Indonesia

By Sophie Sassard

Soon after politicians from left-wing SYRIZA party won power in Greece they said they had hired Lazard to advise them on restructuring their debt.

It is a homecoming of sorts for the US investment bank. Lazard cemented its position as the eminence grise of debt negotiations when it secured the biggest restructuring deal in history for Athens in 2012.

The mayor of the western Turkish province of ?zmir, Aziz Kocao?lu, has been named among the ?top 10 mayors in the world? for 2014, in a ranking organized by an international think tank working on urban affairs, the City Mayors Foundation.

Kocao?lu came 10th in the Top 10 Mayors of the World 2014, organized by the City Mayors Foundation?s World Mayor Project since 2004.

Turkish Industry Minister Fikri I??k has called on his counterparts from the D-8 group of developing countries to participate in creating a joint venture car brand.

The US rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has downgraded Russia's credit rating to junk, which is below investment grade.

Russia's credit rating has been lowered to such a level for the first time in a decade, Bloomberg reports.

Having a rating of BB+, Russia is on a par with Bulgaria and Indonesia, which makes it difficult for Moscow to borrow money from investors.

Istanbul is now the world?s second worst city in the in terms of stop-start traffic, according to a new study by lubricating oil firm Castrol.

Drivers in Istanbul made an average of 32,520 stop-starts in 2014, an increase of 1,320 times less in 2013, according to the study conducted by Castrol Magnatec in 78 cities from 36 countries.

Indonesian divers Jan. 22 recovered six bodies, some still belted into their seats, near the main section of an AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month, but failed again to reach the fuselage.
      

Warning alarms in AirAsia flight QZ8501 were "screaming" as the pilots desperately tried to stabilise the plane just before it plunged into the Java Sea last month, a crash investigator said Jan. 21.
        

Indonesia's Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan announced on Tuesday that the crashed AirAsia plane climbed too fast before stalling.

According to Jonan, the jet ascended at a speed of 1828 metres per minute, which neither a passenger nor a military plane would attempt to climb so fast, the BBC reports.

Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova has presented plans to emphasize cultural and historical routes as a key point in the advertisement of Bulgaria as a tourist destination.

For centuries, ideologues and politicians in the West have positioned themselves regarding Islam in a defensive way.