18 April: Outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree creating the first-ever public television channel in Russia that he vowed would be fully independent from the state.(Kommersant)
A defiant Ilham Aliev says that Azerbaijan's position on the Karabakh conflict remains unchanged and speaks about his country's defence procurement. Meanwhile SIPRI reports that Azerbaijan had the highest increase in military spending in the world in 2011.
Serzh Sargsyan was out on the campaign hustings yesterday as activists from all nine parties and bloks contesting the 6 May elections intensify their activity in one of the most hotly contested elections in Armenia's history
17 April: Azerbaijan will chair the UN Security Council next month. President Ilham Aliyev announced this at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning. He noted that this was the first time that Azerbaijan will chair “ the biggest, most competent and importan
16 April: Armenia's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) registered 16,000 local observers and 31 NGOs to monitor the parliamentary elections, according to the Head of the Central Election Commission Tigran Mukuchyan. (agencies)
World governments have welcomed the discussions held in Istanbul over the weekend between Iran and six world powers. The meeting has defused some of the tension that had been building up for months on the Iran nuclear issue.