South Africa

Three hundred and ninety five Greek coasts and nine marinas won the international “Blue Flag” programme classification, placing Greece in third amongst 49 countries.

The Blue Flag is a voluntary eco-label awarded to more than 4000 beaches and marinas in 49 countries across Europe, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and the Caribbean.

Robust U.S. growth and stabilizing financing conditions will help the global economy to grow more strongly next year after muted growth in 2015, but some countries are vulnerable to negative shocks due to the strong U.S. dollar, said Moody?s Investors Service in its quarterly Global Macro Outlook report. 

Russian traders and tourists could use the ruble to pay for goods and services in Greece, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak proposed on Monday, inviting Athens to participate in the new development bank that the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are about to create.

The Secretary of Finance of the Russian Federation has called on Greece to partake in the new development bank created by the so-called BRICs countries — China, Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa.

Indian private banker K.V Kamath was named May 11 as the first head of a new development bank being set up by the so-called emerging BRICS nations, officials said.

Maxim Behar has again been elected as co-Chair of the Davos World Communications Forum Committee, an office he has assumed since 2013.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ratified an accord May 2 to set up a $100-billion reserve fund for the so-called BRICS -- the five leading emerging economies that include Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa.

Thaci says he wants Serbia "to apologize"

VIENNA -- Hashim Thaci has said that he is "seeking an apology from Serbia for the victims of the war in Kosovo in the 1990s."

Thaci, a former leader of the KLA who now serves as Kosovo's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, has also announced "a genocide lawsuit."

I was in Washington D.C. from April 13 to 19 for the 2015 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. I summarized my first impressions in my April 17 column. I now would like go through the whole nine yards.

Romanians Marius Copil and Adrian Ungur produced the day's surprise Thursday, defeating Florin Mergea and Rohan Bopanna in the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy doubles on the BNR Arenas of Bucharest and thus qualifying to the semifinal.