TASS After 1971, TASS was elevated to the status of State Committee at the Government of the Soviet Union. The agency was frequently used as a front organization by the Soviet intelligence agencies, such as the NKVD (later KGB) and Main Intelligence Directorate, with TASS employees serving as informants. In 1959, Alexander Alexeyev was dispatched to Cuba on a fact-finding mission, ostensibly working for TASS. In January 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a Presidential Decree signed by Boris Yeltsin re-defined status of TASS and renamed it the "Information Telegraph Agency of Russia". In May 1994 The Russian Government
Public News Agency of Ecuador and South America Public News Agency of Ecuador and South America The Public News Agency of Ecuador and South America (Andes) () is the official digital information service of the Ecuadorian State. Andes is a public media organisation which provides regional and national news coverage, as well as general information on Latin America. The agency also provides multimedia services including an image bank. Andes was established on 29 December 2009 on the initiative of the National Secretariat of Communications and is now a business unit of Ecuador TV. The organisation is headquartered in Quito in the Public Media Building, from which all state