 RFE/RL Headlines 03.06.2009 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Obama Kicks Off Mideast Tour U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia for the first leg of his maiden tour of the Middle East, a visit aimed at improving relations between the United States and the Islamic world. More  Corruption Watchdog Says Poor Hardest-Hit By Bribery According to Transparency International's annual "Global Corruption Barometer," bribery is eroding public confidence in many governments and the hardest-hit victims of bribery, even during the current economic crisis, are the poor. More  Moldova Vote Fails, Opening Way For New Elections The Communists' victory in the last general elections on April 5 led to violent protests. More  New Wave Of Arrests Reported In Kazakhstan More officials and company heads have been arrested in Kazakhstan, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Drug Agency Official Killed In Ingushetia An officer in the State Drug Control Agency has been killed in Ingushetia, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Suspects Arrested In Ukrainian Bank Bombing Ukrainian police have arrested two people suspected of setting off the explosions in a bank in the southeastern city of Melitopol, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. More  Kazakh Opposition Call For New Murder Investigation Leaders of the Kazakh opposition Azat party urged authorities to reopen the investigation into the 2006 murder of an opposition leader, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Baku Lowers Expectations For Karabakh Meeting Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service that he does not expect much progress at the next meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in St. Petersburg on June 4 to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. More Can You Hear Me, Europe? The European Parliament elections start tomorrow and with abstention rates among 18-24 year olds over 75 percent, the European Union is trying hard to get the kids out to vote. More Inspired by The Atlantic's mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More  Geography Is Destiny Stratfor this week published a little paper called “The Geography of Recession” that is worth taking a look at, if only to be reminded of the old axiom that “geography is destiny.” More  Will This Jean-Clad Woman Become The Country's First Lady? Shatot2 asks whether Iran might be poised for a dramatic first, presumably in the form of Zahra Rahnavard, wife of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Musavi. More In Serbia, Racism Rises To The Surface Serbia’s Roma minority has been the target of violent attacks and other hate crimes in recent years. But some Roma leaders say that hidden, institutionalized racism presents an even greater danger. More 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  Aliyev Personality Cult Is Carpet-Maker’s Boon Fatima Sadigova’s carpet business specializes in portraits of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family – and the expensive carpets are selling fast. Their popularity confirms that many Azeris remain devoted to the dynasty founded by former President Heidar Aliyev, the current president’s father. More  How Important Is Israeli-Palestinian Issue To Muslim World? When U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his much-awaited speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt, many will be listening keenly to hear his thoughts on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With the speech intended to help heal serious wounds, is the conflict so central to U.S.-Muslim relations and peace in the Muslim world? More  Failure Sends Moldovan Political Crisis Back To Voters Lawmakers in Moldova have failed for a second time to elect a president to succeed longtime leader Vladimir Voronin. As a result, the deadlocked legislature will be disbanded and new legislative elections scheduled for later this summer or in the autumn. So where does the political standoff between the ruling Communist Party and the opposition go from here? 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  Why Cairo? In choosing a venue for a speech to the Islamic world, U.S. President Barack Obama faced a dilemma. Picking a location within the Arab world risked a failure to appeal to the wider Muslim world; but selecting a site outside the Arab world could have been criticized as exceedingly "safe." 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 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  Candidates Come Face To Face But Look Elsewhere On June 2, reformist and conservative candidates, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohsen Rezai, held a televised debate titled Superior Election. More |
