SpackinWorld Blog

1. U.S. human trafficking report singles out two post-Soviet states
Russia and Uzbekistan are among the world’s “worst of the worst” human trafficking offenders, according to the U.S. Department of State.
In its Trafficking in Persons Report 2013, the State Department downgraded the post-Soviet states to its Tier 3 list of countries that neither comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking nor are trying to do so. The U.S. government...

 
Russia spoke of its "indignation". A Chinese official called the report an example of an "arbitrary judgement".
The annual US Department of State report relegated Russia and China into its lowest category, which also includes Iran and North Korea....

US President Barack Obama used a speech in Berlin to call on Russia to revive the push for a world without nuclear weapons, offering to cut deployed nuclear arsenals by a third, but Moscow immediately poured scorn on his proposal.
Speaking in Berlin where US Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan gave rousing Cold-War speeches, Obama urged Russia to help build on the "New START" treaty that requires Moscow and Washington to cut stockpiles of deployed nuclear weapons to ...

-- The lines extended into the street at times, voters waiting to pick their choice to succeed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Some 70% of some 50 million registered voters -- men and women, young and old -- turned out according to state broadcaster Press TV, to pick a man who'll deal with high-stakes challenges domestically and internationally....