Ankara continues efforts to join EU

Ankara has issued a strong attack on the European Union (EU) for what it calls a "bigoted" assessment of Turkey in its report on EU membership requirements published in October. In response, Turkey drew up its own report released this week to counter Brussels'. Despite the current acrimony, Ankara is expressing hopes its membership bid will get back on track with Ireland taking over the EU presidency.

In an unprecedented step, Ankara, earlier this week, published its own assessment of its progress to join the ranks of the European Union in reponse to Brussels' critical assessment which raised concerns over deteriorating human rights in the country.

Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis in Istanbul, June 26, 2012. ​​In the 270-page report, Turkey's Minister for EU membership, Ergemen Bagis, claimed such...

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Turkey has been trying to join the European Union since 2005. We can learn a little bit about the process behind becoming a member nation of the EU from this report.

ASEAN and Japan to commemorate 40 years of ties in 2013

ASEAN's leaders have started their second day of summit meetings with their dialogue partners from China, Japan, South Korea, India and the United States.

This comes a day after the regional group settled their housekeeping matters, including confirming targets to achieve the ASEAN Community vision by December 31, 2015.

ASEAN and Japan will commemorate 40 years of ties in 2013, and Singapore supports Japan's plans to have a commemorative summit.

Sharing his thoughts at the ASEAN-Japan Summit, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said strategically, ASEAN and Japan should enhance links further.

He has suggested that both sides fully implement the Joint Declaration for Enhancing ASEAN-Japan Strategic Partnership and its Plan of Action for 2011 to 2015.

Mr Lee said he is also happy that Japan is...

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Japan is celebrating 40 years of cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN is Japan's second largest trading partner so the country is looking toward developing stronger relationships with Asian neighbors in the future.

Burma welcomes Obama's historic visit

Burma's government has said it "warmly welcomes" the historic visit of US President Barack Obama later this month, expressing hope his trip will bolster the nation's political reform drive.

Mr Obama, who was re-elected this week, will meet democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein on the first visit to the country by a sitting US president, on a visit Burmese officials say will take place on November 19.

His visit "is warmly welcomed" and will "strengthen the resolve" of Thein Sein to "move forward" with reforms, a spokesman for Burma's Presidential Office said late on Friday.

Mr Obama's visit shows "concrete support for the democratisation process of...

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President Obama planning a visit to Burma. It will be the first time an American president visits the country. As Burma makes changes and becomes more democratized, the market is opening up. Companies like Coca-Cola are also interested in what is happening there.

5 Countries Elected to UN Security Council

Five countries have won two-year terms on the 15-member U.N. Security Council, including one potentially controversial country - Rwanda.

Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, Rwanda and South Korea won non-permanent seats in the vote by the U.N. General Assembly. They will replace outgoing members Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa.

Eight countries competed for the five open seats, which are allocated regionally.

The most hotly contested seats were for Asia-Pacific and the group known as Western European and Others. In the first group, Bhutan, Cambodia and the Republic of Korea competed for...

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We often hear about the U.N. Security Council in the news without understanding how all the member countries work together.  This article gives a little insight into the politics behind the organization.

Aung San Suu Kyi urges cooperation among Burma’s leaders

Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged cooperation among leaders in her country to work for its good. Speaking briefly during a visit to the United Nations Friday, she said the time has come for the Burmese people to take responsibility for democratizing their own country.

Aung San Suu Kyi is making her first visit to the United States in decades, just days ahead of a visit by her president, Thein Sein, who will be making his international debut at the U.N. General Assembly’s annual debate on Thursday morning.

Asked if she worried about stealing his spotlight, she said she did not think people should think about it in terms of personalities.

“I think we should think about it as a...

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Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the world's most famous political activists. She was recently at the UN urging her people to get actively involved in democratizing Burma.

USAID democracy programs can complicate international relations

Russian officials say they are ordering the U.S. Agency for International Development to close its operations in the country because U.S. pro-democracy programs have interfered in its elections. While Russia is not the only country to make such claims, U.S. officials say foreign assistance is not used to support political opposition groups, but to increase democratic participation and peacefully resolve disputes and grievances.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the leaders of Russia asked the U.S. for assistance in building a democracy and a market economy.

Over the past 20 years, election-monitoring groups, human rights organizations, and anti-corruption efforts have been funded in part by USAID, which has provided more than $2.6 billion to Russia.

President Vladimir Putin has now ended USAID's programs, reportedly out of...

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There is a fine line between helping and interfering.

India, Pakistan sign visa agreement

The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan met in Islamabad Saturday to review progress the two rival nations have made in their recently resumed wide-ranging peace dialogue. The extensive discussions also witnessed the signing of a much-awaited new visa agreement to ease tough cross-border travel restrictions.

Speaking to reporters at the end of their extensive talks, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and her Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna, told reporters the newly-signed visa agreement is an important step forward in improving relations.

Foreign Minister Khar said the pact will enhance trade, business, cultural and political exchanges between India and Pakistan. She stressed that both countries have made significant progress in the past year toward improving relations and reiterated her country is committed to building on the momentum.

"We will move forward. What has happened until...

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Crossing the Indian-Pakistan border just became easier....

Deal by deal, Russia building ties with Asia

Chinese President Hu Jintao announced Saturday more than $150 billion in spending on infrastructure projects as part of efforts to boost Chinese and world economic growth.

President Hu, speaking in Vladivostok at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, said the billions would be spent on roads, railroads, farming, and energy projects.

The meeting of 21 member economies in the Russian port city was dominated by calls to boost infrastructure spending to cut transportation bottlenecks in Asia.

The Chinese leader said the infrastructure spending would...

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At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, plans are made to encourage economic development in the region.

Non-profit helps street children get on their feet

Some 210 million youngsters around the world, according to UNICEF, are orphaned or live on the streets, forced into a precarious life by war, poverty or illness. Among the organizations working to help them is one prompted by a chance meeting on a New Delhi street. Help for Orphans focuses on teaching street children the skills they need for a better future.

In 2004, Sarah Ehrlich was on a trip to India with her husband, an art dealer. One day, as she waited in their car while he bought artwork at a store, a small boy approached her.

“He was about 8-years-old and he was holding a baby," said Ehrlich. "This baby couldn’t have been more than a week old. He was standing next to the car, by my window. He kept pushing the baby, head forward and saying, ‘feed the baby, feed the baby’. Every time he would come forward, the baby’s head would hit the back window of the car.”

That moment changed her life. She said, "I just wanted to...

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IB program aims to form 'students of the world'

The International Baccalaureate Organization was founded in nineteen sixty-eight. It works with schools in one hundred forty-three countries to offer programs for students age three to nineteen. These programs, it says, "help develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world."

The organization says IB programs are in more than three thousand schools. The majority of these schools offer IB diploma programs.

High school students have to complete six courses, pass exams and write a twenty-page paper to earn an IB diploma. The courses are in humanities, science, arts, math, a second language and their own language.

Students can also attend special events. Recently more than three hundred...

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Hong Kong, Chile sign free trade pact

Chile and the Asian business hub of Hong Kong signed a free trade agreement Friday ahead of an Asia Pacific leaders' summit.

Hong Kong Finance Secretary John Tsang and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera witnessed the ceremony on the eve of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.

Pinera said it took only one year for negotiators to reach agreement and for the document to be signed.

Tsang said it will "further strengthen our partnership and serve as a platform to turn our bilateral economic relations to a new level".

According to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the Chinese territory's total exports to...

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Here we have another example of countries joining together to promote growth and wealth.

Experts warn of future Asia-Pacific food vulnerability

Drought in the United States and India is leading to higher food prices and has some experts warning Asia Pacific countries to step up investment in agriculture. Asia’s shifting dietary habits require greater imports and are raising fears over future food vulnerability.

Across the globe there is an increased focus on the challenge of producing enough food as the global population is predicted to reach nine billion by 2050. Scientists said food output must rise by 70 percent to meet demand.

While drought in the United States and India has increased prices on some commodities, overall the United Nations Food and...

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Russian supply ship docks with International Space Station

An unmanned Russian cargo ship has re-docked with the International Space Station after a failed attempt five days earlier.

The docking Sunday was successful, after an earlier attempt failed because of problems with a new docking system.

The new docking system will be sent back to Earth for modification.

The supply ship will load garbage from the space station, then be sent to burn up in the atmosphere.

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Japanese Kobe beef debuts in Hong Kong

Rarely exported Japanese Kobe beef made its way to Hong Kong dining tables on Friday as supermarkets and high-end restaurants started selling the previously exclusive Japanese culinary delicacy.

Hong Kong is only the second foreign market after the nearby Chinese territory of Macau to receive exports of officially certified Kobe beef, the industry's marketing association said.

"The response has been overwhelming -- most of our stock has been sold out in a few hours," Taste supermakets spokeswoman Athena Lee told AFP.

Kobe beef comes from Tajima-gyu cows that have been...

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In time of drought, China reaches out to Ukraine to guarantee food supplies

The worst drought in half a century is hitting corn and wheat harvests in the United States, the world’s largest food exporter.  So China, a major food importer, is turning to a new source of supply -- Ukraine, a nation once known as the breadbasket of Europe.

The drought in the United States reinforces expert forecasts that world food supplies will steadily tighten this decade, and that prices will rise. When grain prices go up, so do the prices of bread, milk, eggs and meat. When that happened two years ago, riots broke out in Egypt and Mozambique.

By 2050, the world will have to produce 60 percent more food to meet demands from a world population that is expected to be bigger and richer.
In advance, China is reaching out to producers around the globe to guarantee future food supplies.

 A century ago, rich corn and wheat harvests made Ukraine...


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