 RFE/RL Headlines 11/2/2009 7:12:48 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  UN Suspends Development Work In Northwest Pakistan The United Nations says it is suspending long-term development work in two war-ravaged areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan because of security concerns. More  Karzai Declared Afghan Election Winner Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been declared the winner of the country's presidential election after a planned runoff ballot was called off. Karzai's only challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race because he said the vote would not be free or fair. More  Britain's Miliband Meets With Russian Rights Activists British Foreign Minister David Miliband met with human rights activists in Moscow today, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Ukrainian Hospitals To Distribute Tamiflu For Free Ukrainian hospitals will start distributing Tamiflu among the population this week in an effort to help people who have the flu, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. More  Prominent Businessman Shot Dead In Moscow Well-known Russian businessman Shabtai Kalmanovich has been shot dead in Moscow, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  EU Envoy Hopes Turkey-Armenia Protocols Approved Soon The European Union's special representative to the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, said he hopes the rapprochement protocols signed by Armenia and Turkey will be ratified soon, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  Russia To Build New Nuclear Plant In Armenia The Armenian government says Russia will build a nuclear power plant in Armenia that will nearly triple the country's current levels of nuclear energy production, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  Armenia: Turkey Should Ratify In 'Reasonable' Time Frame A senior Armenian Foreign Ministry official says Turkey should ratify the rapprochement agreements signed between the two countries within a "reasonable time frame," RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  Ingushetian President Opens Culture Center In Almaty The president of the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, presided at the ceremonial opening of an Ingush Cultural Center in Almaty on October 30, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Kyrgyz Journalist Recovering After Being Beaten In Osh Kyrgyz journalist Kubanychbek Joldoshev was beaten by unknown assailants and hospitalized in Osh on November 2, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  Iran's Leading Holocaust Denier Named Deputy Minister Mohammad Ali Ramin, who is said to have shaped the views of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on the Holocaust, has been appointed deputy culture minister for media affairs. Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a "myth." More An Iranian activist, Farvartish Rezvanieh, has protested against what he describes as a lack of action against swine flu by the Iranian authorities by walking the streets of Tehran wearing a full isolation suit with H1N1 on it. More  Your Own Personal Vertical An influential think tank is advising President Dmitry Medvedev that he needs to establish an alternative power structure answerable only to him in order to reach his goal of modernizing Russia. More  New Bone Of Contention Emerges Between Georgian Opposition, Government Even before the putative date (May 30) of next year's Georgian municipal elections has been confirmed, opposition parties are expressing concern that amendments to the election law proposed by the authorities will give President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (ENM) an unfair advantage over its opposition rivals. More A group of Balkars launched a series of public pickets in Moscow on October 26 to protest perceived discrimination at the hands of the predominantly Kabardian leadership of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic (KBR) and the failure of the federal authorities to implement the 1991 law on the rehabilitation of ethnic groups deported by Stalin from the North Caucasus in 1943-1944. More  'Ayatollah Khamenei, You Will Face Justice For The Coup!' Blogger Daftarcheye yadasht-e man (My Notebook) reacts to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments last week in which he described questioning Iran's June 12 presidential vote as the "greatest crime." More  Britain Attempts Own Russia 'Reset' Relations between Britain and Russia have grown chilly over the last five years, hurt in part by the poisoning case of Russian ex-security agent Aleksandr Litvinenko. But in Moscow, Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov struck a warm tone in their public statements, prompting speculation that Britain is attempting a U.S.-style Russia "reset" of its own. More  Russian Marathoner Marvels At Her Good Fortune Lyudmila Petrova of Russia placed second in the 2009 New York City Marathon on November 1, repeating her performance of 2008. Petrova came a close second to the marathon's first-place female finisher, Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia. Regarded as the crown jewel of international marathons, the New York race featured a record 43,741 runners, one-third of them women. More  U.S. Weighs Working With Local Militias In Afghanistan Can local forces help turn the tide against the Taliban? Washington is looking at that possibility as it weighs a new strategy for Afghanistan. The model is the success of tribal forces in marginalizing Al-Qaeda in Iraq. But many Afghans say turning to local militias can be a risky business. We look at why in this second of a two-part series on local militias in Afghanistan. More  Happiness Is The Freedom To Prosper It is always interesting to compare how happy people are in different countries. Now, a new study has ranked 104 nations according to how happy and prosperous their citizens say they are. The study, the Legatum Prosperity Index, shows that the happiest countries share some fundamental traits, including good governance and economic freedoms. In short, they are countries where people have the freedom to prosper. RFE/RL senior correspondent Charles Recknagel spoke with William Inboden and Ryan Stre More  Uncertainty Prevails On Climate Treaty Ahead Of Summit Nearly five weeks before the start of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, the United Nations has signaled that it has reduced its expectations about reaching agreement on a new treaty to slow global warming. More  Analysis: With Uncertainty Comes Opportunity Karzai has been presented with an opportunity to pull off his political rebirth. His first task will be to reach out to Abdullah and other political opponents so that political friction won’t morph into violence. He can also potentially turn a page in his relationship with the international community. More  New Book Digs Deep Into Britain's MI5 Christopher Andrew, a history professor at Cambridge University, recently published the first authorized history of the domestic branch of the British intelligence establishment -- officially designated the Security Service and commonly known as MI5. In writing his book, titled "Defend The Realm," Andrew had extensive access to MI5 archives, although parts of it still remain closed. He discussed the results of the work in an interview with RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas. More  An Afghan District Raises Its Own Militia For eight years since the U.S.-aided toppling of the Taliban, the residents of the Qala-i-Zal district of Konduz Province have relied on Afghan government forces for security. Now, with a resurgent Taliban, worried local officials have taken matters into their own hands. More  A Land Where War Criminals Are Heroes A government plane was waiting to carry the released convict from prison to a hero’s welcome in Belgrade. Journalists clustered around her, eager for any statement. Not bad for a convicted war criminal returning home. More |
