APEC Summit 2014

It's one of my favorite times of year- the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit where heads of government from the 21 Pacific Rim member economies come together to meet over two days.  This year's summit took place in Beijing, China.  Of course, the best thing about these meetings is not the announcements of trade agreements and other economic reforms, but the annual APEC Leaders' Family Photo.  The tradition involves leaders donning clothing that reflects the culture of the host member.  This year they wore traditional Chinese silk tunics in dark purple and aqua, which immediately reminded people of Star Trek and sent social media into overdrive.

Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

For Australians, this was our first opportunity to see if Prime Minister Tony Abbott would follow through on his threat to "shirtfront" Russian President Vladimir Putin over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, which killed 38 Australians.  While there didn't appear to be any physical confrontation between the two leaders, they did meet briefly and Abbott reportedly requested for Russia to apologise and consider paying restitution.