The arrest of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the head of the Sinaloa cartel, on Saturday was an event of enormous importance in the Mexican government’s fight against organized crime. Mexican public opinion had long ago decided that this government, and the previous one, were not serious about hunting for Guzmán, preferring the relative stability and lower-violence approach of the Sinaloa cartel to the more militaristic style of other cartels, such as the Zetas.

Tags: barack obama, drug trafficking, enrique pena nieto, joaquin guzman loera, mexico, narcotrafficking, organized crime, public opinion, sinaloa cartel, united states

Leaving behind their pens and voice recorders, journalists switched roles yesterday to march in defence of press freedom. The "Free Speech, Free Hong Kong" protest was organised by the Hong Kong Journalists Association, which said 6,000 took part. Police put the figure at 1,600. "Such a big number of people illustrates that the public has started to feel that press freedom is at risk," association chairwoman Sham Yee-lan said.

Tags: censorship, china, free speech, hong kong, hong kong journalists association, journalism, media, protest

Tens of thousands of white-clad demonstrators flooded the streets of eastern Caracas yesterday in the largest show of strength so far against President Nicholás Maduro’s rule. The arrest of opposition firebrand Leopoldo López for fomenting unrest – and the heavy-handed tactics of security forces – hasn’t snapped the momentum of the demonstrations. Instead, Venezuela's fractured opposition banded together to denounce the jailing of Mr. López and the government’s broader crackdown on dissent.

Tags: conflict, enrique capriles, hugo chavez, latin america, leopoldo lopez, nicolas maduro, protest, south america, venezuela

For a city, there’s nothing quite like the glory of winning an Olympic bid. The highly competitive process starts nine years before the games and involves untold amounts of campaigning and planning. Once selected, fortunate cities have seven years to prepare, updating their infrastructure and building new, impressive facilities. If they pull it off, they get two weeks to show it all off to the entire world.

Tags: city diplomacy, development, history, nation branding, olympics, soft power, the olympic project

From the dingy basement of a decaying apartment block on the outskirts of Simferopol, Crimean parliament deputy Sergei Shuvainikov is leading the fight to defend the ethnic Russians of this strategic Black Sea peninsula. In an office festooned with banners showing a map of Crimea overlaid with a World War II medal featuring the communist hammer and sickle and the slogan "In union with Russia," the voluble Shuvainikov spills out a litany of alleged assaults on the Russian language and Russian culture in Ukraine.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, europe, history, language, nationalism, non-state actors, public opinion, russia, russian front, ukraine

Ukraine's new interim President Oleksandr Turchynov has said the country will focus on closer integration with the EU. Mr Turchynov was appointed following the dismissal of President Viktor Yanukovych by MPs on Saturday. Mr Yanukovych's rejection of an EU-Ukraine trade pact triggered the protests that toppled him. The interim president also said he was "ready for dialogue" with Russia, which has backed Mr Yanukovych.

Tags: eastern europe, euromaidan, europe, european union, foreign policy, oleksandr tuchynov, russia, ukraine, viktor yanukovych

With Ukraine's parliament dismantling the last vestiges of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych's government, the Obama administration warned Russia against sending troops into the country and told Moscow that it should allow Ukrainians to freely determine their own future. Appearing on Meet the Press Sunday, National Security Advisor Susan Rice was adamant about limiting Russia's role in Ukraine going forward.

Tags: barack obama, eastern europe, foreign policy, protest, russia, susan rice, ukraine, united states, viktor yanukovych, vladimir putin

Late President Hugo Chavez used to call it “la revolucion bonita” (the pretty revolution), but the world looked at Venezuela last week and saw only ugliness. Protesters gunned down in the streets, barricades in flames, chaos. One of the dead was a 22-year-old beauty queen shot in the head. With the government censoring and cowing TV reports, many of the images came from smartphones, grainy and jerky snippets filled with smoke and shouts.

Tags: autocracy, chavismo, conflict, democracy, hugo chavez, nicolas maduro, protest, venezuela