Venezuela

US multinational insurance corporation AIG is withdrawing from the insurance business in Bulgaria as part of its decision to leave several markets.

Earlier in October, it announced it would sell some of its Latin American and Eastern European businesses to Canadian company Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited.

Minister of State Nikos Pappas on Monday dismissed criticism concerning a 2013 trip he made to Venezuela with a Cypriot lawyer specializing in offshore companies, saying that opposition New Democracy will not free itself of responsibility for the decades of corruption that have plagued Greece with "silly" assertions.

Venezuela's embattled government and opposition leaders have agreed on an agenda for talks beginning next month aimed at defusing an increasingly tense political crisis, a Catholic church official said early Oct. 31.

Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly in a rowdy session on Sunday pressed to put Nicolas Maduro on trial for violating democracy, days after authorities nixed a recall referendum against the unpopular leftist president.

Led by women dressed in white, several thousand Venezuelans  marched through Caracas on Oct. in the first of what the opposition hopes will be growing protests against the quashing of a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro. 

Cutting oil production is the best way to stabilize the market, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said in Istanbul at the World Energy Congress. 
Speaking at the congress on Oct. 12, Novak said the oil price issue was different than previous crises and was lasting longer than previously.

The Colombian government and the country's second-largest rebel group, the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN), announced Oct. 10 they would launch negotiations on Oct. 27 in Ecuador's capital, with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos predicting "total peace." 

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said during the opening Monday of a parliamentary debate on corruption that his government was trying to clean up the mess created by the parties of the opposition, accusing them of perpetuating graft while they were in office.

Bulgaria will be represented at a deputy ministerial level at the World Energy Congress, a key global event, on Monday.

Deputy Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov will attend the 23th edition of the congress that is being held in Istanbul, his institution has said.

Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, however, is also added to the list of speakers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to have talks with his counterparts from Turkey and Venezuela, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nicolás Maduro, while attending the World Energy Congress in Istanbul, TASS agency has said.