 RFE/RL Headlines 7/29/2010 6:35:14 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty RFE/RL is looking for guest bloggers, preferably writing from and about our broadcast region. If you're interested, drop us a line at webteam@rferl.org. |
| Features  Latest Civilian Casualties In Afghanistan Mark Difficult Road Ahead The story of Regey -- a small dusty village in Afghanistan's volatile southern province of Helmand where an alleged NATO missile recently killed 50 civilians -- illustrates the difficult road ahead for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan. More  Khimki Forest Defender Yevgenia Chirikova Is New Face Of Russian Civic Activism Yevgenia Chirikova is not your average political activist. But this former Moscow businesswoman and the mother of two young girls has become the public face of a growing grassroots environmental movement. More  Russia Beefs Up FSB Powers The controversial bill, which passed its third parliamentary reading on July 19, is a tamer version than the original draft, which proposed that the FSB could summon potential suspects to their office and even publish its warnings in the media. More  Russian Forest Protests Turn Violent A protest against the felling of a Moscow forest turned violent after demonstrators attacked a regional administration building. But the environmental activists who were arrested in a police crackdown say they had nothing to do with the violence. More  Teenagers Sentenced In St. Petersburg For Racially Motivated Violence A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced four teenagers on charges of manslaughter and inciting racial hatred after an attack on a street car. More  Azeri Journalists 'Assaulted' In Baku An opposition journalist in Azerbaijan says he and another reporter have been assaulted on the outskirts of Baku. More  Belarus Activists Charged With 'Hooliganism' Four Belarusian activists are to go on trial for hooliganism next week after being arrested while marking Belarus's Soviet-era declaration of sovereignty. More  Kyrgyz Protest Against OSCE Police Demonstrations against the deployment of an international police force to Kyrgyzstan's southern regions were held in several Kyrgyz cities on July 29. More  Moldova PM: EU To Double Wine Imports Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat says the European Union has promised to import more Moldovan wine just as Russia has threatened to embargo wine shipments from Moldova. More  Jailed Kazakh Reporter Appeals To UN Ramazan Esergepov, the founder and chief editor of the Almaty-based "Alma-Ata Info," was sentenced last year to three years in prison for revealing state secrets in his newspaper in 2008. He says the case against him is politically motivated. More  Russian Activists Invite Duma Members To Protest Organizers of Russia's Strategy 31 opposition movement have invited Duma members to their unsanctioned protest on July 31 in Moscow. More  Iranian Journalist, Activist Sentenced Iranian journalist and human rights activist Emadedin Baghi has been sentenced to one year in jail and banned from political activity for five years. More  Tajik Court Bans NGO Helping Homeless Children A nongovernmental organization that works with homeless children in Tajikistan has been banned after being accused of proselytizing. More  Did Banksy Visit Ukraine? If he didn't, it's a pretty good pastiche. More  TOEFL Testing Reinstated in Iran ETS, the U.S.-based organization that administers the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and other exams, has said on its website that it is resuming registrations in Iran. More  Tehran's Revolution Square 'Conquered By Zionist Regime' Iranian hard-line website Seratnews writes that Tehran's Revolution Square is nowadays covered with hundreds of Stars of David and that the central square has been "conquered by the Zionist regime." More  Nazarbaev Circulates His Currency Vision Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev appears keen to introduce a common global currency. One way or another. More  Funds For Conflict Victims In South Ossetia Disbursed To Army, Police The parliament of Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia has ruled to make available 50 million rubles ($1.65 million) from a bank account opened for private donations in support of persons who suffered during the August 2008 war. More A group of some 20 Georgian internally displaced persons who fled Abkhazia during the 1992-93 war are continuing their protests against the Georgian authorities' plans to move them from Tbilisi to alternative accommodation in two villages in the western district of Zugdidi. More  Another Showdown For The Two Faces Of Serbia Around 11 p.m. on July 24, the editor of the Belgrade-based weekly "Vreme" (and a contributor to RFE/RL's Balkans Service) Teofil Pancic boarded city bus No. 83 for home. Two young men on the bus proceeded to beat him senseless with metal rods. It was an incident that, hopefully, will compel many in Serbia to take a good look at their country and themselves. More  Kosovo Ruling Accelerates Erosion Of European Order The decision by a UN court on Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence will not have immediate consequences. But it has become another element in the general erosion of the European order that has been ongoing since the end of the Cold War. And the long-term consequences of this erosion are impossible to predict. More |
