Contemporary World Issues

The Pacific Ocean encompasses approximately one-third of the Earth’s surface, having an area of 165.2 million square kilometres (64.1 million square miles) —significantly larger than Earth’s entire landmass, with room for another Africa to spare.

Veteran diplomat Andrei Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the opening of an exhibition of Russian photography on December 19, 2016 The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but in recent weeks have begun cooperating closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo. The killing came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia’s role in Syria, although Moscow and Ankara are now working closely together to evacuate citizens from the battered city of Aleppo. Turkey and Russia stand on opposite sides of the conflict, with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow’s ally President Bashar al-Assad.