The two-day Global Forum on Sustainable Energy opened Thursday in Austrian Federal Economic Chamber in Vienna to discuss the potential of renewable energies and opportunities for greater energy policy between the Danube region and the Caucasus region.

• April 29, 2011

Some 200 members of Syria's ruling Baath party are reported to have resigned over the violent crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrations.
The resignations were centred on the southern city of Deraa, a focal point of violence that has allegedly killed 450 people in six weeks.

• April 28, 2011

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday he might choose a job as the "angel" of high-tech business when he leaves office, in a clear hint that he may not run for re-election.

• April 26, 2011

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