World | WPN World People News

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Monday completed the sixth review of Burundi’s economic performance under the program supported by an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement.1 The Board’s decision enables the immediate disbursement of SDR 5 million (about US$6.9 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 30 million (about US$41.6 million).

Displaced Palestinians with their belongings, following Israeli authorities demolition of their structures in Ein al Hilwa (Tubas Governorate) in the Jordan Valley on 30 January 2014.

A documentary film, aired on Russian state television over the weekend of March 14-15, confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was prepared to put his nation's strategic nuclear forces on alert, following the Western-engineered neo-Nazi coup d'état that overthrew Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. Putin was interviewed for the documentary, which has been in preparation for eight months. He told an interviewer that he warned U.S. and European leaders to stay out of the Crimea, following the overthrow of Yanukovych, and he concluded that his warnings avoided a global war.

Substantial international attention has been focused on this year’s meeting of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC), much of it misguided and/or malicious. But there is a real reason for the Congress’s importance. With the full brunt of the international financial crisis hitting Europe and the U.S., China is playing a crucial role in maintaining stability in the world economy. In particular, China’s commitment to the development of the two Silk Roads, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, represents the only option for the world to chart a path out of the present economic crisis.

The European Investment Bank has become a member of The Currency Exchange Fund, TCX, a unique hedging vehicle that will allow the EIB to enhance its long-term lending in local currencies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Greece has become the standard bearer for the BRICS in Europe. With the European Union refusing to turn off the road leading to self-destruction, the drive for economic development led by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is creating a powerful alternative that Greece is ready to take up. Greece and the rest of Europe have a choice between Plan A (for asphyxiation) and Plan B (joining with the BRICS for survival and economic development). Greece, with its special ties to both Russia and China, can serve as the bridge between Europe and the BRICS.

With the threat of terrorism growing every day, the task of Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s counter-terrorism coordinator, becomes increasingly more important. It’s his job to coordinate the Council's work in combating terrorism, keep an eye on all the instruments available to the EU and make policy recommendations. We talked to him about how terrorism should be fought and the role the European Parliament could play.

The risk of Greek companies bribing foreign officials is substantial, but Greece has not given the same priority to fighting foreign bribery as it has to domestic corruption. This sends an unfortunate message that foreign bribery is an acceptable means to win overseas business and improve Greece’s economy during an economic crisis. Greece must therefore urgently raise the priority of fighting foreign bribery and explicitly address foreign bribery in its national anti-corruption strategies.

Researchers, businesses and innovators from Ukraine will now be able to fully participate in Horizon 2020, the European Union's research and innovation funding programme, on equal terms with EU Member States and other associated countries. This is thanks to the Agreement for the Association of Ukraine to Horizon 2020, signed on March 20 in Kyiv by Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, and Serhiy Kvit, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.