 RFE/RL Headlines 1/4/2010 4:58:03 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  U.S., U.K., French Missions Shut In Yemen The U.S. and British Embassies in Yemen remain closed for a second day, as U.S. officials say there are indications an Al-Qaeda affiliate in the region is planning an attack on Western interests in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. More  Russia-Belarus Oil Spat Worries EU A dispute between Russia and Belarus over the price of oil threatens to disrupt supplies to Europe after reports said Moscow has begun cutting supplies to its former Soviet neighbor. More  Tajik Earthquake Leaves Thousands Homeless More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed in an earthquake in Tajikistan, but no casualties have been reported, an official in the former Soviet republic said today. More  Iran Opposition Ayatollah's Mosque Closed Iranian authorities have locked the doors of a prominent mosque in the southern city of Shiraz that is the base of an opposition ayatollah, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. More  Kyrgyz Opposition Names Award After Slain Journalist Kyrgyzstan's opposition Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party has established an award named after journalist Gennady Pavlyuk, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  Low Turnout, Alleged Violations Mar Azerbaijani Local Elections Voters from three villages in Azerbaijan's Sabirabad Raion staged a protest on December 28 against perceived procedural violations during the December 23 municipal elections. More  Circassian NGO Heads Accuse Presidential Envoy Of Slander, Incompetence The heads of three Circassian political organizations have sent a formal protest to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in connection with disparaging insinuations by the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, Vladimir Ustinov. More  Get To Know The Enemy Blogger Sheida Jahanbin reacts to the bloody Ashura crackdown on December 27 during which at least eight people were killed. She says that the protesters resorted to violence in order to defend themselves and their loved ones against the security forces, who brutally clamped down on members of the Green opposition movement. More  Photographing The First Chechen War Fifteen years ago, photographer Aleksei Sazonov travelled to Chechnya to document the outbreak of war in the separatist republic. Looking back at those turbulent days, Sazonov recalls braving sniper fire and making tough ethical decisions to capture the conflict on film. More  When 'Old Europe' Means Really, Really Old Long before the ancient civilizations of Egypt or Mesopotamia, the cultures of Eastern and Southeastern Europe had already mastered a level of sophistication and creativity unmatched for centuries. Now, a new exhibit brings some of the finest ancient relics from the region to the United States for the first time. More  Witness Says Protesters Deliberately Run Over In Iran During gatherings to mark the Shi'ite holiday of Ashura on December 27, demonstrations by Iran's opposition Green movement were violently broken up by state security forces. Eight protesters were reported killed. More  Expert Weighs In On New Security Steps For U.S.-Bound Flights In the wake of the failed Christmas-day bombing attempt on a U.S.-bound airliner, the United States has implemented more stringent security measures focusing on passengers from 14 countries. RFE/RL speaks to a security-policy expert to gauge how the procedures will be implemented and how they might affect Washington's future relations with some of the countries on the list. More  Afghan Parliamentary Vote Plan Raises Concerns Afghanistan's election commission has announced that the country's parliamentary elections will be held in May this year. But with the country still stinging from a presidential contest in August that revealed significant shortfalls in its electoral processes, the government will face many of the same obstacles: violence, low turnout, voter fraud, and lack of security in rural areas. More  On The Afghan-Tajik Border, Villagers Are The Drug Lords' Pawns Drug smuggling is big business in northern Afghanistan, where one-fifth of the country's illegal exports goes across the Afghan-Tajik border. The business enriches the drug lords. But it terrifies ordinary villagers, who often become pawns in the game. More  What Are The Biggest U.S. Foreign Policy Challenges? The year 2009 was a crucial one for U.S. foreign policy on Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Bosnia. RFE/RL takes a closer look at developments and challenges involving those countries in the year ahead. More  Editor Of 'Foreign Policy' On The Stories You Missed News organizations around the world have been looking at 2009's most important trends and events. RFE/RL correspondent Gregory Feifer recently sat down with Susan Glasser, executive editor of "Foreign Policy" magazine, for her perspective. More  Science And Technology That Changed The World Cutting deep into the inner reaches of the atom to see what matter is really made of. It was just one of the stories that made 2009 a dynamic year in science and technology. More  Central Asian Students Confront Unlevel Playing Field Umed Saidov is determined to secure a better future for himself and his family. Saidov is one of 342 Tajik students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities in 2009. But the financial costs remain high for many Tajiks, who receive no state support. Students from resource-rich Kazakhstan, by contrast, are traveling to the U.S. in droves for an education paid for by Astana. More  Why Would Iran Want Kazakhstan's Uranium Ore? David Albright is the president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution dedicated to informing the public about science and policy issues affecting international security. Correspondent Aryan Hossein of RFE/RL's Radio Farda interviewed Albright about reports that Iran has been trying to secretly buy more than 1,000 tons of uranium ore from Kazakhstan. More  Playing Into Moscow's Hands Few can doubt that recent Russian claims that Georgia is providing training or other kinds of support for Islamist and nationalist militants in the North Caucasus are absurd provocations. But Paul Goble says even fewer in Tbilisil seem to recognize that far more is riding on their responses. More  Working Toward Banking Transparency In Ukraine An extensive study has revealed how little information Ukraine’s largest banks are willing to share about their finances and their management. More |
