Cuba

Turkey has achieved what many other countries yearn for: conquering Hispanic audiences.

In countries including Brazil, considered the birthplace of telenovelas, characters named Zeynep, Elif and Ömer have come to replace names such as Maribel, Esmeralda and Victor Manuel.

President Klaus Iohannis signed, on Friday, the decrees to accredit 12 Romanian ambassadors, the Presidential Administration announced on Friday.

Cuba's ruling Communist Party elected President Miguel Diaz-Canel to succeed Raul Castro as party first secretary, the most powerful position in the country, on the final day of its congress on Monday, Reuters reported.

Raul Castro confirmed he was handing over the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party to a younger generation at its congress that kicked off on Friday, ending six decades of rule by himself and older brother Fidel.

Turkish volleyball club Fenerbahçe Opet's Cuban-born player Melissa Vargas was granted Turkish citizenship on April 10.

In a statement, Fenerbahçe said Melissa Teresa Vargas Abreu, 21, was given her Turkish identity card by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the Turkish Volleyball Federation's application for Vargas had been confirmed.

Mexican Embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara hosted a photo exhibition on March 4, reflecting the famous novel 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll, which will remain open for a month until March 28.

The exhibition is organized with the collaboration of Çankaya Municipality in the capital.

Ljubljana – Slovenia will step up health checks on its borders starting on Monday. It plans to reintroduce checkpoints on internal borders, which were scrapped in mid-February, and tighten quarantine rules for arrivals, Interior Minister Aleš Hojs told the press on Thursday.

At the moment of strained relations with Russia, some EU members, with their defending the Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline, further deepen the divisions in Europe and in the transatlantic partnership, writes the EUobserver portal, as EURACTIV reports.

Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died on Jan. 23. He was 87.

The Trump administration on Jan. 11 re-designated Cuba as a "state sponsor of terrorism," in a move that hits the country with new sanctions shortly before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the step, citing in particular Cuba's continued harboring of U.S. fugitives as well as its support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.