By Giorgio Fiacconi

As seen from Central Asia, the SCO meeting in Beijing is full of announcements and declarations but with very little practical results.

By Lindy Heinecken for ISN Security Watch
High levels of HIV/AIDS infection impact upon the South African National Defence Force’s ability to recruit new personnel and deploy troops.

By Lewis M. Stern

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is scheduled to visit Vietnam following the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in late May 2012.

By Gualberto Rodriguez San Martin

For the first time in the history of the hemisphere, the Organization of America States VI Summit of the Americas, held in Cartagena on April 14-15, put on the table, at the highest political level, the decriminalization of drugs.

By Georgi Gotev, originally published by EurActiv
The Ukrainian prosecution will press murder charges against the country’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in two weeks time, Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin, responsible for her case, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

By The Manila Times

China told its citizens on Thursday they were not safe in the Philippines and its state media warned of war, as a month-long row over rival claims in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) threatened to spill out of control.

By Bridget Di Certo and Meas Sokchea, originally published by The Phnom Penh Post

Prime Minister Hun Sen has issued an immediate and indefinite moratorium on the granting of new economic land concessions and called for a review of all existing concessions, a regulation signed by the premier yesterday states.

by Mauro De Bonis

Vladimir Vladimirovic Putin has often reassured the West that he has no intention whatsoever to recreate the Soviet Union. He's content with being the President – a role that's more to do with his destiny than his job, as he explained – of a Russian Federation that in order to be regarded as a global power, has to come to terms with huge domestic problems, as well as find a way to rein in the former Soviet space (an beyond).

By Georgi Gotev, originally published by EurActiv

Avoiding terms like "discrimination", Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas yesterday (19 April) told EurActiv.cz that he regretted the decision by Switzerland to re-introduce an authorisation requirement for workers from the eight East European countries that joined the EU in 2004.

by The Messenger

With elections coming closer and closer, Georgia’s leadership has started publicly speculating about military threats facing the country.