 RFE/RL Headlines 4/20/2010 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Features  Iran Faction Suspensions Aim To Cripple Reform Drive The Iranian authorities have suspended two prominent opposition factions in a move that could dramatically alter the balance of power in the country. More  Drinking Coffee In Tehran's 'Islands Of Forgetfulness' Female vocals and the soft thud of chill-out beats mixes with the steam of the coffee maker, the jingle and clank of cups, and the chatter of young people. More  Baghdad Recount Raises Fears Of Violence The race to form a new Iraqi government has been thrown open by an Iraqi judicial panel's order for a recount of more than 2.5 million ballots cast in Baghdad during the March 7 parliamentary election. More  Putin Presents Annual Report To Duma Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has delivered an upbeat review of his cabinet's achievements over the past year in a speech to the State Duma, the country's lower house of parliament. More  Some European Airspace Reopens While Europe's skies have gradually reopened for commercial flights as fears over the cloud of volcanic ash ease in some areas, a new cloud is drifting down from Iceland, heading toward Britain. More  Uzbek, Russian Leaders Call For Kyrgyz Political Stability During a visit to Moscow by Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov, the two sides called for political stability in Kyrgyzstan, where deadly unrest two weeks ago led to the ouster of that country's president. More  Kyrgyz Interim Leaders Try To Impose Order Kyrgyzstan's interim authorities are trying to restore order on the outskirts of Bishkek after clashes there left at least three people dead, while deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiev leaves neighboring Kazakhstan for Belarus. More U.S. law enforcement authorities have announced the arrest in the Czech Republic of Dmitry M. Naskovets, a Belarusian national accused as a co-conspirator in over 2,000 instances of identity theft and over 5,000 instances of fraud over the Internet. More  Georgia Fines Polluting Russian Tanker Georgian naval vessels have intercepted the Russian-flagged tanker "Saratov City" in the port of Batumi and charged it with polluting the Black Sea. More  Another Azerbaijani Party Plans Picket The Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (AHChP) plans to demand amendments to the election code, official observance of the right to free assembly, and transparency in ongoing talks on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The move comes after Musavat Part members were detained for a similar picket. More Air-traffic controllers in the far eastern city of Vladivostok today joined a protest by their colleagues in other Russian cities, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Mother: Armenian Police Tortured, Killed Son Relatives of Vahan Khalafian, who died in a police station in the town of Charentsavan, told RFE/RL on April 19 that they reject police claims that Khalafian committed suicide. More  Moldova Ex-Minister, Police Chief On Trial A Moldovan court today began the first high-profile trial over the violent protests that followed the country's disputed April 2009 parliamentary elections. More  Prominent Serbian Rights Activist Dies Biljana Kovacevic Vuco was one of a small group of intellectuals and public figures who opposed the regime of late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and the wars he waged in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo in the 1990s. More  Kyrgyz Market Closes Due To Unrest The largest outdoor market in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, has closed due to disorder in the city's outskirts. More  Azerbaijan Cancels Exercises With U.S. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry says it has canceled military computer exercises with U.S. forces that were scheduled for May. More  Kazakhstan's Air Astana Resumes Flights To Bishkek Kazakhstan's main airline, Air Astana, has resumed flights from Almaty to Bishkek flights, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Tajik Official Urges Demarcation Of Kyrgyz Border A regional Tajik official says the Kyrgyz-Tajik border urgently needs to be demarcated in order to prevent violent cross-border incidents from occurring, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. More  The EU's Silence In Kyrgyzstan When Catherine Ashton took office late last year as the European Union's high representative for foreign policy, she promised quiet diplomacy. As far as Kyrgyzstan goes, EU diplomacy has gone one better. The EU has been virtually invisible. More Inspired by "The Atlantic's" mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More  All Power To The Party Evidence continues to mount that Vladimir Putin is seeking to use United Russia as his main vehicle to continue ruling the country. More  God's Own Sanction Against EU Countries The hard-line Rajanews website has suggested that the recent eruption of Iceland’s volcano and the cloud of ash that has led to travel chaos was God’s reaction to attempts by European Union countries -- led “by the U.S., Britain, and the Zionist lobby” -- to impose tough economic sanctions against the Islamic republic. More  Moscow, Chechnya See Next Stage Of War Against Terrorism Differently Meeting with North Caucasus leaders in Makhachkala, just days after the suicide bomb attacks in the Moscow subway, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev outlined his vision of how terrorism can and should be eradicated. By contrast, having celebrated last week on a lavish scale the first anniversary of the official announcement that the 10-year counterterror operation in Chechnya had been brought to a successful conclusion, the Chechen leadership has adopted a different tack. More  Another Senior Turkish Diplomat Visits Abkhazia Nurdan Bayraktar Golder, head of the South Caucasus department of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, held talks in Sukhumi on April 19 with Sergei Shamba and Maksim Gvinjia, de facto prime minister and foreign minister, respectively, of the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia. More  In Pakistan, A 'Mistaken' Bombing And An Ineffectual Apology Pakistan's top army commander has apologized for the deaths of over 60 civilians in an air strike in a remote tribal region. The gesture is commendable, but does little to stem the growing anger against the military and the government. More |
