U.S. and North Korean diplomats began talks Monday on Pyongyang's nuclear program, the second direct encounter between the two sides in less than three months.

• October 24, 2011

ISSUE #35
10/17/2011
On 11 October 2011, a Kiev district court sentenced the leader of the opposition Fatherland party, former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko to seven years in jail. Tymoshenko was declared guilty under Part 3, Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which deals with abuse of power. Additionally, she was stripped of the right to hold public office for three years. READ MORE

• October 24, 2011

ISSUE #34
10/10/2011
On 6 October 2011, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the first reading of a presidential draft law on decriminalizing economic offences. Under the draft law, perpetrators of economic offences will no longer bear criminal responsibility but instead will face administrative sanctions such as fines. READ MORE

• October 23, 2011

Pakistan, Morocco, Togo and Guatemala were elected on Friday to the 15-nation UN Security Council for 2012 and 2013, and Islamabad's envoy said he looked forward to working with fellow council member India. The race for a fifth council seat, representing Eastern Europe, was adjourned until Monday after neither of the two candidates, Azerbaijan and Slovenia, was able to win a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly after nine votes.

• October 22, 2011

A Czech delegation headed by chairman of the Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights and Petitions of the Senate of the Czech Republic Jaromir Ermar is in Ashgabat, the Turkmen government said.

• October 22, 2011

Tajikistan considers the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit as an important political event for the future cooperation between the two countries, Tajikistan's Foreign Affairs Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi said on Saturday.

• October 22, 2011

ISSUE #33
10/03/2011
On 11 October 2011 a Kiev district court will start to read the verdict regarding the leader of the opposition Fatherland party and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko. A correspondent of the Ukrainian news and analysis website Lb.ua reported that that court debates in Tymoshenko's case were completed on 30 September 2011. It was expected that Tymoshenko would deliver a concluding speech in the court on the same day. However, the former prime minister requested her address to be rescheduled for 2 October 2011. She explained her demand by the fact that prior to her speech, the prosecutor's office and civil plaintiff had unveiled fresh “aspects that totally differ from the indictment.” READ MORE

• October 22, 2011

After a week of bruising criticism from the West over the jailing of his main political opponent, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday heard the words that put all strongman leaders at ease.

• October 21, 2011