The interior ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), an intergovernmental security body, will meet on Thursday in the Kazakh capital Astana to discuss efforts to fight crime.

• April 28, 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

A United States congressional delegation heading to Azerbaijan said they intend to thank Azerbaijan for being a strong U.S. ally, while pushing for “democratic institutions.”

• April 28, 2011

China and Kyrgyzstan agreed on Tuesday to promote regional peace and security via closer cooperation on law enforcement and security.

• April 27, 2011

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, called yesterday for new world rules to be drawn up on safety at nuclear plants.

• April 27, 2011

As the world marks 25th year of the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine, the anniversary has gained an eerily contemporary resonance after the earthquake in Japan which damages reactors at the Fukushima power plant and prompts leaks of radiation

• April 26, 2011

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has approved the use of his country's air force in Nato's Libya mission.

• April 25, 2011

Mikhail Roshchin, EGF Affiliated Expert

While many in Russia have become accustomed to gas disputes with Ukraine as the flagship event hailing in the New Year, the start of 2011 brought with it a far more tragic security crisis when a major bomb blast ripped through the crowded halls of Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. The attack occurred in the arrivals area of the airport at 4.32 pm, on 24 January 2011, claiming the lives of 36 individuals and injuring 116 more. An act of terrorism was immediately assumed by many security experts, possibly involving a suicide bomber, who employed an explosive device containing 5-7 kilogrammes of Trinitrotoluene (TNT). Among the victims was Anna Yablonskaya, a 29-years-old Ukrainian playwright and poet who had come to Moscow to receive a prize from the magazine Art of the Cinema for her recent play. This attack follows the March 2010 suicide bombing in which two women, originally from Dagestan, blew themselves up in Moscow’s underground causing the death of 40 commuters. As was the case in the March 2010 attack, separatist-terrorists from the Russian North Caucasus were suspected of involvement in the Domodedovo attacks. These suspicions appeared to be confirmed earlier this month, when Chechen rebel leader, Doku Umarov, claimed responsibility for the bombing on February 4. In his video broadcast confirming responsibility for the attack, Umarov justified his actions on the basis of Russian state policy in the North Caucasus. READ MORE

• April 25, 2011