 RFE/RL Headlines 7/16/2009 5:34:35 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Moldovan Court Quashes All Charges On Ex-Minister A court in ex-Soviet Moldova has dropped the final remaining charges against a former defense minister, once accused of defrauding the treasury by selling warplanes cheaply to the United States. More  One Killed In Azerbaijan-Russia Border Shoot-Out Azerbaijani border guards are searching for a group of people who opened fire on a border post when they illegally crossed the border from Russia, the Azerbaijani State Border Service has said. More  Swine Flu, A Quiet Enemy, Bides Its Time The H1N1 strain of influenza, popularly known as swine flu, is continuing to spread around the globe in an unspectacular but persistent way. Experts estimate that more than 1 million people have been infected, although fewer than 500 are confirmed to have died. One of the most troubling aspects of the situation is that no specific vaccine against it has yet been developed, and even when it is, distributing it around the world will be a massive and slow undertaking. More  Russian, German Leaders Meet For Economic Talks Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the picturesque Schleissheim Palace near Munich for talks expected to focus on Iran, North Korea, economic issues, and gas supplies. Among the topics on the agenda in Munich was a Russia-backed deal to buy German carmaker Opel, a unit of the U.S.-based General Motors. A preliminary deal was reached in late May, but it's been thrown into doubt since other contenders emerged. More  Clinton Tells Iran That Time To Act 'Is Now' After missing two overseas trips due to surgery to repair a broken elbow, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major foreign-policy speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on the eve of her trip to India and the Association of South East Asian Nation conference in Thailand. She took the opportunity to remind Iran that time is running out on the U.S. offer to negotiate. More Karabakh Concerned About ‘Distorted’ Settlement Process The Foreign Ministry of Nagorno-Karabakh wants to reset what it calls a "distorted negotiation process" aimed at resolving the status of the disputed region, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More Two small villages in southern Bashkortostan have declared themselves alcohol-free in an effort to prevent alcohol abuse, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports. More  Crimean Tatars Rally To Demand Land Restitution Some 2,000 Crimean Tatars have protested to demand the restitution of land that they lost when they or their relatives were deported more than 60 years ago, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports. More  Closure Of Moscow Market Leaves Migrants Scrambling Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has said that the Cherkizovsky outdoor market is likely to be permanently closed, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports. He added that those who are unable to find another workplace -- "the Chinese, Vietnamese, and others, must leave Moscow." More  Medvedev Makes Historic Visit To Grand Mosque President Dmitry Medvedev has toured Moscow's Grand Mosque, the first such visit by a Russian head of state, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports. More  IMU Leader Says Group Did Not Kill Former Tajik Minister The leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) claims that his group was not involved in the recent killing of former Tajik Emergency Situations Minister Mirzo Ziyoev. More  Iraqi Parliament Wrestles With British Military Agreement Various factions in the Iraqi parliament are working to pass a security agreement with Britain after the Sadrist bloc foiled a vote on the agreement, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reports. More  Moldovan Communists To Consider Grand Coalition The head of Moldova's ruling Communist Party, Vladimir Voronin, has said he will not rule out forming a grand coalition with the opposition parties after the July 29 general elections, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More  Iran Institutes New Laws Defining Internet Crimes In the wake of the postelection protests in Iran, which exploited social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the government in Tehran severely limited the public's access to the Internet through band-width strangulation and by interrupting mobile phone service. Now, the regime in Tehran appears to be taking even more radical steps to control the free flow of information. More  Central, Eastern European Leaders Acknowledge 'Storm Clouds, Nervousness' More than 20 Central and Eastern European leaders and intellectuals have written an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, saying "all is not well" in the the region nor in the vital trans-Atlantic relationship. More  Georgian Parliament Ignores Criticism Of Planned Restrictions On Meetings, Rallies The Georgian parliament approved on July 16 in the second reading proposed amendments to the laws on meetings and demonstrations, on the police, and on administrative offenses. Those amendments, which were drafted in response to the opposition's protest tactics over the past three months, were passed in the first reading on July 11. More Meeting on July 15 in emergency session, the parliament of the Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic (KChR) again rejected, this time by 30 votes in favor and 35 against with one invalid ballot paper, President Boris Ebzeyev's proposed candidate to represent the republic in the Federation Council. More  Was Estemirova's Killing Linked To Her Most Recent Activities? Human rights organizations worldwide have no doubt that the abduction and killing of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova was the direct consequence of her systematic investigation of human rights violations by local and federal power agencies in Chechnya. But as she herself acknowledged, she could have been targeted for those activities at any time. So why was she killed now? More  'One People, Two Countries' In an interview at RFE/RL’s headquarters, Romanian President Traian Basescu said that April's postelection clashes in Chisinau were a sign that Moldova’s young generation wants real political change. He strongly rejected Moldova’s accusations that Romania was behind the violence, and said the events resembled Romania's violent 1989 anticommunist revolt. More  This Week's Friday Prayers Promise To Be Significant Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is due to lead Friday Prayers in Tehran, with presidential candidate Mir Hossein Musavi expected to attend. Considering that many of those who protested against the results of the contentious presidential election say they will attend; that neither Musavi nor Rafsanjani have acknowledged the reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad; and that Musavi has accused the government of election fraud, the event is likely to be significant. More  A String Of Silenced Voices On Chechnya Natalya Estemirova's killing is not an isolated act of violence -- it is the latest in a string of assaults and murders of human rights campaigners and others who have denounced abuses in Chechnya and the surrounding republics. Many say the trail of blood leads to Chechnya's leader, iron-fisted Ramzan Kadyrov. More  EU Delegation Prepares To Walk A Fine Line A high-level EU delegation has arrived in the South Caucasus to tour Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in the coming days. Georgia, with its fragile internal political situation and tense relationship with Russia, will claim most of the EU visitors' attention. But the peace process in Nagorno-Karabakh is also likely to dominate talks in Baku and Yerevan. More  Bosnia's Grand Mufti Defends Religious Freedom Mustafa Ceric, the grand mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1999, has won international recognition for his efforts to promote communication and understanding among the world's many religions. RFE/RL Central Newsroom Director Jay Tolson spoke with Ceric on the eve of July 11, the European Commemorative Day for the victims of the Srebrenica massacre -- recognized officially by most of Europe but not by Bosnia, where the atrocity took place in 1995. More  Activist's Death Raises Questions About Kadyrov's Power Another Russian activist has been murdered. Natalya Estemirova's colleagues believe her killing was sanctioned by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Is Kadyrov's independence from the Kremlin enabling violence to grow in the volatile North Caucasus? More  Is There Enough Caspian Gas -- And Political Will? On July 13, the EU and Turkey signed what's been hailed as a historic deal to start work on the Nabucco pipeline, which is designed to give Europe an alternative to the unreliable supply of natural gas from Russia's Gazprom by connecting directly to Azerbaijan and other Caspian sources. But even if Azerbaijan does have the gas to fill the initial need, some question if it has the political will. More  Commentary: 'Such People Are The First To Be Killed' What happened is something that has already happened thousands of times over the last 10 years. A person was abducted and murdered. Even when the bodies are not found, it is clear that they have been murdered. Of these 3,000 or 5,000 "disappearances," how many have been followed up to the point that a court sentenced the guilty? More  What Comes Next For Iran? Now, the crisis in Iran is no longer a matter of election fraud. The issue is not President Mahmud Ahmadinejad as a personality, or the role of the Guardians Council vetting body, or who is the supreme leader. The entire structure of the Islamic republic is under question and the era of public political apathy is over. More |
