Media Roundup

United States

A Look at Who Is Still Held at Guantanamo

The Associated Press

President Barack Obama has appointed a new envoy to lead a renewed effort to close the detention center at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The following is a look at where things stand.

Latin America

Peña Nieto Pledges Transformational Reform of Pemex

By John Paul Rathbone | Financial Times

Enrique Peña Nieto, the Mexican president, vowed to press ahead with what he claimed would be a “transformational” reform of Pemex, the state-owned oil monopoly, a controversial move widely expected to unleash billions of dollars of foreign investment.

Brazil Protests Spread in Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Rio

BBC

As many as 200,000 people have marched through the streets of Brazil's biggest cities, as protests over rising public transport costs and the expense of staging the 2014 World Cup have spread. The biggest demonstration was in Rio de Janeiro, where 100,000 people joined a mainly peaceful march.

U.S.-Cuba Mail Talks Spark Speculation of Wider Outreach

By Guy Taylor | The Washington Times

The announcement that U.S. and Cuban officials will hold landmark talks this week toward restarting direct mail service between the two nations prompted a mix of reactions on Monday on whether the Obama administration plans a broader outreach to the Castro regime in the president’s second term.

Asia-Pacific

China's Banking Troubles

Stratfor

The prospect of bank defaults could stall Beijing's efforts to rein in credit growth and reform the economy.

True or Faked, Dirt on Chinese Fuels Blackmail

By Dan Levin and Amy Qin | The New York Times

A growing number of Chinese officials have found themselves ensnared by extortion plots that leverage the public’s disgust for wayward behavior.

Africa

West Africa Piracy Overtakes Somali Ship Attacks

BBC

Piracy off the coast of West Africa has now overtaken Somali piracy, a report by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and other seafarers' groups says. It says 966 sailors were attacked in West Africa in 2012, compared with 851 off the Somali coast.

Challenge to Elite South African Schools That Segregate by Language

By Kenichi Serino | The Christian Science Monitor

A majority-white South African public school has drawn accusations of trying to segregate itself from the black population through its language policy, touching off a court battle that could eventually impact the racial makeup of some of the country's best public schools.

Zimbabwe 'Cattle Bank' Takes Deposits That Moo

By Gillian Gotora | The Associated Press

William Mukurazita's deposit at the bank has four legs and moos. Zimbabwe's first "Cattle Bank" has just opened its books in a unique kind of banking where owners bring in their animals as collateral against cash loans.

Europe

EU-U.S. Trade Talks Launched Amid French Fury With Brussels

By George Parker, Vanessa Houlder and James Politi | Financial Times

Barack Obama and European leaders on Monday launched talks on “the biggest bilateral trade deal in history” , an initiative that the US president has put at the heart of his second-term economic agenda.

Putin and Obama Clash Over Assad's Fate

By Peter Nicholas and Stacy Meichtry | The Wall Street Journal (Subscription Required)

President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin clashed openly over Syria as the G-8 summit began Monday, sharply underscoring deepening differences over the civil war. With the conflict growing increasingly militarized, Messrs. Obama and Putin each said they agreed on the need for negotiations, pointing to upcoming peace talks in Geneva.

Middle East

U.S., Allies See Chance for Breakthrough With Iran’s New President

By Ashish Kumar Sen | The Washington Times

The United States and its Western allies see a chance for a breakthrough on containing Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program with Hasan Rowhani, who won Iran’s presidential election last week. Mr. Rowhani on Monday said a plan drawn up by Iranian officials and French President Jacques Chirac eight years ago could be a possible solution.

United States

Obama’s German Storm

By Roger Cohen | The New York Times

Where Kennedy spoke of freedom, Obama must speak of the end of the security-skewed post-9/11 era.

Privacy in a Surveillance Society

By Tom Keane | The Boston Globe

We are becoming a surveillance society, but there has to be a stopping point, because the information that is shared with one can easily be shared with all.

The Making of a Global Security State

By Tom Engelhardt | Asia Times

As happens with so much news these days, the Edward Snowden revelations about National Security Agency (NSA) spying and just how far we've come in the building of a surveillance state have swept over us. Here's my attempt to look beyond the daily drumbeat of this developing story.

On Government Surveillance, Americans Complicit

By John Deleon | Miami Herald

The most vexing issue the world has dealt with is how the German people allowed the machinery of the German government to turn into a killing machine before its very eyes. How did evil triumph among one of the most civilized groups of people to have emerged on the European continent? The reasons why are still murky, the lesson learned: Never again.

Military Sexual Violence: From Frontline to Fenceline

By Annie Isabel Fukushima and Gwyn Kirk | Foreign Policy in Focus

As more U.S. military women break the silence about sexual violence committed by their comrades in arms, it is clear that sporadic “scandals” are not isolated incidents, but spring from the mycelium of U.S. military culture and ideology.

Latin America

Asia-Pacific

Europe

Putin on the Front Burner

By Nikolai Petrov | The Moscow Times

Two full years after it was first created, the All-Russia People's Front gained official status only last week under the new name of the People's Front for Russia.

Environment: The Limits to Panic

By Bjørn Lomborg | Project Syndicate

We often hear how the world as we know it will end, usually through ecological collapse. Indeed, more than 40 years after the Club of Rome released the mother of all apocalyptic forecasts, The Limits to Growth, its basic ideas are still with us. But time has not been kind.

Europe’s Economic Groupthink

By Hans-Helmut Kotz | Today's Zaman

During the recent hearing on the constitutionality of the European Central Bank’s measures to prevent the eurozone from falling apart, Andreas Vosskuhle, President of Germany’s Constitutional Court, raised an important question: Do non-German economists condemn the ECB’s outright monetary transactions (OMT) as unequivocally as all but one of the German experts testifying?

Middle East

A Test of Wills in Iran

By Hussein Banai | Los Angeles Times

Elected in part through Iranian conservatives' inability to unify behind a single candidate, Hassan Rowhani represents a compromise on the part of voters. But storm clouds are already apparent.

Did Sanctions Shape the Iranian Election?

By Mehdi Khalaji | The Washington Post

The recent presidential election in Iran proved that the Islamic Republic’s instinct for self-preservation trumps its ideology.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s African Safari

By Joseph Hammond | The Diplomat

From Ghana to Egypt to the Horn, the departing president has leveraged economic and diplomatic ties to expand Iran’s reach in Africa.

The Iranian Mood

By Ali Ibrahim | Asharq Alawsat

The election of Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, pragmatic conservative, and around whom the forces of reform were united in the recent Iranian presidential elections, was a surprise according to many western reports trying to analyze whether there will be change in Iran. However, the fact is, there were indications pointing to this result.

Kurds Advance, Into the Unknown

By Karlos Zurutuza | Inter Press Service

A ban on political and even social gatherings, a bar on Kurdish language and culture; uprooting people, forced disappearances and a ‘caste’ of hundreds of thousands of local Kurds deprived of citizenship… life for Kurds in pre-war Syria was probably as dire as it is today for their kin in Iran.

United States

Pentagon Signs New Russian Helicopter Deal

RIA Novosti

Russia and the United States have signed a contract for the delivery of Russian Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan army, a Russian government agency said Monday.

Latin America

El Salvador to Help Mediate Honduras Gang Truce

By Alberto Arce | Associated Press

Two Salvadorans who mediated in a gang truce in their country that cut the homicide rate by at least 50 percent met Monday with gang leaders in Honduras, where they will help do the same.

Peru Planning FTA With Russia, CIS

By Diego M. Ortiz | Peru This Week

Peruvian Minister of Foreign Commerce Jose Luis Silva announced that a planned free trade agreement with Russia could be extended to the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Brazil, U.K. to Boost Cooperation on Biotech Research

Merco Press

The British Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development signed a letter of understanding to implement a new cooperation program to extend their long-term collaboration.

Chinese President Visits Cuba

Xinhua Net

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Cuban Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Tuesday to discuss bilateral relations.

Asia-Pacific

Afghanistan to Kick Off Taliban Peace Talks in Qatar

By Reuters | Dawn

Afghanistan will send a team to Qatar for peace talks with the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday, as the U.S.-led NATO coalition launched the final phase of the 12-year war with the last round of security transfers to Afghan forces.

China, North Korea to Hold Talks

People's Daily

Chinese Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Yesui and his North Korean counterpart will hold strategic talks Wednesday in Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday.

India, Argentina to Expand Ties

By TNN | Times of India

At a joint commission meeting with Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said the two countries are seeking a strategic partnership agreement with a focus on trade and energy.

ASEAN Begins Disaster Relief Exercise

People's Daily

The opening ceremony of the inaugural ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief and Military Medicine Exercise was held Monday at the Multinational Coordination Center in Brunei.

U.S. to Aid Vietnam in Fight Against Emerging Epidemics

Viet Nam News

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has said her country is committed to working with Viet Nam to combat emerging epidemics, especially infectious diseases, and to promote the transfer of technology to fight HIV/AIDS.

Africa

Egypt, Ethiopia Agree to Further Talks

By Agence France-Presse | News24

Ethiopia and Egypt have agreed to hold further talks on the impact of an Ethiopian dam to quell tensions between the two countries, the foreign ministers of both nations said Tuesday.

CAR President in Sudan for Talks

Sudan Tribune

Central African Republic President Michel Djotodia arrived Monday in Khartoum where he held talks with his Sudanese counterpart Omer Al-Bashir.

Europe

Ankara-Brussels Spat Grows as Trips, Meetings Canceled

Today's Zaman

In a deepening row over disagreement over protests in Turkey, Turkish Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin cancelled his plans to attend upcoming meetings of the European Parliament (EP) and the European Commission (EC) in Brussels while an EP delegation has also called off a planned trip to Turkey.

Middle East

Allies of Iran's Outgoing President Defeated

Associated Press

Allies of outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have suffered a resounding defeat in local council elections, a clear rejection at the end of his term.