 RFE/RL Headlines 10/28/2009 5:54:01 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  At Least 90 Dead In Peshawar Blast A powerful bomb blast in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar has killed and wounded dozens of people, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad vowing a new page in U.S.-Pakistan relations. More  UN Staff, Others Killed In Kabul Attack Twelve people, including six foreign UN workers, were killed in Kabul when armed men stormed a guest house compound used by UN staff. The dawn attack has raised questions and fresh concerns about security for a presidential election run-off due in 10 days. More  Moldovan Presidential Candidate Refuses Communist Offer Moldovan presidential candidate Marian Lupu says he is rejecting calls from the Communist parliamentary opposition to quit the Alliance for European Integration (AIE) in order to secure his election as president, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More  Brother Of Murdered Russian Lawyer Says Arrests Imminent Former Russian Duma deputy Mikhail Markelov says the people responsible for his brother's assassination will soon be arrested, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Moscow Protest Over Turkmen Environmentalist's Arrest Activists demonstrated at the Turkmen Embassy in Moscow to protest the arrest in Turkmenistan of environmentalist Andrei Zatoka, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports. More  Kazakh Rights Activist Sent To Remote Labor Camp Leading Kazakh human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis has been transferred from Almaty to a labor camp in northeastern Kazakhstan, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More The Belarusian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for a 25-year-old man found guilty of a double murder and robbery, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports. More  Chechen Republic Head Brands Exiled Minister ‘Liar’ Speaking on October 28 at a regional conference of the ruling United Russia party, Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov criticized as a hypocrite and a liar Akhmed Zakayev, who heads the Chechen Republic Ichkeria (ChRI) government in exile. More Georgian parliamentarians met on October 28 with top national security officials to discuss the implications of recent Russian allegations that international terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda are transiting Georgia en route to join the ranks of the North Caucasus resistance. More  Georgian Public Broadcaster ‘Unable’ To Grant Patriarchate Air Time In the wake of last week's scandal surrounding the internet footage showing Patriarch Ilia II, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, apparently denigrating Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Ilia's press secretary Mikael Botkoveli has addressed a formal request to the Georgian Public Broadcaster to air a debate on the issue. More  Kurdish Filmmakers Struggle For Identity, Audience The first New York Kurdish Film Festival took place on October 21-25 under the slogan “A Cinema Across Borders.” While the more accomplished Kurdish directors have attained a degree of recognition abroad, their films are often met with indifference by home audiences. More  UN Conference Addresses Maternal Mortality The United Nations Population Fund this week is highlighting the problem of maternal mortality around the world. Of all the UN's development goals, the effort to reduce maternal mortality rates has seen the least progress in recent years. The lack of improvement is particularly striking in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. More  Clinton Takes On Anti-American Sentiment In Pakistan Hillary Clinton is on her first visit to Pakistan as the U.S. secretary of state. Her arrival coincided with a massive bombing in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed at least 90 people. Clinton assured Pakistanis that they are not alone in the fight against terrorism -- but she still faces an uphill battle in securing full support for the United States’ antiterror strategy in South Asia. More  German Murder Trial Is Focus Of Anger in Islamic World The trial is under way in Germany of a man charged with murdering a pregnant Egyptian woman in a German courtroom in July. The man is charged with stabbing the 31-year-old woman to death after attempting to appeal a conviction for insulting her as an "Islamist" and a "terrorist" when she asked him to make room for her 3-year-old son on a playground swing. The case is being eagerly studied in the Muslim world for what it reveals about Islamophobia in Germany, in particular, and among Europeans in More  EU Learning Curve Heralds Beginning Of End Of Sanctions The European Union's curious history of applying punitive sanctions on non-member states is likely to prove short-lived. After EU foreign ministers decided on October 27 to remove all remaining restrictions on Uzbekistan, which has one of the world's most repressive regimes, the end of the whole idea of sanctions cannot be far away. More |
