 RFE/RL Headlines 9/16/2009 5:36:04 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Controversial Winner Afghanistan’s postelection crisis has deepened, as the country’s Independent Election Commission declared incumbent President Hamid Karzai the preliminary winner of last month’s poll while EU observers have alleged massive fraud. More  EU's Barroso Wins Strong Mandate For New Term European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has won a strong mandate to combat Europe's economic crisis by gaining a clear majority in the European Parliament for a second five-year term. More  Bosnian Muslims Protest Against UN Tribunal Ruling About 200 Bosnian Muslim relatives of victims of the 1992-95 war protested have against the UN war crimes tribunal's decision to grant early release to former President Biljana Plavsic. More  U.S. Fed Chief Latest To See End Of Recession They're not quite popping open the champagne yet. But in the last few days, top policymakers from some of the world's big economies have been giving markedly upbeat assessments. So, is the global recession coming to an end? More  EU Says 1.1 Million Votes For Afghan Leader Suspicious As many as one-third of votes cast for Afghan incumbent Hamid Karzai in last month's presidential election are suspect and must be checked for fraud, the head of a European Union election observer mission has said. More  Final Afghan Election Results Due Amid Fraud Probe Afghan election authorities will announce the long-delayed tally from last month's presidential vote on September 16, a spokesman said, although a recount ordered over fraud means the final outcome could still be weeks away. More  Al-Qaeda Calls For Foreign Kidnappings In Afghanistan The directive has been issued by veteran Al-Qaeda adviser Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al-Masri, and stems from the U.S. detentions in Guantanamo Bay, former counterterrorism analyst Leah Farrall told an Australian newspaper. More Abkhaz Orthodox Church Splits From Georgian Church The Abkhaz Orthodox Church has officially split from the Georgian Orthodox Church, RFE/RL's Russian and Georgian services report. More  Supporter Of Jailed Kazakh Rights Activist Arrested Kazakh journalist Andrei Sviridov has been arrested in Almaty after holding a public action in support of human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Tatarstan Mulling Changes To Language Law Tatarstan's parliament is considering amendments to the law on its state languages after the Russian Supreme Court ordered the Tatar government to harmonize those laws with federal Russian legislation, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports. More  Armenian President To Meet With Party Leaders On Turkey Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian will meet with the leaders of dozens of political parties to discuss his controversial fence-mending agreements with Turkey, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  Kyrgyz Village Stops Uzbeks From Digging Border Trench Residents and officials in the western Kyrgyz village of Bay-Kyshtak stopped Uzbek excavators from digging a trench along the disputed Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  Kazakh Senators Back Idea Of Lifetime Presidency Some Kazakh Senate members say they would support legislation that would allow Nursultan Nazarbaev to remain president-for-life, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Kyrgyzstan To Sign New Deal On NATO Transit Center A Kyrgyz parliament delegation led by the deputy speaker, Kubanychbek Isabekov, has visited the NATO Transit Center at Manas Airport near Bishkek, and discussed new transit agreements to be signed soon, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  Armenian Party In Disarray As Leader Leaves Parliament Turmoil surrounds Armenia's Zharangutiun (Heritage) party since party founder Raffi Hovannisian resigned from the National Assembly and three senior party members were expelled from the party amid accusations of secretly colluding with the authorities, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  Moldovan Communists Might Support Liberal Candidate Moldova's Communist Party says it could agree to vote for a presidential candidate proposed by the four pro-Western parties if they adhere to the Communists' social program and don't pursue NATO membership, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More Tenth Anniversary Of Belarus's 'Disappeared' Ten years ago, under mysterious circumstances, politician Viktar Hanchar and businessman Anatol Krasouski went missing in Minsk. Two other men, former Interior Minister Yurz Zakharanka and cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski, also disappeared. None of the men have ever been found. There is widespread suspicion within Belarus that the security services connected to Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka were connected to the disappearances. More  Kremlin Guide To America's Top Dissidents Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to use a visit this month to the United States to turn the tables on Barack Obama, saying he'll "speak to dissidents [to] let them tell me what problems the United States has." We'd like to suggest a few American dissidents who might fit the Kremlin's bill as payback approaches. More  Photo Of The Day Activists supporting the Azerbaijani "donkey bloggers" were held at Baku's Police Station Number 8 today. More  Belarus A Hair's Breadth Away From The EU. Sort Of. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka never disappoints. Speaking in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, he warned today that his country will not be "pushed" into choosing between good relations with either the European Union or Russia. More  Let The Seeds Grow “Of all the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Moldova will be the first that manages to make a serious breakthrough on economic development. It will take about 10 to 15 years, given the current circumstances.” This seems like a pretty debatable position, doesn’t it? More  Abkhaz Prosecutor Warns Former Vice President The Abkhaz prosecutor's office on September 15 accused former Vice President Raul Khadjimba of seeking in recent statements to discredit the republic's law enforcement agencies in general and the prosecutor's office in particular. Speaking at a conference of the war veterans' union Aruaa, Khadjimba had openly challenged the official explanation for the arrest in late June of Aruaa member Colonel Valmer Butba. More  Deprived Of The Right To Study Blogger Yari Yol (Midway) says she has been banned from studies by Iran’s government. (Eds: Since coming to power in 2005, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has banned a number of student activists from attending classes.) More  Inside Ukraine's Security Service Archives Volodymyr Perebyinis was sent to a Soviet labor camp more than 60 years ago on charges of anticommunist agitation. Today, his relatives have turned to the archives of the Ukrainian Security Service to shed light on their family history -- and on the repression of the Soviet era. More  Does Hartmann Conviction Send Wrong Message? Florence Hartmann, the former spokeswoman for The Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this week was found guilty of publishing confidential court documents. The court said her actions put the work of the tribunal in peril. But Hartmann's supporters say the court is to blame for seeking to hide potential evidence linking Belgrade to war crimes in the Bosnian war. More  EU-Central Asia Cooperation Gathers Pace Relations between the European Union and the countries of Central Asia are going through the warmest spell since their inception in the 1990s. Participants of the second EU-Central Asia Ministerial Conference, which took place in Brussels, were unanimous in seeking to minimize their differences. More  U.S. Confirms First Special Representative To Muslim World The U.S. State Department has confirmed its first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities. According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the creation of the post sprang from the Obama administration's desire to be "fully engaged" with the Muslim world. More  The Four Nations That Challenge U.S. Interests Every four years, the U.S. intelligence community compiles a national intelligence strategy that focuses on foreign challenges to America's interests. This year, four countries are at the top of the list: Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China. More  The Kremlin Wants A War in Iran The Kremlin's decision not to support the UN Security Council proposal to impose new sanctions pushed Washington, Israel, the Persian Gulf, and Europe closer to consensus on a military solution to Iran's nuclear crisis. More |
