrictions and changing regulatory framework implemented by the government of President Cristina Fernandez.
The US Air Force has chosen Brazil’s Embraer for a 427 million dollars contract to supply light attack planes to Afghan forces, the company said Thursday, despite competition from an American bid.
The mastermind behind Britain's “Great Train Robbery”, a 1963 heist that turned its perpetrators into celebrities, has died aged 81, local media reported on Thursday. Bruce Reynolds died in his sleep at his home in London after a period of ill health, reports from news media which included the BBC said, citing comments from Reynolds's son, Nick.
The head of Mexico's teachers' union and one of the country's most powerful women has been charged with embezzling up to 200 million dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle of shopping sprees and plastic surgery, officials said. The action is seen as a major coup for the three-month old administration of Enrique President Peña Nieto.
Argentina’s AMIA Jewish Community Centre President, Guillermo Borger, harshly criticized the approval of the Argentina-Iran accord, which occurred Thursday early morning after nearly 20 hours of debate, and warned that the institution analyzes resorting to court to stop it.
Interest in the Falkland Islands’ dispute with Argentina, assimilated to the current Senkakus/Diayous islands situation in Asia apparently has not been limited to the quotes made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before the Japanese Parliament but also in another minor experience precisely in the Falklands and involving the Editor of the Penguin News, the local weekly newspaper of the Islands.