ASTANA  – Kazakhstan will not take part in NATO-led military exercises in Georgia in May, the Kazakh defense minister said on Tuesday. Kazakhstan was earlier scheduled to take part in the Cooperative Longbow/Cooperative Lancer-2009 command-and-staff exercise, which Russia has criticized as unhelpful in the wake of last summer’s armed conflict …

MOSCOW  – The pro-Russian breakaway region of South Ossetia has detained several observers from the OSCE for illegally crossing the Georgian-South Ossetian border, a separatist official told Reuters on Tuesday. “OSCE representatives were detained on South Ossetian territory for illegal border crossing,” Irina Gagloyeva said, without giving further details. She …

JAKARTA, April 21 – Romania has appointed Gheorghe Vilcu as the country’s ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a statement from the ASEAN Secretariat said here Tuesday. The new ambassador becomes the ninth ambassador to ASEAN, who comes from the European Union (EU). Vilcu presented his letter …