 RFE/RL Headlines 27.05.2009 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Alarm Bells In Ferghana Islamists claim responsibility for fresh attacks in Uzbekistan and Tashkent points fingers across the border at Kyrgyzstan, while outsiders say it's too early to place blame. But they're quick to note that instability could spread quickly in Ferghana Valley, a hotbed of social unrest in Central Asia. More  Another Top Kazakh Uranium Company Official Arrested Baurzhan Ibraev, the vice president of the Kazakh state uranium company Kazatomprom, has been arrested. More Officials in Afghanistan's Nimroz Province say thousands of books thought to have been printed in Iran were thrown into the Helmand River this month. More  Iraqi Parliament's Mission To Kirkuk Ends In Failure The fact-finding trip to multiethnic Kirkuk deadlocked in failure and its members returned to Baghdad to report to the major political factions, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq reports. More A final decision on the issue will be made at PACE's next meeting in Paris in June. More  Daghestan's Deputy Mufti Shot Dead The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office is investigating the assassination of Daghestan's deputy mufti, or religious authority. More  Russian Lawyer Believes Criminal Case Against Him Will Be Dismissed Embattled Russian defense lawyer Boris Kuznetsov, who has been granted political asylum in the United States, has told journalists he believes the criminal case against him will soon be dismissed without prejudice. More The media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is urging candidates running in Iran's upcoming presidential election to commit to the unconditional release of the 13 journalists and bloggers currently being held in the country. More  Blogger Vs. Russian Police Yesterday we published a commentary by RFE/RL Russian Service columnist Olga Serebryanaya about a Russian Livejournal mob that is pressuring Moscow police not to cover up an alleged hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of a pregnant woman on May 13. More A Serbian Orthodox priest was removed as head of a church-backed drug rehabilitation center Wednesday, after a video broadcast on national television showed him beating a patient with a shovel. More  Russian Group Grabs Stake In Facebook The buyer, Digital Sky Technologies, already owns chunks in Web companies that account for 70 percent of all page views on the Russian-speaking Internet, according to the firm. More  Where Is Mrs. Putin? It seems the topic of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s personal life never gets old. Last year the Moscow tabloid “Moskovsky korrespondent” got itself into hot water by reporting that Putin planned to divorce his wife, Lyudmila, and marry State Duma Deputy and former rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva. More  Biden In The Balkans Hazim Imamovic from Olovo, a small town in central Bosnia, had been so excited about the speech the U.S. vice president delivered last week in the parliament that he decided to give a present to Joe Biden -- a piece of his own land. More  Green Shoots? It certainly won’t come as news to Power Vertical readers that the electoral system in Russia is a rigged sham. We can’t say it any better than former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (thanks to La Russophobe for the citation), who said on May 21: “The electoral system has been revised to serve the interests of a single party, the interests of those who are now at the helm. Step by step, we have been going back to the past.” More  Georgian Opposition Mulls More Radical Forms Of Protest Seven weeks after the Georgian opposition launched its campaign to force President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign, up to 55,000 people congregated at a soccer stadium in Tbilisi on May 26 in support of that demand. Despite dwindling participation at their protest actions in recent weeks, opposition leaders had said earlier they hoped to mobilize 100,000 protesters. More  Rosneft, Abkhazia Sign Agreement On Oil, Gas Reserves Abkhaz Economy Minister Kristina Ozgan and Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov signed an agreement in Sukhumi on May 26 under which Rosneft acquires the rights for a period of five years to prospect for oil and natural gas off Abkhazia's Black Sea coast. Rosneft will also build a string of gas stations in Abkhazia and sell gasoline, diesel, and heating oil. More  Georgia Signals Readiness To Discuss Opening Border Crossing With Russia The Swiss Embassy in Tbilisi submitted to the Georgian Foreign Ministry on May 24 a proposal by the Russian Foreign Ministry to reopen the Verkhny/Zemo Lars border crossing between Georgia and the Russian Federation. More  Was Grenade Attack On Georgian TV Station Prompted By Murder Documentary? The station's general director suggested that the blast may have been intended to prevent the screening by Maestro on the evening of May 25 of a documentary film about the January 2006 killing of banker Sandro Girgvliani. More  Analysts See Politics In Obama's Nomination Of Hispanic Woman To Court President Barack Obama has nominated federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor is the daughter of immigrants from Puerto Rico and is the first Hispanic to be nominated to the nine-member tribunal. Some observers see her nomination as a political move, because it would give the court a representative of the United States' fastest-growing minority group and could have an impact on future elections. More  New European Charter Lays Down Guidelines In the German city of Hamburg on May 25, 46 journalists and editors in chief from 19 countries signed the "European Charter on Freedom of the Press." The charter establishes basic guidelines for protecting the press from government interference and ensuring journalists access to sources of information. The document's creators hope the charter's adoption will become a condition in future EU accession negotiations. More  Newspaper Industry Mulls How To Survive In Internet Age A wave of job cuts, bankruptcies, and closures has hit the newspaper industry, particularly in the United States. The recession and the availability of free news on the Internet are blamed for turning newspapers into what one prominent senator called an "endangered species." More  Kazakh Atomic Kingpin Suddenly Radioactive He was once considered one of the richest and most powerful men in Kazakhstan: the head of a company with access to the world's second-largest reserves of uranium, with lucrative contracts with Russia, China, and India. But now Mukhtar Jakishev finds himself under arrest and possibly in line to join other corporate heads who have landed in Kazakh jails. More  Pakistani Civilians Flee Fighting, Not Difficulties The Pakistani government's crackdown on Taliban fighters in the country's northwest has led to an exodus of residents so rapid and immense that it has dwarfed efforts to stave off a humanitarian crisis. Many have found shelter within welcoming communities or among relatives, but others are traveling immense distances in search of save haven. More  Video: Primer On Iran's Election With a little more than two weeks to go before Iranians go to the polls to pick a president, RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari sketches the candidates and outlines the political landscape. More  From Tehran And Pyongyang, Early Obama Challenges U.S. President Barack Obama came to office promising to explore ways to talk with countries hostile to the United States -- such as North Korea and Iran. That was in contrast to the Bush administration’s labeling them as parts of an "axis of evil." But will events such as Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests, and Tehran’s stepped-up rhetoric, allow Obama to begin his effort? Or will they push Obama to adopt a harder line, too? More  Is A New Russia-Georgia War On The Horizon? Georgia is marking its Independence Day, but few are in the mood to celebrate. Russia is concentrating troops near the border and fears of a new invasion are gathering momentum. What is Russia's end game in Georgia and how do they hope to achieve it? More  Does Russia Even Need To Invade Georgia? Nearly nine months after the war between Russia and Georgia last August, the situation surrounding the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remains tense. Some observers have warned that fighting in the region could flare up again within the next few months. But would a new war helpRussia achieve its objectives? More Russia's Bloggers Stand Up To The Police On May 21, Aleksei Shumm posted a notice on his Live Journal page saying his pregnant wife had been struck and killed while crossing Ysenevoi Avenue in Moscow on May 13. Several news agencies picked up the story and cited information as saying that material from the scene had been collected and passed on to investigators. That was the last Shumm heard about the matter until, nine days after his wife’s death, he learned that no case had been filed against the driver, who has been identified as a More  Election Jokes Doing The Rounds In Iran It's election season and that can mean only one thing in Iran: jokes. And many of them, perhaps unsurprisingly, poking fun at Ahmadinejad. More In the last two weeks, a video showing Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami telling a joke about Iran’s Azeri minority has led to protests by Iranian Azeris and students in several cities including Tehran, Orumyeh, and Tabriz. (The video above is from a protest in Tabriz on May 25.) More  Facebook Is Back In Iran Facebook was unblocked today in Iran just one day after President Mahmud Ahmadinejad criticized its recent closure. More |
