Is the Cold War Bloc Party still going strong? A non-binding UN General Assembly resolution to denounce the violence in Syria passed 137 votes to 12 while 17 countries abstained, with China and Russia among the 12 countries who voted against the measure. Other states who voted against the measure were Syria, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Zimbabwe. more ›

Sigh, we've been down this road before. Both the Philippines and Vietnam are severely unhappy over China's maritime claims in the South China Sea including sovereignty over the Spratly Islands. In fact, the Philippines is so fumed, it just announced that it's not even going to call it the South China Sea anymore. From now on, President Benigno Aquino explained, it's going to be known as the West Philippine Sea. (Erm, right. Good luck with convincing Google Maps to change over to that one). The name switch in all likelihood was due to a Chinese ship reportedly harassing a Philippines oil exploration vessel which the Philippines didn't take so kindly to or...a Chinese ship which was only clearly exercising its sovereign rights in Chinese-owned waters, depending on which story you prefer. more ›

Russia Today reports that the end of a 40 year old border dispute that's seen 340 square kilometres, or half of an island called Bolshoi Ussuriyasky (or Heixiazi island in Chinese) being officially ceded to China has warmed up bilateral ties and boosted trade. BBC cites unnamed Chinese reports that say Russia will also return all of Yinlong island (or Tarabarov in Russian) — a detail which was not mentioned in this report. In the first five months of this year, Sino-Russia bilateral trade rocketed ahead by 60%. more ›