Mahinda Rajapaksa’s plans to return to power as Sri Lanka’s president for a third successive term has run into trouble. With less than a month to go before the vote, Rajapaksa is ahead of his rivals but joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena is closing in and could unseat him in a free and fair election.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
China, Kazakhstan to sign $10 bln in deals including oil, infrastructure-Xinhua
Dec 14 (Reuters) - China is expected to sign 30 cooperative agreements worth $10 billion with Kazakhstan as Premier Li Keqiang begins his first official visit to the country, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.
Xinhua did not give details, but quoted Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping as highlighting a joint-venture logistics base and urging interconnectivity with highways, railways, ports, air routes, oil and gas pipelines.
"The Sino-Kazakh cooperation is developing rapidly. The volume of trade between the two countries is increasing annually by 20 percent," Xinhua quoted Li as saying in an article.
Kazakhstan has become China's second largest trade partner in the Commonwealth of the Independent States, while China is the second largest trade partner and the largest export market of Kazakhstan, Li was quoted as saying.
Li will also visit Serbia and Thailand, but some of the most touchy topics he could encounter are off the agenda, including the fate of Muslims from western China who have fled to Southeast Asia.
Li's trip, from Dec. 14 to 20, also takes in summits with Eastern European, Central Asian and Southeast Asian leaders. (Reporting by Kevin Yao)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/14/china-kazakhstan-idUSL3N0TY05320141214
Ruble Drops to Critical New Low, Plunge Felt Across Central Asia
The Russian ruble crossed a psychological barrier in Kyrgyzstan on December 12, becoming worth less than the som for the first time. Across Central Asia, the ruble’s slide is pushing local currencies to new lows. But they can’t seem to fall fast enough to keep a competitive advantage.
Suicide bomber attacks French school in Afghanistan
| People attempt to help an injured
man outside the Lycée Esteqlal in Kabul following a suicide bomb attack
A
teenage suicide bomber detonated explosives killing several and wounding 15
others during an event at a French-run high school in Afghanistan’s capital
Kabul on Thursday, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
|
Pakistan and the Taliban: To talk or fight?
|
|
Announcing a new commission to oversee Taliban talks surprised
many - not least those who were named as commissioners.
|
|
Afghanistan.
Daniel Markey, senior fellow for South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, says that there is "a firm hope" in Washington that this latest offer of talks is "a tactic by PM Sharif to unify Pakistan when it is shown that talks are either not productive or when they fail, to use that unity [to gather public support for a military operation]".The greater concern for Washington, Markey argues, is the insularity with which Nawaz Sharif has been making policy. |
Car
bombs kill 15 students, 10 Houthi rebels in Yemen
Blasts
hit school bus carrying primary schoolers near Shia gathering, killing 25,
including at least 15 students
December 16, 2014 11:33AM ET
Two car bombs exploded south of the
Yemeni capital city of Sanaa on Tuesday, hitting a school bus traveling near a
Shia gathering and killing 25 people including at least 15 primary school
students, a Shia group said.
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