Congress

Turkey should look after the 290 Uighur Turks who are being kept in a camp in Thailand and face the possibility of being executed if returned to China, said the president of the World Uighur Congress (WUC) Rebiya Kadeer.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Dec. 20 new Western sanctions against Ukraine's Crimea region were a "collective punishment" on residents who voted last March to join Russia, adding it was preparing to retaliate. 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomes U.S.-Cuba thaw

BELGRADE -- Serbia "welcomes the historic U.S.-Cuba agreement on a humanitarian release of prisoners and opening a new chapter in the relations between the two countries."

The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued this statement on Friday.

First deputy-chairperson of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Alina Gorghiu has been elected on Thursday as president of the old PNL, and she will also be co-chairperson of the new PNL.

Dacic reelected as leader of Socialists

BELGRADE -- The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) reelected Ivica Dacic as their president at the 9th Congress of the party held on Sunday in Belgrade....

The US Congress passed a $1.1-trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2015 Dec. 13, capping a week of acrimonious wrangling while averting a government shutdown and sending the measure to President Barack Obama.
      

The two leading Iraqi Kurdish parties have been removed from the United States terrorist list, a senior U.S. official has announced.

The Kurdistan Democratic Union (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have been recognized as Tier III terrorist group under the Patriot Act of the U.S. since 2001, although both organizations are long-time U.S. allies.

Facing intense pressure to avoid a government shutdown, the US House of Representatives narrowly passed a $1.1 trillion federal spending bill Dec. 11, sending it to the Senate after it was ushered through barely two hours before a midnight deadline.
      

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked Congress on Dec. 9 for new war powers to provide the legal grounding for U.S. military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), but faced strong criticism from Republicans for not giving authorization to fight Syrian regime troops.

CIA torture of al-Qaeda suspects was far more brutal than acknowledged, did not produce useful intelligence and was so poorly managed it lost track of detainees, a scathing U.S. Senate report revealed Dec. 9.