 RFE/RL Headlines 10/6/2009 5:26:29 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Gates, Clinton Present Common U.S. Policy Front As discussions intensify in Washington over the direction of U.S. foreign policy, President Barack Obama has deployed his defense and diplomacy chiefs to make the administration's case. More  Russia Denies Visas To Media NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says it is "shocked" by Russia's decision to refuse visas to two of its representatives, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Mothers Urge Russian Ombudsman To Help Conscripts The nongovernmental organization Soldiers' Mothers of Petersburg has called on Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin to get involved in the adverse situation faced by young soldiers in the Kamenka military unit, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More Among the major issues to be discussed are plans on cooperating on energy issues, as well as on labor and economic migrants. More  Nazarbaev Says Presidency-For-Life Defined By Constitution Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has said that the issue of him being granted the presidency-for-life has already been determined by Kazakhstan's Constitution, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Armenian President Takes Turkey Deal To Diaspora Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian was greeted with protests from members of the diaspora over his proposed rapprochement with Turkey when he arrived in Paris and in Los Angeles, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  Armenian President Says Karabakh Peace Deal Still Off President Serzh Sarkisian is currently on a worldwide tour to meet with members of the Armenian diaspora to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh talks and other issues. More A few thousand elderly people in the western Russian city of Izhevsk have protested a decision to abolish free public transportation services for pensioners, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Six Sentenced In Azerbaijan On Terrorism Charges Six people have been found guilty of terrorism and sentenced to long jail terms by a court in Baku, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani and Russian services report. More  The Language Of Pigs On the pages of various Internet forums, the conflict has already moved to a whole new level. Most commonly, you read that those among the protesters who speak Russian are speaking "the language of pigs." You read that they all need to be rounded up into cattle cars and shipped off to Siberia. And it's language that is taken as the main factor in identifying the protesters. And that's frightening. More  Afghan Rights Activist Tipped To Win Nobel Peace Prize Speculation is rife in the Afghan capital that Sima Samar, the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, will win the Nobel Peace Prize this year. More  Russia Rejects Trade-Off With Turkey On Recognition Of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Northern Cyprus In Sukhumi on October 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected media speculation that Russia may reach an agreement on formally recognizing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in return for Ankara's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. More Face-Off Blogger "Ghalam Faranse" (French Pen) says he's looking forward to seeing how his classmates and other students might have changed their appearances in the new academic year. More  With UN Bombing, Taliban Attempts A Comeback The Taliban in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed five people at the offices of the UN's World Food Program in Islamabad on October 5. The bombing and recent media interviews by some Pakistani Taliban leaders suggest that the group is attempting a comeback despite the recent killing and arrests of its senior leaders. More  Prague Forum To Debate Democracy Since the Cold War Politicians, scholars, and activists will gather in Prague starting October 11 to discuss democracy and human rights since the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. That's this year's theme for the annual Forum 2000 conference, started by former Czech President Vaclav Havel in 1997 to discuss key issues facing the world. RFE/RL is an official media partner of the event. RFE/RL's Gregory Feifer spoke to Forum 2000's Executive Director Oldrich Cerny about his expectations for the conference. More  A Sense Of 'What Now?' In the wake of last week's EU report on the Russia-Georgia war, many in the West are wondering what can be done to prevent the conflict from repeating itself. For answers, RFE/RL's Georgian Service spoke to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas and Ron Asmus of the German Marshall Fund. More  Report Says Gulf States, Others Ready To Dump Dollar A British newspaper report that Gulf Arab states -- along with China, Russia, Japan, and France -- are planning to move away from using dollars for oil trading is getting attention in financial circles. The report by the daily "Independent" names no sources for its information, but it is the latest indication that officials in many countries are worried about the strength of the dollar in the global economic crisis and whether it will always remain strong enough to be the standard global currenc More  Why Do Russia's Police Remain Unreformed? While so much else in Russia has changed, its police force is still strikingly unreformed since the late Soviet era. From time to time, this is recognized as a problem and promises are made to modernize the Interior Ministry. Rarely do they come to anything. While the interior minister has lately been on the news almost daily, announcing new measures and condemning backsliding local commands, as is so often the case this flurry of activity seems meant not to further reform but mask its absence. More |
