RFE/RL Headlines 12/18/2009 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
News Obama Urges Unity On Climate Deal U.S. President Barack Obama has urged world leaders to "act together" on an accord to fight climate change, as divisions threaten to derail talks on the final scheduled day of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. More Georgians Decry Removal Of Memorial Georgian opposition parties are protesting a government decision to take down a huge World War II memorial complex in the city of Kutaisi, RFE/RL's Georgian Service reports. More Police are investigating an assault on two journalists in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More The Kyrgyz Education Ministry said today it has revoked the licenses of 14 universities in the country, which will be closed, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More Three people were arrested in Karachayevo-Cherkessia today as suspects in the murder of Imam Ismail-Hajji Bostanov, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More Well-known Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk is in a coma after apparently falling from a sixth-floor window in Almaty on December 16, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More The general director of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says he hopes Turkmenistan will reconsider its cooperation with the organization so that it can resume activities in the country, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports. More An Uzbek woman who was reportedly gang-raped along with her two sisters in a Tashkent jail has given birth, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports. More The presentation of a book by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Kasyanov has been blocked in Kyiv, RFE/RL's Ukrainian and Russian services report. More EU parliamentarians say they want a resolution critical of Azerbaijan to be seen as a warning message for authorities in Baku, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. More Ingushetian officials say the suicide bomber who attacked a police checkpoint on December 17 was the brother-in-law of slain rights activist Maksharip Aushev, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More The Alaykuu Valley in Kyrgyzstan's southern Osh region has been isolated for the last three days after a heavy snowfall, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More A Tajik border official has said 25 Afghan shepherds and thousands of sheep stranded for nine days by a snowstorm crossed through the Vakhon Mountains to return to Afghanistan, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. More It's Gulnara's World. We Only Live In It. Call her the Oprah Winfrey of Uzbekistan. (If Oprah Winfrey recorded banal Euro pop and her father was the brutal dictator of a repressive Central Asian nation, that is.) Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has been included, for the first time, on a list of the top 10 richest people in Switzerland. More An Iranian cleric, Hojatoleslam Rahimian, called today for the leaders of Iran’s opposition Green Movement to be executed. More I Confess: I Tore Up The Photo Of Imam Khomeini! Blogger Mohammad Nurizad, who used to be a columnist with the hard-line "Kayhan" daily, reacts to the recent controversy in Iran over the alleged tearing up of the picture of the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during an opposition protest. More |