Uruguay's president Jose Mujica said the latest world events show that Europe 'has lost clout' in global affairs, and has lost strength as 'peace mediator', and this role could be “much better performed by Latin America”.
Ukraine's next crisis will be a devastatingly economic one, as violent conflict destroys critical infrastructure in the east and brings key industry to a halt, furthering weakening the energy sector by crippling coal-based electricity production.
Sharply higher interest rates around the world could combine with weaker growth in emerging markets to slice as much as two percentage points off global growth in the next five years, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.
Amid mounting criticism of Russia over the MH17 plane tragedy and conflict with Ukraine, FIFA rejects calls for the country to be stripped of 2018 World Cup hosting rights and says a boycott is no solution to the crisis.
”The World travel and tourism industry must come together and take leadership after the Malaysia Airlines (MH17) incident.” This is the opinion voiced by Juergen Thomas Steinmetz, Chairman of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP).
A suspected Russian-made surface-to-air missile downed a Malaysia Airlines jet in a separatist-controlled corner of eastern Ukraine on Thursday, prompting the Kiev government to denounce an “act of terror” that killed all 298 people on board.
In an article for Penguin News, distinguished political and scientific Bulgarian author Dr Lyubomir Ivanov (*) discusses the Crimean conflict and its parallel with the Falklands.The Argentine President Cristina Kirchner praised the recent Crimean status referendum as, “one of the famous referendums of self-determination.”
By Gwynne Dyer - With due apologies to God, Voltaire and the Ukrainians, I must point out that if Ukraine did not exist, it would not be necessary to invent it.It is not a great power, it has no resources the world cannot do without, and it is not a “vital strategic interest” to anybody except the Ukrainians. Not even to the Russians, although they are acting at the moment as though it were.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn't think the European community can do without the natural gas it gets from energy monopoly Gazprom. With a Russian economy starting to decline, however, it may be Gazprom that's too strongly interconnected to the European market to break free.
As protests in Ukraine's eastern region turned violent on Sunday leading to the death of a Ukrainian security officer in a shootout with pro-Russian militia, Kiev threatens military action while Moscow flexes its geo-economic warfare muscles.