OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev addressing the OSCE PA's ninth Winter Meeting in Vienna. VIENNA, 18 February 2010 – Strengthening co-operation with OSCE parliamentarians is an important component in tackling regional challenges such as protracted conflicts and the European arms control regime, said the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakh Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, in Vienna

TREND NEWS 18 February 2010 The two-day winter meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly kicked off in the Austrian capital Vienna with many important issues on the Agenda. Two days parliamentarians from the OSCE participating states will try to tackle various issues from the ways of dealing with the frozen conflicts to addressing hate crimes. The frozen conflicts, however, will probably remain in the main focus of the OSCE work in 2010, under

Pia Christmas-Moeller observing the 2008 presidential election in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. COPENHAGEN, 16 February 2010 – The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, has appointed OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice President Pia Christmas-Moeller Special Co-ordinator for observation of the parliamentary elections in Tajikistan on 28 February. She will also lead the Parliamentary Assembly’s

EARTH TIMES 15 February 2010 Kiev - (DPA) -- A representative of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said she would take legal action Tuesday to overturn the presidential vote in which her rival Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner. Tymoshenko intends to sue the Central Election Commission (CEC) for failing to recognize fraud and for falsely declaring former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner in the February 7 poll, her

COPENHAGEN, 15 February 2010 -- The head of the OSCE short-term election observers during the recent Ukraine presidential election, Joao Soares, has no information or evidence of any fraud in the election. “We have no such information and the OSCE mission, with more than 500 OSCE observers, has no video reports showing election fraud, said Mr. Soares, the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Special Co-ordinator of the OSCE short

VIENNA, 15 February 2010 – Nearly 50 parliamentarians participated in the special debate on the situation in Afghanistan during the second day of the OSCE PA’s ninth Winter Meeting held in Vienna on 18-19 February. The debate was introduced by OSCE PA Vice-President and Head of the Kazakh Delegation Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and Michel Voisin who serves as the Assembly’s Special Representative on Afghanistan and as head of France’s delegation to