Columbia

'A Question of Order: India, Turkey, and the Return of Strongmen' by Basharat Peer (Columbia Global Reports, 160 pages, $13)

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) chair Korneliya Ninova has been elected to the presidium of the Socialist International, her party says.

In a vote during the global body's meeting in Cartagena, Columbia, she has been picked by 150 delegates.

There are as many as 32 Vice Presidential seats in the presidium.

The chairwoman of BSP Korneliya Ninova confirmed that she has been nominated for Vice President of the Socialist International.

"Yes, I have been nominated. I was invited personally by Mr. Luis Ayala who is the Secretary General of the international organisation," stated Ninova and added:

People of the world should "acquire the ability to co-exist" as they are closely interdependent to each other in the modern day in the face of intertwined threats, daily Hürriyet Chairwoman Vuslat Doğan Sabancı has said.

Istanbul has been ranked 15th among the cities with the most traffic in the world and 10th among the countries most congested, according to a new report by transportation analytics firm INRIX. 

'The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics' by John B. Judis (Columbia Global Reports, $13, 184 pages)

A concert featuring Orquesta La 33 (popularly known as La 33), a Colombian salsa music band, will be held in August at EXPO 2016 in the southern resort of Antalya, Colombian Ambassador to Turkey Juan Alfredo Pinto has said.

According to Pinto, Columbia's La 33 is the best salsa orchestra in the southern hemisphere.

'Holy Lands: Reviving Pluralism in the Middle East' by Nicolas Pelham (Columbia Global Reports, 183 pages, $14)

BELGRADE - At least 272 people were killed by Saturday's devastating earthquake in Ecuador, President Rafael Correa said Sunday evening in an address to the nation.

"Officially, the number [of those killed] in the country totals 272," Correa said.

"The scale of the tragedy is huge, but we will be able to move forward."

Thirty years ago to the day, the first Space Shuttle mission landed in California. On April 14, 1981, the rear wheels of the space shuttle orbiter Columbia touched down on Rogers dry lake at Edwards Air Force Base, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (then Dryden Flight Research Center), in southern California, to successfully complete a stay in space of more than two days.