The report said recent International Monetary Fund forecasting had predicted China would surpass US real economic output in the very near future.

• April 26, 2011

A weird anti-Lithuanian campaign in Poland as well as the ongoing construction of experimental Russian nuclear plants, which are described as unsafe by environmentalists, in Russia’s Kaliningrad and Belarus is forcing Vilnius to look at what’s going on to its south, although Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, visiting Norway on April 5-6, said that her country’s priority is cooperation with the Nordic countries.

• April 25, 2011

The Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will take part in a joint project for construction of a railway connecting cities in three countries to each other, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said.

• April 25, 2011

The Japanese government has announced a 4 trillion yen ($48.9bn; £29.6bn) emergency budget for disaster relief, after March's earthquake and tsunami.

• April 22, 2011

Parliament of Kyrgyzstan adopted new customs duties on a number of basic commodity items, as decided at parliamentary session

• April 22, 2011

The Azerbaijani government has quietly stopped the operations of two international nongovernmental organizations in what some local observers claim is a further attempt to clamp down on the country’s relatively weak civil society.

• April 21, 2011

Rage against the election ban on 12 independent candidates poured out into the streets of Istanbul, Diyabakır, Van and Hakkari on Tuesday, drawing a harsh response from police.

• April 20, 2011

Japanese exports fell more than expected in March, as damage from last month's earthquake and tsunami affected shipments.

• April 20, 2011