 RFE/RL Headlines 11/13/2009 6:26:40 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Tajik National Prefers Guantanamo To Returning Home Umar Abdullaev, a prisoner at the United States' Guantanamo detention facility for international terrorist suspects, believes he is being punished for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But as the Obama administration works to close down the controversial facility, Abdullaev's lawyer is saying the Tajik national would rather remain imprisoned at Guantanamo than return to Tajikistan. More  WHO Urges Doctors To Use Antiviral Drugs Sooner The World Health Organization (WHO) says antiviral medicines like Tamiflu should be used much earlier by doctors in order to prevent deaths from swine flu. The UN agency also says it is sending more supplies of antivirals to developing countries most affected by swine flu. Those countries include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine. More  U.S. Seeks Assets of Foundation Thought To Be Iranian-Controlled U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking to seize four Islamic centers and a New York City skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization. The Alavi Foundation is thought to be secretly controlled by Iran and is accused of trying to help Tehran obtain nuclear weapons. If completed, the property seizures could be among the largest in the history of U.S. counterterror operations. More  Kyrgyz Opposition Politician's Trial Resumes A Bishkek district court resumed hearings into the case against former Foreign Minister Alikbek Jekshenkulov today, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  Iraqi Private Colleges Cite Government Discrimination Iraqi private colleges are complaining that their degrees are not being recognized and their graduates are discriminated against when they apply for government jobs, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reports. More  Armenian Police Tried For Excessive Force Two Armenian police officers are on trial for using disproportionate force during the violent break-up of demonstrations staged by the opposition after the 2008 presidential election, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  Slain Kazakh Opposition Figure's Son Gets Gov't Job The son of a late Kazakh opposition figure has been appointed to an Almaty City administration post on the eve of the anniversay of his father's mysterious death, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More Another Russian police officer has posted a video on the Internet in an attempt to highlight corruption among police, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Tajikistan Relocating Families From Flood Zone Tajik authorities have relocated 30 families from Tajikistan's eastern Rasht district to an area near Dushanbe because of chronic flooding, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. More  Russian Activists Plan Rally To Support Dissident Police Officer Russian human rights activists will hold a rally to support dissident policeman Aleksei Dymovsky, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Iran's One Million Signatures Campaign Recognized As 'Women Of The Year' Iran's One Million Signatures campaign, which fights to gather public support against discriminatory laws in the country, has received the Women of the Year award from U.S.-based Glamour magazine. More  Russian Free-Press Advocate Moves To Georgia The prominent Russian journalist and free-press advocate Oleg Panfilov has moved to Tbilisi. Panfilov, a longtime critic of the Russian authorities, said he had been receiving death threats. He took Georgian citizenship last year. More A senior Iranian police officer in charge of cyber crimes has announced that a special police unit to fight “crimes” committed on the Internet has been created. More  'Green Opposition Movement Doesn’t Exist' A member of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Nabi Rudaki, has said that the green opposition movement doesn’t exist. Rudaki made the comments in an interview with Iran’s official news agency (IRNA). More  A Few Bad Men But the problem of corrupt and abusive cops long preceded the rise of Vladimir Putin and the siloviki and it will probably not go away once they leave the scene. In fact, it was endemic throughout the supposedly liberal years of Boris Yeltsin's presidency. More  Would You Like A Condom? Blogger 35 degrees writes about changing social norms in Iranian society, where sexual matters are generally taboo. More  Forget About Ahmadinejad, Or No Wedding Blogger Iran Azad (Free Iran) writes about how his friend, a supporter of Mahmud Ahmadinejad, was rejected by a girl he wanted to marry because of his loyalty to the Iranian president. More  Live and Let Live Blogger Premenstrual Syndrome says Iran’s Green movement, which is opposed to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, distinguishes itself from other revolutionary movements by rejecting violence. More  Council Of Europe Head 'Very Concerned' About Azerbaijan A Baku court this week sentenced two young Azerbaijani bloggers, Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli, to two and 2 1/2 years in prison on hooliganism charges, in a case that has brought international attention to declining media freedoms in the oil-rich South Caucasus state. RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service discussed the issue with Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe. More  Civic Action Goes Online In Russia More than 1 million Internet users have now viewed the YouTube videos posted by a former Russian police officer denouncing corruption in his old workplace. Two other former officers and a former prosecutor have since posted videos complaining about rampant abuses. The clips highlight a growing trend of Russians taking their grievances to the Internet. More  Serbian Candidates Run In First Election Since Independence Voters in Kosovo are set to go to the polls to participate in the first elections since the region declared independence from Serbia in February 2008. The municipal elections are seen as a critical opportunity to engage Kosovo's minority Serbs in the political process, despite objections from Belgrade. More  Life 'Probably Not A Paradise, But It's Not Hell Anymore' Adam Michnik, the editor in chief of Poland's "Gazeta Wyborcza" and a leading member of the Polish democratic opposition from 1968 to 1989, was in Prague this week to attend a conference marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. He spoke to Irina Lagunina of RFE/RL's Russian Service about Russia, the West, and the post-Soviet letdown felt in the former Eastern bloc countries. More  Ukraine's Presidential Hopefuls Lay Out Their Programs The 18 candidates who have been registered for Ukraine's presidential election in January can be divided into three tiers. It's interesting to take a look at the domestic- and foreign-policy programs of the first- and second-tier candidates. More |
