Officials from ASEAN and BIMP-EAGA have pledged to boost stronger linkages among sectoral working groups to strengthen further areas of collaboration and explore the untapped economic potentials in some sub-regional groupings within the economic region.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles announced on Sunday that he will run in the April 14 presidential election against acting President Nicolas Maduro.

President Vladimir Putin will in the next weeks choose a new head of Russia's central bank, with economists hoping he picks a dependable figure and not a wild card to head one of its few trusted institutions.

ASEAN Ministers of Economics

 The market, open to state enterprise, cooperatives and independent businesses, has been set up on an experimental basis on Isla de la Juventud, Cuba's second largest island, approximately 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Havana. A vendor selling bread waits for customers in Havana.

The European Union also used a board meeting of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency to pile pressure on Iran to stop obstructing an IAEA investigation into suspected atom bomb research by Tehran, which denies the charge.

President Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer, ending 14 years of tumultuous, divisive rule that won him passionate support from the poor but the hatred of business leaders and wealthier Venezuelans.

Rescue workers had given up the search for Jeff Bush, a 37-year-old landscaper, on Saturday. He was presumed dead after disappearing into the hole, which opened up under his bedroom Thursday night. Sinkholes are common in Florida due to the state's geology and they are virtually impossible to predict.

After rejecting rumors about Chavez's health earlier in the day, Vice President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Attorney General Cilia Flores, were among several senior aides attending the ceremony in the outdoor brick chapel.

   The world's first space tourist, US multimillionaire Dennis Tito, pictured after his landing near the Kazakh town of Arkalyk May 6, 2001, unveiled plans Wednesday to send a manned mission to Mars and back, targeting a launch date less than five years away.

The 4th ASEAN Business Forum kicked off in Bangkok, Thailand on February 27 with the participation of nearly 600 businessmen and investors from ASEAN countries and other parts of the world.  ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh addresses the event

 After Hagel's bruising confirmation hearing and a 10-day delay thrown up by Republicans, Senators voted 58-41 to approve the former Republican senator and decorated Vietnam War as outgoing Pentagon chief Leon Panetta's replacement.

South Korea's new president Park Geun-hye urged North Korea on Monday to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and to stop wasting its scarce resources on arms, less than two weeks after the country carried out its third nuclear test.