By Ingo Mannteufel (DW) – Germany’s foreign policy “Russian week” will culminate when Chancellor Angela Merkel meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Friday. In recent days, new German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and German Economic Affairs Minister Peter Altmaier have visited Moscow to discuss key international and European policy issues with their…

By Santo D. Banerjee - NEW YORK – Astana, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year as the capital city of Kazakhstan, is on way to becoming a financial hub. The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) will be a focal point for Central Asia, the Caucasus, Eurasian Economic Unit, the Middle…

    By Jammie Deter – WASHINGTON — (VOA News) - Russian lawmakers Tuesday unanimously approved, in first readings, legislation to retaliate against the United States and other Western countries for last month’s imposition by Washington of sanctions on some of Russia’s biggest companies and business people. One measure would empower the Kremlin to…

(WEBPUNLICAPRESS) – New York - Some of the 60 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in protests in Gaza on Monday were carried to their funerals through throngs of mourners in the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday during a lull in the weeks-long protests, DW (Deutsche Welle) reported quoting other news agencies. Many of the bodies were wrapped…

By John J. Metzler - UNITED NATIONS — Amid startling twists, turns and tribulations, the United States is preparing for a once improbable Summit meeting with North Korea to defuse Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile threat. Earlier in the year the “experts” and those who instinctively know better were predicting a probable war…

By Thalif Deen – STOCKHOLM – The underlying message at the fifth annual Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development was summed up in its telling title “The politics of peace.” But the task ahead was overwhelmingly difficult: How do you advance peace and development against the backdrop of political unrest in…

(RFE) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued veiled criticism of the United States in a speech before a Red Square parade marking the anniversary of Germany’s defeat in World War II, listing “pretentions to exceptionalism” as a factor that drove Nazi aggression and saying such attitudes remain a threat…