VENEZUELA-CHINESE BLUES — It was once billed as a model of socialist fraternity: South America's first high-speed train, powered by Chinese technology, crisscrossing Venezuela to bring development to its backwater plains. Now all but abandoned, it has become a symbol of economic collapse — and a strategic relationship gone adrift. Where dozens of modern buildings once stood, cattle now graze on grass growing amid the rubble of the project's gutted and vandalized factory. A red arched sign in Chinese and Spanish is all that remains of what until 16 months ago was a bustling complex of 800 workers. 

UNITED STATES-MYANMAR SANCTIONS — The U.S. business lobby says it is high time to drop the remaining U.S. sanctions on Myanmar. Human rights activists and U.S. lawmakers say not so fast. Former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi is now running the government after winning elections, but the military still wields considerable power.

UNITED STATES-CHINA-MILITARY — A new Pentagon report says China has reclaimed more than 3,200 acres of land in the southeastern South China Sea.

UNITED NATIONS-NORTH KOREA-RWANDA — UN experts say Congolese army officers and police reported receiving pistols from a group of 30 North Koreans instructors training their presidential guard and special police forces.