 RFE/RL Headlines 7/31/2009 6:15:29 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News Bombs Target Shi'ite Worshippers In Baghdad A series of powerful bomb blasts has targeted Shi'ite Muslim worshippers as they emerged from mosques across Baghdad, killing at least 27 people and injuring more than 50. More The leader of a radical Islamic sect in northern Nigeria was shot dead in police custody overnight after more than four days of fighting between his followers and security forces left at least 180 people dead. Some Nigerian authorities have described the militant group that as the "Nigerian Taliban." More  British Troops Leave Iraq As Mandate Ends July 31 marks the end of Britain's troop presence in Iraq. But the more than six years of British involvement in the country remains controversial at home, with a major inquiry now under way to explore why London intervened there and what it learned from the experience. More  CSTO Leaders Gather For Informal Summit Presidents of the Collective Security Treaty Organization have gathered in the Kyrgyzstan for what is being called an informal summit. On the agenda will be talks about a long-standing plan to create a regional rapid-reaction force. Meanwhile, Russian media have speculated that President Dmitry Medvedev will bring up the issue of establishing a second Russian military base on Kyrgyz territory. More  Kazakh Rights Activist Jailed Again An Almaty court has found a Kazakh human rights group leader guilty of organizing an unsanctioned gathering, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Kyrgyz Rights Activists Detained, Fined In Bishkek Four female rights activists were detained, convicted, and fined in Bishkek for organizing an illegal protest, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  Moscow Police Detains Dozens Of Opposition Activists Police in Moscow have detained dozens of opposition activists, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Thousands Of Russians Protest Against Western Governor Several thousand protesters in the western Russian city of Bryansk are demanding the immediate resignation of Governor Nikolai Denin, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Moscow Court Orders Arrest In Attempt To Kill Kadyrov Foe A court in Moscow has issued an arrest warrant for a suspect in the attempt to kill former Chechen parliament deputy Isa Yamadayev, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Uzbek Human Rights Activist Jailed For 12 Years Uzbek human rights activist Dilmurod Sayyid has been sentenced to 12 and 1/2 years in jail, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports. More  Russian, Tajik Presidents Unveil Joint Power Plant Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have officially unveiled the fourth and last facility of the Sangtuda-1 Hydropower Plant, 160 kilometers south of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. More Sohrab Arabi's Family In Mourning Video of the mother and brother of the late 19-year-old Sohrab Arabi appearing at Behesht Zahra Cemetery on July 30 to mourn those killed in the postelection violence. More Hundreds of people, including some opposition leaders, gathered in Tehran's Behest Zahra Cemetery to mark the 40th day since the death of Neda Agha Soltan and remember other victims of the postelection unrest at Neda's grave. Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Musavi was in attendance, though police later forced him to leave and began arresting demonstrators. More  Gallup's Index Of Fear Gallup today released results of a poll conducted in 12 of the 15 former Soviet countries (they left out Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) asking people how they think about their leaders. And the results raised some eyebrows in the newsroom. More  The Patriarch And The 30,000 Euro Watch We wrote yesterday about Patriarch Kirill's trip to Ukraine and some of the problems he's encountered. More  Russia's August Syndrome For most of the world, August is a time to relax, kick back, and go on vacation. But in post-Soviet Russia, it has been a time of coup attempts, debilitating economic crises, financial meltdowns, bombings, and wars. More  Slide Show: Kirill Visits Ukraine As some Orthodox believers flocked to see Russian Patriarch Kirill during his visit to Ukraine, others came to protest what they see as an attempt to exert Russian authority in their country. More  New Book Aims To Win Afghan Hearts And Minds Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive leader of Afghanistan's Taliban, has issued an updated book outlining the rules of conduct for his fighters. The guide is seen as an effort to consolidate his grip over the Taliban ranks and to offset the West's new counterinsurgency strategy. More  Fight For The Faithful Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia's powerful Orthodox Church, is making a highly controversial visit to Ukraine. While some Ukrainians welcome his stated goal of uniting fractious Orthodox Christians, critics accuse Kirill of advancing the Kremlin's agenda on Ukrainian soil. More  Voronin: 'I Don't Want To Usurp Anything' Speaking at a press conference on July 30, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin talked about his Communist Party's serious setback in the country’s parliamentary elections. Although Voronin’s Communist Party won a plurality in the next parliament, the four opposition parties together could control the new legislature. More  Streets Quiet After Fresh Clashes Around Mourning Ceremony The streets of the Iranian capital are reportedly quiet one day after clashes erupted in several neighborhoods when police forcibly dispersed mourners of those killed in Iran's postelection unrest. But is mounting public anger in the shadow of the clampdown emboldening the government's strongest critics? More  Eyewitness: Fighting To Mourn For Neda At 4:15 p.m. on the 40th day of mourning for Neda, I arrived with my cousin at the Behesht Zahra cemetery. The dust here is so fine the particles don't just stick to your clothes but find their way into your lungs. More  Moldovan Opposition Jockeys To Form Coalition Pro-Western opposition parties in Moldova are scrambling to form a broad governing coalition after unseating the last ruling Communist Party in the former Soviet Union. International election observers cited a number of electoral violations in the July 29 vote but praised it overall as "positive." More  Swine Flu Cases Cause Panic In Kazakh Cities At least 14 cases of the swine flu virus (H1N1) have been confirmed in Kazakhstan, the only confirmed cases of the illness in Central Asia. Governments across the region are taking measures to prevent an epidemic, but many people remain unaware of the threat. More  New Strategy To Bring Fighters Into Kabul Fold The U.S. and Britain are calling for a new framework on negotiations with the Taliban to encourage moderate elements to support the Afghan government. It could signal a shift toward a more wholesale approach to militias that includes letting them stay armed and mobilized. More  Trial Over Trousers Becomes Fight Against Restrictive Law In Sudan, which has the one of the strictest interpretations of Shari’a law in the world, few have dared to challenge the rules that govern what women may wear. But a UN employee who faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public is using her case to question the country’s tough decency laws. More  'I Asked Her Not To Go' Neda Agha Soltan has become a symbol of Iran's brutal suppression of protests over the results of last month's presidential election. Forty days after her death, her mother talks to RFE/RL's Radio Farda about her daughter's shooting during a peaceful protest in Tehran. More  The Case Of The Missing Russian Crime Novel Many historians of literature tell us that the heart of the Western novel is property conflict -- conflict over an inheritance or some other sacred bourgeois value. The essence of the Russian novel, on the other hand, is the drama of love, the drama of a soul in torment, the tragedy of a hero misunderstood by his contemporaries. This explains why Russians have not produced great crime novels in which a shrewd detective doggedly hunts down a wily criminal and brings him to justice. More  Quo Vadis Moldova? With 53 seats in the parliament, the anticommunist front of four parties can form a government, but it falls eight votes short of being able to elect the president. In an overwhelmingly presidential political system, this could prove a fatal shortfall. More  Azerbaijan's Increasing Authoritarian Bent In direct violation of Azerbaijan's commitments as a member of the Council of Europe, the authorities continue their relentless crackdown on all forms of dissent, including that by a new generation of young activists. If Azerbaijan becomes as authoritarian as Belarus or Turkmenistan, this would be a big loss for Western interests in the region. More  The Clock Is Ticking Here's a reminder of the political timeline that Moldova's political leaders are facing from today, when the Central Election Commission was announcing the final results of the July 29 vote. More With 99.9 percent of the votes counted, the Communists look like they'll control 48 seats in the new parliament, while their political rivals will hold a combined 53 seats. More RFE/RL's Moldovan Service says Lupu stressed five major points at his press conference this morning, and said he was seeking to form "a large coalition for democratic governance." More The details aren't in yet, but Marian Lupu is pushing hard to don the statesman's mantle. More |
