It's hard to imagine it could come to a shooting war in this age of economic interpenetration, but both sides are sure acting like they're itching for one. Weeks after Obama announced what the media have dubbed the Pentagon's "return to Asia" (we call it a New Cold War with China), Russia and China team up for joint naval maneuvers in the Yellow Sea, northern inlet of the East China Sea. (See map.) Simultaneously, the US and Philippine navies hold their own joint exercises in the South China Sea, a drill dubbed "Balikatan," meaning"shoulder-to-shoulder" in the Tagalog language. Both dills involve multiple warships and thousands of troops. The Sino-Russian drill is being carried out under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional body established after the Soviet collapse to counter-balance the US presence in Asia and the Pacific.

A man was found dead April 21 after overnight clashes between the pro-democracy protesters and police in Bahrain, as the Formula One Grand Prix car-racing spectacle is set to open in the conflicted Persian Gulf mini-state. Some media reported the man had been beaten to death by riot police, while other said there were gunshot wounds on his body. Claiming Friday the 20th as the first of "three days of rage" against Bahrain's rulers, some 50,000 anti-government protesters gathered in the capital Manama, 25 miles away from the Formula One site. Demonstrators called for the "overthrow of the regime" and demanded freedom for the dissident Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike in prison for more than 70 days. Police fired tear gas and sound bombs to disperse the crowds. The protest movement has called a boycott of the Grand Prix, but Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa rules out cancelling the event, saying such a move would only "empower extremists." (AllVoices, April 21)

South Sudanese forces retreated from the oil-producing enclave of Heglig on April 20, as northern forces moved in. Khartoum portrayed it as a military victory, while South Sudan said it has ordered its forces out. "The Republic of South Sudan announces that SPLA troops have been ordered to withdraw from Panthou [Heglig]," said South Sudan's information minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin. "An orderly withdrawal will commence immediately, and shall be completed within three days." In the wake of the fighting, Sudanese President Omar Bashir announced that he will not allow the South to export any oil through the cross-border pipeline. "We don’t want fees from the oil of South Sudan and we will not open the pipeline," Bashir told thousands of supporters at a Khartoum rally. "There is no oil from South Sudan that will pass through our pure land, so that not one dollar goes to these criminals." Referring to the South Sudanese as "insects," he accused them of backing rebel movements in the north's territory: "We tell the president of insects Salva Kiir, your forces left through force and did not withdraw from Heglig and our men entered it by force and your aggression is continuing in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan..." (Sudan Tribune, April 21)

An elderly man set himself on fire as a protest in Kyrgyzstan's southern city of Osh on April 15, and died of his injuries later in a hospital. The incident is being portrayed as a "protest against protests"; he apparently left a note calling on the Central Asian republic's citizens "to stop constant protest actions" and respect the country's leadership. The city is near the border with Uzbekistan, and has seen ongoing rival demonstrations since a wave of deadly clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in 2010. Kyrgyzstan's government has been trying to remove acting mayor Melis Myrzakmatov since the clashes, fearing his Kyrgyz ethno-natoinalist politics are fueling unsrest. His followers have repeatedly rallied in his support, with ethnic Uzbeks holding counter-demonstrations. According to official data, over 3,000 protests took place in the country in 2011; a major mobilization was held in the south this March, with Myrzakmatov's supporters demanding the government's resignation. (RFE.RL, RIA-Novosti, April 16; The Telegraph, March 29; International Crisis Group, March 29)

The April 19 self-immolation of two young cousins in front of Jonang Dzamthang monastery brings the number of such acts of protest martyrdom by ethnic Tibetans to a total of 34 since a young monk at the Kirti monastery set himself on fire in March 2011 to protest against Chinese rule over his homeland—or 35 since a similar event at the Kirti monastery in February 2009 presaged the current wave. Trying to make sense of accounts of the incidents is a challenge given that two sets of geographical nomenclature are used. Both the Jonang Dzamthang and Kirti monasteries are in what the Chinese call Aba prefecture, which is known to Tibetans as Ngaba. The Jonang Dzamthang monastery is in Barma township, in what the Chinese call Rangtang county but the Tibetans name Dzamthang. Most controversially, pro-Tibetan sources (Free Tibet, Phayul) refer to Ngaba as being in "Eastern Tibet," while mainstream sources (BBC News, RTT News) refer to it as being in Sichuan province. Tibet Society, thankfully, opts for clarity by giving both the Tibetan and Chinese place names. But the politicization of geographical terms is explicit.

The Pentagon announced on April 19 that two Uighur detainees were released from the US detention center at Guantánamo Bay to be transferred to El Salvador, where they have chosen to resettle. They are being released pursuant to a 2008 order by the US District Court for the District of Columbia. An executive order issued in 2009 mandated review of the cases by the Interagency Guantánamo Review Task Force (IGRTF), and all six agencies on the force gave consent to release the two detainees. The US said it has worked with El Salvador's government to ensure that the two men arrive safely and are not harmed upon arrival, as well as to protect them against inhumane treatment at any stage of the transfer.

The Libyan government took control of Tripoli's international airport on April 20 from the Zintan militia that has had control of the site since Moammar Qaddafi was deposed last year (sometimes in contest with rival militias). The deal to turn over the airport followed months of negotiations about jobs and salaries for the militia's members. It was portrayed by Reuters as an important step in consolidation of the new government's authority. Failing to make the wire services, Amnesty International on April 19 called on the National Transitional Council (NTC) to investigate and prosecute abuses against members of the Tawargha community, outside the city of Misrata, following another report of a community member being tortured to death at a detention center run by local militias. The body of a 44-year-old father of two was delivered to his family on April 16, covered with bruises and cuts, including an open wound to the back of the head, Amnesty said. More than a dozen torture-deaths in militia custody have been documented by Amnesty since September, with Tawarghas constituting a high proportion of victims.

With Sudan and South Sudan already effectively at war, reports indicate that each are arming rebel movements in the other's territory. Last week the South Sudanese military—officially the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA)—took the oil-producing enclave of Heglig from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), ostensibly in retaliation for SAF raids across the border. Sudan's President Omar Bashir on April 20 threatened to teach the South "a final lesson by force" if it doesn't withdraw from the enclave. (LAT, April 20) Amid the stand-off, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey released a report finding that the SPLA is arming the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLMN), which is fighting to liberate South Kordofan state—where Heglig is located—from Khartoum's control. The report similarly charged that the SAF is arming the South Sudan Democratic Movement (SSDM) and South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), which are fighting the SPLA in South Sudan's Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states. (See map.) The report also found evidence that Eritrea is cooperating with Khartoum in arming the SSDM and SSLA. The Small Arms Survey's Jonah Leff told Sudan Tribune that the support of rebels on both sides is "a symptom of the greater issue, which is oil and land." (ST, April 17 via AllAfrica)