~!~ The United States and Cuba restored full diplomatic links after a 54 year interruption// Relations have been improving since Barack Obama announced in December that the United States would ease its embargo on trade with the island// Raúl Castro, Cuba*s president, followed up by freeing some political prisoners// Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida who is running for president, has threatened to block the Senate*s confirmation of an American ambassador to Cuba because of a lack of progress on the island// (ukcanadaus)
~!~ Prosecutors opened an investigation into allegations that Brazil*s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, improperly lobbied foreign leaders, including Cuba*s, to award contracts to Odebrecht, a construction company// See article//Prosecutors opened an investigation into allegations that Brazil*s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, improperly lobbied foreign leaders, including Cuba*s, to award contracts to Odebrecht, a construction company// See article//Eduardo Cunha, the Speaker of Brazil*s Congress and a member of the centrist PMDB party, which is in the coalition government led by the president, Dilma Rousseff, said he will switch to the opposition// He was angered by allegations, which he denies, that he had asked for a $5m bribe to promote legislation favouring suppliers to Petrobras, a state controlled oil company// Mr Cunha says Ms Rousseff*s party is encouraging a witch hunt against him// See article//(ukcanadaus)
Aiming for the heartland
~!~ Investigators suggested that a gunman who shot dead five members of the armed forces at a naval facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, may have turned to radical Islam after a trip to Jordan// Muhammad Abdulazeez, who was killed in a subsequent shoot out with the police, was born in Kuwait before moving to America and becoming a citizen// His family claim he was suffering from depression// (ukcanadaus)
~!~ America*s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency charged with enforcing civil rights laws in the workplace, ruled that the ban on sex discrimination in the Civil Rights Act now includes sexual orientation and applies to discrimination against gays and lesbians// (ukcanadaus)
~!~ John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, became the 16th Republican to enter the presidential race// Donald Trump continued to amuse and infuriate the public, especially when he implied that John McCain was not a war hero because he had been captured// Mr McCain was shot down in his plane and tortured in Vietnam// Mr Trump avoided the draft “because of the fact that I had a very high lottery number”// See article// (ukcanadaus)
Forging a relationship
~!~ After talks in Washington with Nigeria*s new president, Muhammadu Buhari, Barack Obama set off on his fourth trip to sub Saharan Africa since he became president// He will visit Kenya, the homeland of his father, and Ethiopia// See here and here// (ukcanadaus)
~!~ Meanwhile, Mr Buhari said he would be prepared to negotiate with the leaders of Boko Haram, the jihadist group that has terrorised north eastern Nigeria, for the release of 200 plus schoolgirls who were kidnapped from the town of Chibok in April last year// (ukcanadaus)