Mexico Ends Full Nationalization of Oil

With a vote of three hundred and fifty-three to one hundred and thirty-four, Mexico's congress voted to partially denationalize their oil industry.

The industry was nationalized back in 1938, but has recently struggled to stay economically afloat.

Congress's vote allows for private financiers to buy into the national oil company.

This leaves the country as the majority owner, but brings in outside money as well.

Mexico hopes to use investment money to search for new fields, further explore known ones, and utilize their resources to a greater level.

They are already the tenth largest oil supplier, in the world.

Catalonia Sets Date For Independence Referendum

On Thursday, Catalonia's regional government set a date for a referendum on independence from Spain.

They set a date, nearly a year from now, of November 9, 2014.

By placing it a year from now they hope to ensure that international observers will have ample time to see that their votes were free and that the voters were informed.

Voters will simply be asked if they wish for Catalonia to be an independent state.

However, the national government, in Madrid, pledged to keep any such referendum from happening.

At this time, it is unclear how the national government can actually keep the vote from taking place.

Ukraine's President Listens to Protesters and Moves to Sign With EU

President Viktor Yanukovych has reannounced his intention to sign a trade agreement deal with the European Union.

His announcement comes after weeks of protests took place in all the cities of Ukraine, especially in Kiev.

As many as one hundred and thirty thousand protested each day in the capital city.

Police were unable to clear out the protesters on Tuesday, and only partially successful on Wednesday.

Their failure forced the administration to face the reality of the people's anger over Yanukovych attempting to back out of the deal.

Yanukovych had instead decided to seek closer ties with Russia.

Many Ukrainians worry that Yanukovych is taking their country back under Russian influence and fear a loss of their independence from their former Soviet masters.

The protests gained steam after three former presidents backed them.

Kim Jong Un's Uncle Executed in North Korea

A North Korean military tribunal ordered the death of Jang Song Thaek, on Thursday.

Thaek, the uncle of Kim Jong Un, was executed early Friday morning.

Until a few days ago Thaek had been the second most powerful man in the country.

When Un first took over, after his father's death, Thaek had acted as regent.

However, earlier this week, he was arrested and charged with treason and plotting to overthrow his nephew.

The death of Thaek seems to symbolize Un's complete control of the country.