 RFE/RL Headlines 05.06.2009 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Obama Seeks 'New Beginning' In a speech at Cairo University broadcast on major media platforms around the globe, the U.S. president calls for mutual understanding, criticizes violent extremists and authoritarian leaders, admits past U.S. failures, and urges Muslims to look inward at some of their own shortcomings. More  Iran President, Reformist Rival Trade Barbs In TV Debate The sharp tone of the debate reflected widespread perceptions -- in a country with little access to reliable polling figures -- that it featured the two presidential front-runners in a four-man race ahead of the June 12 election. More  Hints Of Chechen Talks For Political Solution The chairman of the Chechen exile government, Akhmed Zakaev, told an RFE/RL correspondent in London that the talks would be aimed at finding a political solution to the situation in the conflict-weary North Caucasus. More  Belarus Seeks Israeli Help With EU, U.S. President Lukashenka said Israel is not an alien country to Belarusians because "tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of our compatriots are living there and their fates are important for us." More  Armenia, Azerbaijan 'Satisfied' With Fresh Summit Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliev spoke one-on-one for more than two hours in total, before and after being joined by their foreign ministers and the U.S., Russian, and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group. More  Seven Cleared For Kyrgyz Presidential Bids The chairman of Kyrgyzstan's Central Election Committee, Damir Lisovsky, told journalists on June 4 that 11 aspirants either failed the standard Kyrgyz language test or didn't collect enough signatures to support their bids. More Some 48 workers at the Baikal paper mill in Russia's Irkutsk Oblast are on hunger strike to protest against their unpaid salaries, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Ukraine Zoo Director Says Animal Poisonings Political The Ukrainian State Science and Research Institute in Kyiv confirms that 10 animals in the Crimean Zoo died earlier this year as a result of poisoning, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. More The Tajik Foreign Ministry says that 10 of the 15 Tajik students detained in Egypt last week have been released, RFE/RL reports. More  Kosovo President Excluded From Balkan Summit A summit of Balkan leaders in Montenegro will include the presidents of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia, Albania, and Bulgaria, but the president of Kosovo was not invited, RFE/RL's Balkan Service reports. More A district court in Ufa, the capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, has ruled that a blog on livejournal.com is extremist, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports. More  Ukraine Asks Russia For Documents On 1930s Famine Ukraine's State Security Service (SBU) has officially asked Moscow to provide classified archival documents on the famine of the 1930s in Ukraine that killed millions, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. More  Uzbek, Kyrgyz Border Guards Capture Each Other Uzbek border guards captured and later released three Kyrgyz soldiers at the entrance to an Uzbek enclave, apparently in retaliation for Kyrgyz guards’ detention and release of two Uzbek soldiers earlier in the day, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  HRW Warns Kazakh OSCE Chairmanship Could ‘Backfire’ Human Rights Watch's executive director says Kazakhstan's chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010 could turn into a "debacle," RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More The Week In Facebook Inspired by The Atlantic's mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More  The Propaganda Machine About a month ago I wrote a post about the dueling polling agencies in Russia and discussed briefly the relations between the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) and the Kremlin (particularly with the office of the Kremlin’s domestic-politics curator Vladislav Surkov and with the United Russia party). More  Kadyrov Orchestrates Public Denunciation Of Second Chechen President For the second time in four months, Chechen television screened on May 29 a grandiose four-hour live talk show intended to vilify, and to demolish lingering public support for, the concept of an independent Chechen state. On both occasions, Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov presided over the proceedings and steered the discussion in the desired direction. More  Georgian Opposition Deplores 'Politicization' Of Army The Georgian opposition staged a demonstration outside the Georgian Defense Ministry on June 2 to protest what they termed reprisals by the authorities against army officers both before and after the purported mutiny on May 5 by a tank battalion at the Mukhrovani base east of Tbilisi. They also issued a formal appeal to the international diplomatic community to monitor closely both the investigation into the mutiny, and what they termed "alarming processes" within the armed forces. More  Lilac Season In Ukraine The lilacs at the Gryshko Botanical Garden in Kyiv are a hallmark of the Ukrainian capital. In mid-May, at the peak of lilac season, hundreds of thousands of people flock to see the flowers in full bloom. More  German-U.S. 'Tug-Of-War'? The White House rebuffed official German requests that Obama make room during today's visit for a high-level program, stressing the private nature of visits to a former concentration camp and a U.S. military base ahead of this weekend's D-Day anniversary. Some German media are calling it "a diplomatic tug-of-war" that Berlin lost. More  Islamic World Reacts To Obama Address Initial responses to U.S. President Barack Obama's "new beginning" speech were generally but not universally positive. They ranged from a broad welcome by government officials and moderate Islamic leaders to outright rejection by Islamist groups. More  China's Government 'Running To Stay In One Place' Scenes from China horrified the world 20 years ago when the government's killing of Tiananmen Square protesters provided an object lesson in Chairman Mao's adage "all political power comes from the barrel of a gun." But since then, China has also amazed the world with its degree of economic progress and stability. Does that make China an authoritarian success story, or a country highly uncertain of its future? RFE/RL asked Roderick MacFarquhar, an eminent China scholar and professor of history at Harvard University. More  Turkmen, Uzbek Eyes Stray Toward Brussels Boasting huge hydrocarbon reserves, Central Asia has become accustomed to the stream of foreign companies and politicians who visit hoping to lock up energy deals. For the most part, European representatives have returned home empty-handed. But with Central Asian states seeking to break Russia's dominance of their energy-export routes, they are hitting the road to court the EU. More  Slighted By Russia, Ashgabat Courts EU Hastily arranged high-level meetings between Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and EU officials are being seen in the EU capital as a sign of Ashgabat's growing frustration with Russia. This spring, Russia reneged on an agreement to buy large volumes of natural gas from Turkmenistan at what was then a "European" price, causing the regime in Ashgabat to approach other potential suitors. More  Chinese Culture And Democracy 'Not Imcompatible' In the two decades since Tiananmen Square, China has changed dramatically. The country has become an economic powerhouse with a rising middle class. But one way it has not changed is politically, as the ruling Communist Party retains a full monopoly on power. Will China always be this way, as the ruthless suppression of the Tiananmen protest might suggest? Or will the country's rapid economic development one day bring democracy in its wake? More Former UN Envoy Discusses Middle East's Role In Muslim World Alvaro de Soto, a former Peruvian diplomat and former UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, speaks to RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique about some of the most critical issues in the region ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo. More  Israel And Islam As U.S. President Barack Obama delivered his much-awaited speech to the Muslim world, many were listening keenly to hear his thoughts on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Is that conflict so central to U.S.-Muslim relations and peace in the Muslim world? More China Reckons With The Legacy Of 'Counterrevolution' Twenty years ago, on June 4, 1989, Chinese troops and tanks waited for nightfall and then attacked pro-democracy protesters who had occupied Beijing's central Tiananmen Square for more than six weeks. The crushing of China's democracy movement was so brutal, and so closely followed by television viewers in so many countries, that it remains one of the most vivid moments of recent history. More  Celebrations Divide Poland And Its Politicians Twenty years ago, postwar Poland conducted its first so-called partially free elections, in which the ruling Communist Party suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Solidarity. Now, there is an atmosphere of dispute among those who were once comrades in the anticommunist movement. More  Nagorno-Karabakh: War, Peace, Or BATNA? When the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan meet in St. Petersburg, they are expected to reach a breakthrough on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the military phase of which was ended 15 years ago by what has become the world's longest self-maintained cease-fire. More  Poland Divided Over 1989 Revolution Legacy On June 4, 1989, Poles voted in semi-democratic parliamentary elections, handing a landslide victory to opposition candidates fielded by the Solidarity trade union. The communists duly ceded defeat, paving the way for Solidarity to form a government. More  Commentary: Islam's Reformation and Obama's Speech President Obama can say very little about the specifics of the ongoing reformation of Islam. But modestly voicing support for those brave Muslim champions of Islamic diversity and civiilizational richness would actually be saying a lot. More  Ahmadinejad vs. Musavi: Hitting Below the Belt On the evening of June 3, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and moderate candidate Mir Hossein Musavi went head-to-head in a televised debate. Ahmadinejad stayed true to form -- full of fiery attacks and outrageous accusations. More |
