 RFE/RL Headlines 12/11/2009 8:37:55 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  EU Summit Concludes With Climate Pledge, Call For Financial Tax EU leaders today agreed to collectively contribute 2.4 billion euros a year between 2010-2012 toward offsetting the costs the world's developing nations will incur in cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. Concluding a two-day summit in Brussels, the bloc also called for a global tax on financial transactions as redress for the global financial sector's past mistakes, as well as an insurance against their recurrence. More Natural gas will begin flowing along a 7,000 kilometer natural-gas pipeline from eastern Turkmenistan to China next week, highlighting the countries' increased economic ties, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports. More  UN's Top Afghan Envoy Says He's Leaving Kai Eide says his departure is not linked to his spat with his former deputy over election fraud. More  Big Bidders Nab Iraqi Oil Contracts Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas today won the rights to develop one of the world's largest remaining untapped oil fields as Iraq staged its second auction of oil contracts since the 2003 U.S. invasion. More  Russian Opposition Holds Rallies On Eve Of Constitution Day Activists from former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's Russian People's Democratic Union (RNDS) began a protest campaign in 30 Russian towns and cities today called "Leadership! Implement the Constitution!" RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Fake Fire Inspector Scam In Russia Two people in the Russian city of Kirov used fake documents to present themselves as fire inspectors and collect fines from local businesses, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More The Moscow office of Russia's popular "Komsomolskaya pravda" daily has been attacked by a group of young men, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Convicted Kabul Mayor Returns To Work Afghan judicial authorities have described as illegal the return to work by Kabul's mayor following his conviction for corruption this week, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports. More  Serbian Buses Said Used At Srebrenica The former head of a Serbian bus company says the firm's buses were used to transport Bosnian Muslims from the town of Srebrenica after it fell to Bosnian Serb forces in 1995, RFE/RL's Balkan Service reports. More  Kyrgyz Diplomats Obliged To Use Kyrgyz The Kyrgyz Parliament has amended the law on the state language that would require all paperwork in Kyrgyzstan's diplomatic representations abroad to be completed in Kyrgyz, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  Activists Mark Chechen War Anniversary The Memorial Human Rights Center's branch in St. Petersburg is commemorating the victims of the first Chechen war, which began 15 years ago today, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Appeal to Release Azerbaijani Bloggers An appeal to release two jailed Azerbaijani bloggers was among letters written at an Amnesty International event in Prague for human rights day, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. More  Top Russian Prison Officials Sacked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sacked several top prison officials today in response to an investigation into the death of an imprisoned Russian lawyer, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Website Owner's Slayer Gets 2-Year Sentence A court in the North Caucasian republic of Ingushetia has sentenced a policeman to two years in jail for the killing of opposition website owner Magomed Yevloyev, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Russian Hockey Skates Full Circle Vyacheslav Fetisov, at the age of 51, donned his old No. 2 CSKA Moscow jersey and returned to the ice in a regulation Kontinental Hockey League game against SKA St. Petersburg. Fetisov's career has now gone full circle. More  Dueling Presidential Strategies For Pakistan In separate opinion pieces published this week and a few short months ago, current Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and former commando general-turned-president Pervez Musharraf weighed in on resolving the current crisis in Pakistan and Afghanistan. More  Russia, Georgia Move To Restore Transport Links President Mikheil Saakashvili has accepted the offer by his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev to open the Verkhny Lars/Zemo Larsi border crossing between the two countries and to restore direct flights. More  The Feast Of Sacrifice In A Village Blogger Yadashthaye yek daneshjuye dahati (The Notes of a Village Student, see blog for photos) writes about the rite of sacrificing sheep in his village on the Islamic holiday Festival of Sacrifice. More  Iranian-American's Mother Describes His Plight Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh was arrested and put on trial in the course of the crackdown that followed mass protests over the results of Iran's June presidential election. When he was given a 15-year prison sentence, his mother says Tajbakhsh and his family were shocked. More  The Abkhaz Vote, But Moscow Still Rules It's election season in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region as voters go to the polls for the first time since last summer's war in the Caucasus and Russia's move to recognize Abkhaz independence. Incumbent leader Sergei Bagapsh is favored to win a second term as de facto president. But Abkhazia's true rulers are in Moscow. More  Convincing For Some, Rehash Of Old Arguments For Others Some observers have called U.S. President Barack Obama's Nobel acceptance speech on December 10 a moral explanation for why he is escalating the conflict, while others have dismissed it as another American leader justifying his case for war. More  In 1989, Kyrgyz Protests Verged On Ethnic Conflict Kyrgyzstan today is still a place where people of different ethnicity live together peacefully. But in the summer and fall of 1989, it really seemed as if things could turn out far worse. I don't think we realized the danger of the fire we were playing with. More |
