Daily News Channel
Hours after Turkey and Armenia announced a tentative, Swiss-mediated peace deal, opposition politicians in Turkey were blasting the proposal. The plan would normalize relations and open the common border between the two neighbors. Political analysts warn that there are still immense hurdles left, before Armenians and Turks can overcome nearly a century of bad blood and re-open a border that has been sealed shut for more then fifteen years
Police officers and soldiers held captive by the leftist guerrilla group known as FARC pleaded to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to negotiate their release in a series of nine proof-of-life videos released Monday. Pyongyang limited access to the North Korean border city of Kaesong in December as relations worsened between the nations. The decision restricted traffic to and from a jointly run industrial complex there.
The United States and Cuba should show some flexibility and take steps to improve relations, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday during a weeklong trade mission to the island nation. “There is a good atmosphere [between the two countries],” he said at a news conference in Havana on Friday.
A South Korean fishing boat and its four crew members were heading home Saturday after being held for a month in North Korea, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. The Yeonan-ho and its crew were handed over to a South Korean patrol boat waiting at the sea border Saturday evening, Yonhap reported, citing South Korean maritime police. North Korean officials captured the vessel and its crew July 30 after the boat strayed deep into North Korean territorial waters, North’s Korean Central News Agency reported at the time
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is preparing to break off diplomatic relations with Colombia over the neighboring country’s plan to allow U.S. troops access to its military bases
South Korea bade farewell to former President Kim Dae-jung Sunday in a ceremony attended by thousands of citizens, dignitaries and politicians. The solemn Sunday afternoon ceremony was held outside parliament, with a large portrait of Kim placed on a shrine surrounded by flowers. The funeral followed six days of mourning for Kim, who died Tuesday of a heart failure
South Korea’s unification minister met with North Korea’s unity leader Saturday in another sign that icy relations between the two rival nations could be thawing, the South’s state media reported. The meeting was the first high-level cross border contact in nearly two years, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. South Korea’s Unification Minister Hyun In Taek held talks with Kim Yang Gon, head of the North’s Workers’ Party unification, the agency reported
Somali forces clashed with al Qaeda-linked militants in the capital city Friday after the militants attacked an African Union peacekeeping station, according to an independent media report.
A North Korean delegation arrived in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday to mourn former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, best remembered for trying to foster better relations between the two neighbors, the South’s media reported. “Mourning the passing of the late president Kim Dae-jung …” said the great white wreath adorned with a black ribbon delivered on behalf of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The six-members of the delegation bowed their heads in front of the altar set up in honor of the late president.
China and Australia have signed an energy deal worth more than $40 billion — the largest trade deal ever between the two nations. The deal comes after tensions rose between the Asia-Pacific powerhouses over recent Chinese bids for Australian commodities companies and the arrest of an Australian Rio Tinto executive in Shanghai. In Tuesday’s deal, China will receive liquefied natural gas from the Gorgon Gas Field off Australia’s west coast