 RFE/RL Headlines 23.06.2009 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  U.S., Kyrgyz Strike Deal On Key Air Base Washington and Bishkek have reportedly drafted a breakthrough deal that would allow U.S. troops supplying their mission in Afghanistan to continue using a key Kyrgyz facility. Reaction in Moscow is unlikely to be as positive as in Kabul and Ankara. More  U.S., Georgia Hold First Talks Of Strategic Partnership The United States has held its first bilateral meetings with a delegation from Georgia under the auspices of the new U.S.-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership, with both sides expressing satisfaction with the progress made in working groups. More Russian Blogger Faces Extremism Charges Prosecutors in Russia's central Samara Oblast have charged a local blogger with fomenting extremism, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Kazakh Activists Protest Ban On Journalism Day Demos Activists in Kazakhstan have issued a statement challenging a government decision to ban mass gatherings on Journalism Day, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More Two people have reportedly been killed in a shoot-out in southern Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  Kazakh Scientologists Appeal Church Closure The leader of the Church of Scientology in the central Kazakh city of Qaraghandy has said he will appeal a decision to close their church, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More Protesters in several Russian cities have demonstrated against the situation regarding the country's kindergartens, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More Where Is Your Honor? E-mails and voicemails sent to RFE/RL's Radio Farda on June 23. More Radio Farda voicemails and comments to Facebook from June 23. More  What Iranian Media Are Saying From Tehran-based reformist newspaper "Etemad-e-Melli," owned by 2009 presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi More Radio Farda listeners contribute voicemails on June 23. More E-mails and voicemails submitted in Persian to RFE/RL's Radio Farda on June 22. More  The British In Iran: Useful Villains With "students" reportedly planning a demonstration today outside the British Embassy today, there are distinct echoes of the 1979 U.S. Embassy siege. More With the 60-day election campaign in Afghanistan under way, some of the 41 presidential candidates and their supporters are making good use of YouTube. More The 2009 Failed States Index is out. Somalia wins, or rather, fails. As the reports says, "In short, Somalia was too failed even for al Qaeda." More  Cops, Crime, And The Crisis Is Russia on the verge of a massive crime wave? Some analysts certainly think so. In most countries, when an economy goes in the tank, crime rate tends to spike. But as political analyst Andrei Ryabov writes in "Vedomosti" this week, the well-established correlation between economic deprivation and crime takes on added -- and potentially sinister -- dimensions in Russia. More  Four Leading Armenian Oppositionists Freed In Amnesty Four leading Armenian opposition figures walked out of a courtroom free men on June 22 despite being sentenced to up to five years' imprisonment for their imputed roles in the post-presidential election violence in Yerevan in early 2008. The amnesty is, however, unlikely to alleviate the deep-rooted tensions and enmity between the authorities and the opposition. More  Tadic Confident Serbia's Future Lies With West Since coming to power in 2004, Serbian President Boris Tadic has been praised for bringing Belgrade closer to the West and toning down the nationalist fervor that has destabilized the Balkans in the past. At the same time, he has remained resolutely opposed to the recognition by the United States and others of Kosovo's independence, and has come under criticism by prosecutors in The Hague for failing to aid the arrest of Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic. More  Jamming Foreign Access Authoritarian governments often to try to block public access to uncensored news during a crisis. But Tehran has gone a big step further -- jamming international satellite frequencies that normally carry Western government-sponsored newscasts in Persian. More  Mapping A Way Out Of Economic Rescue Measures They poured billions of dollars into troubled banks, unveiled massive spending packages, and even turned on the money printing presses. The economic crisis prompted unprecedented rescue measures by financial authorities around the world. Now they’re turning their attention to how they might unwind these emergency programs. But is it all too soon? More  National Republics Resist Moscow's Demands Three of the four republics the Russian Constitutional Court has ordered to drop references in their constitutions to republic sovereignty and citizenship are dragging their feet. That reluctance reflects both the importance of these terms to many non-Russians, and the calculation that resistance to the center could yield dividends. More  'Hidden Treasures' Seeks To Reveal Another Afghanistan A major art exhibit opens in New York this week. Hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it features artifacts that span five millennia of culture. Much of the art is on display after being hidden for the past quarter-century of Afghanistan's tumultuous history, and presumed destroyed or stolen. More  EU Says It Will Help Belarus If Democracy Advances The European Union's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, visited Minsk on June 22 for talks with Belarusian officials including President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Foreign Minister Syarhey Martynau. Ahead of her visit, RFE/RL's Belarus Service solicited questions from listeners to put to Ferrero-Waldner in an online interview. More  Zoological Pen-Mates Gather To Sniff, Shake Paws Writers' festivals are gatherings of moles and bears who every so often crawl out of their burrows and lairs to engage in a round of mutual paw-shaking, and the prestigious annual Prague International Writers' Festival, which just ended, is no exception. More |
