Cuba

Fidel Castro does not "trust the US, nor have I spoken with them," the revolutionary icon, 88, said in a letter attributed to him and read out on state television on Jan. 26.

Cuban officials sat down Jan. 22 with the highest-level US delegation to visit Havana in 35 years for landmark talks on reopening embassies and thawing long frozen ties.
      

The United States and Cuba on Wednesday began talks on re-establishing diplomatic relations and eventually repealing a 53-year-old trade embargo, international news outlets reported.

The level of the US delegation to Cuba is the highest for the last 35 years, marking the next step in the historic thaw of relations between the Cold War-era adversaries announced last month.    

US President Barack Obama delivered on Tuesday his sixth State of the Union speech at a joint session of Congress, in which he set out an ambitious agenda.

Obama gave account of the country's improving economy and called on his Republican rivals to support reforms aimed at improving the conditions of the middle class, the New York Times reports.

The highest-level U.S. delegation to Cuba in 35 years begins talks on Jan. 21 aimed at restoring diplomatic ties and eventually normalizing relations between two adversaries who have been locked in Cold War-era hostilities.
   

The United States will ease travel and trade restrictions with Cuba on Jan. 15, implementing last month's agreement to begin normalizing ties with the Cold War-era foe.

Visit Serbia, Condé Nast Traveler tells readers

BELGRADE -- Condé Nast Traveler has highlighted Serbia and its capital as a must-visit place in 2015 and one of the 15 most interesting destinations in the world.

In the article published online, Serbia ranks 8th on a list that also includes "Cuba, Helsinki, Berlin and Cape Town," the National Tourism Organization of Serbia said.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu will join other European leaders in an extraordinary show of support for France at a mass rally in Paris scheduled for Jan. 11.

There were calls for Davuto?lu to join the demonstration as a wave of global support continued following the bloody end to the Charlie Hebdo attacks? sieges. 

The number of Cubans trying to reach the US illegally by sea surged in December, after Havana and Washington announced a landmark rapprochement, the US Coast Guard said.
      

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made the headlines with several statements in 2014. When he was still Turkey’s prime minister before Aug. 10 presidential elections, many of his sensational comments targeted his political rivals – or the Internet as a whole.