25 December 2013 Last updated at 06:02 GMT
“Argentina deserves a good debate about this,” Molina told local radio. “We have the capacity to do it. We should not underestimate ourselves.”
South Sudan crisis: Increased efforts to end bloodshed
International efforts are intensifying to end the bloodshed in South Sudan, where thousands of people are believed to have died in the past 10 days.
The UN Security Council is almost doubling the number of peacekeepers to 12,500 in the world's newest state.
US Secretary of State John Kerry urged both President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar to end hostilities and begin mediated political talks.
The fighting has exposed ethnic divisions in South Sudan.
Mr Kiir is an ethnic Dinka, while Mr Machar represents the Nuer tribe.
The violence erupted on 15 December when Mr Kiir accused Mr Machar, who was vice-president until his sacking in July, of plotting a coup.
Mr Machar denies trying to seize power.
Turkish ministers resign over fraud probe |
Economy and interior ministers quit over corruption investigations, with one calling the crackdown a "dirty conspiracy".
Last updated: 25 Dec 2013 09:09
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Two Turkish ministers have resigned over a high-level corruption crackdown in which the sons of three cabinet ministers and renowned businessmen were arrested.
Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler announced their resignations early on Wednesday.
Turkey has been shaken by three sensational corruption investigations last week that led to dozens of detentions and 24 arrests of people ranging from influential business leaders to senior bureaucrats and the ministers' sons.
Caglayan's son Salih Kaan Caglayan and Guler's son Baris Guler were among those arrested in the sweep, which Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, called a "dirty operation" to smear his administration and undermine the country's progress.
China arrests university official in new graft crackdown
China has arrested a vice president of a prestigious university for suspected corruption, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday, as the government turns its anti-graft campaign to the education sector.
President Xi Jinping has launched a sweeping crackdown on corruption since taking power, pursuing high-flying "tigers" as well as lowly "flies" in the government, military, state-owned enterprises, and now in universities.
Xinhua said on its official microblog that Chu Jian, appointed in 2005 as vice president of Zhejiang University in the eastern city of Hangzhou, had been arrested for "suspected economic problems", a euphemism for corruption.
Chu, an engineering professor, was in charge of several businesses run by the university, and also ran a technology company based in Hangzhou, according to the university's website.
Retailers to compensate Bangladesh factory collapse victims
December 25, 2013 - 9:02AMShafiqul Alam
Dhaka: Four global retailers, along with manufacturers and labour groups, have agreed to set up a $40 million compensation fund for victims of Bangladesh's Rana Plaza disaster that killed 1,135 people, officials said Tuesday.
Retailers Primark, El Corte Ingles, Loblaw and Bonmarche have pledged to contribute to the fund following the collapse of the garment factory complex in April, the world's worst industrial tragedy, the officials said.
"A fund has been established to compensate the victims, injured workers and dependants of the deceased, of the Rana Plaza collapse," said Lejo Sibbel from the International Labour Organisation which helped broker the agreement reached last month.
"An estimated $40 million will be required to compensate the victims and their beneficiaries," said Sibbel, who is based in Dhaka.
Uruguay's neighbors now considering legalization of pot
The taboo is broken: Argentina's new anti-drug czar says the country ‘deserves’ the debate, while Chile's new president could ease marijuana laws.
LIMA, Peru — Argentina has given the first sign that Uruguay’s groundbreaking cannabis reform just may have started a domino effect across Latin America.
Following the momentous vote by its smaller neighbor’s senate this month — making it the first nation in the world to completely legalize the soft drug — Argentina’s anti-drug czar Juan Carlos Molina has called for a public discussion in his country about emulating the measure.
“Argentina deserves a good debate about this,” Molina told local radio. “We have the capacity to do it. We should not underestimate ourselves.”
In Philippine city of Tacloban, a conflicted Christmas for typhoon victims
By , E-mail the writer
TACLOBAN, Philippines — At dawn Mass at the Santo Niño Church, the Rev. Mark Marowen Adona, 31, told the Catholic faithful to follow the example of the Virgin Mary “to always be at the service of the Lord” and to emulate her “courage to build on trust” after she was visited by the angel Gabriel and told that she would give birth to a son, Jesus.
The churchgoers listened in semi-darkness, as electricity was not fully available in the city. Only the altar and its centerpiece, the ivory image of the infant Jesus, believed to be miraculous, was well lit. Outside, the colored lights from the big blue, red and green Christmas lanterns hanging on the sides of the church made moving shadows of the worshipers who were standing up as teenagers were frolicking by the churchyard’s fountain.
Even as the parish carried on the traditional observance of nine dawn Masses before Christmas and the occasional holiday trimmings showed up along the streets of neighborhoods crushed by last month’s devastating typhoon, deep emotional wounds lay just beneath the surface of this city. The Nov. 8 typhoon, Haiyan, had left almost everything in ruins — and everyone a victim
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