Embargo

A peculiar picture has again appeared in Turkey's gold trade. The export and import of gold bars with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is at the center of this peculiarity.

BELGRADE - Russia's Foreign Ministry has denied allegations by Croatian media about Russian arms shipments to Croatia in the early 1990s.

Russia has imposed a temporary ban on poultry imports from 15 European countries, including Bulgaria, over risk of bird flu.

Two firms signed a deal on Jan. 5 for the first commercial exports in half a century from Cuba to the United States, a new step in the countries' historic rapprochement.

Cuban company CubaExport signed an agreement to sell charcoal to U.S. firm Coabana Trading for $420 a ton, the communist island's state newspaper Granma said.

A number of limits in Turkey's bilateral visa and trade transactions with Russia still remain in place, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has said, adding that this makes the Turkish side "uncomfortable."

Two statements, one after the other, came on the day the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the "Syria Summit" to be held together with Turkey and Iran. 

The first one was from the United States, which said economic sanctions applied to Russia after the Ukraine crisis were expanded, adding seven more Russian citizens and eight companies to the U.S. Treasury's list. 

The European Union and Cuba on Dec. 12 signed a deal to normalize ties that had been blocked for decades by human rights concerns under revolutionary icon Fidel Castro.

Cuba had been the only Latin American country that did not have a so-called "dialogue and cooperation" deal with the EU covering issues such as trade, human rights and migration.

Turkish energy company Turcas Petrol is looking at entering the Iranian energy market through investments in oil, gas or renewables following the lifting of most sanctions against the Islamic Republic, its chief executive said on May 3.

"We believe we definitely must be in Iran," Batu Aksoy told reporters. 

It was breaking news after Reza Zarrab was arrested in the United States and the indictment about him was immediately unsealed. 

Let's look at what happened piece by piece: 

President Barack Obama arrived to small but cheering crowds on March 20 at the start of a historic visit to Cuba that opened a new chapter in U.S. engagement with the island's Communist government after decades of hostility between the former Cold War foes.