Features Pakistan's Displaced Pashtuns Face Choice Between Home, Security A Pashtun tribe has resisted military demands that they return to their mountain villages in Pakistan's South Waziristan, saying the military campaign against Taliban extremists has left little to return to and that the security situation remains uncertain. More On April 27, the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments ratified an agreement to extend Russia's lease of the Crimean port of Sevastopol for its Black Sea Fleet until 2042. Mustafa Dzhemilev, chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, spoke with RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service about the new Russian-Ukrainian deal. More Following the bloody uprising this month that led to the overthrow of the Kyrgyz government, the question arises whether conditions in neighboring Central Asian states could be favorable for similar political turbulence. More RFE/RL Georgian Service correspondent Nino Gelashvili talked to political expert Przemyslaw Zurawski vel Grajewski of the Natolin European Center in Warsaw and the University of Lodz about the emerging political situation in Poland. More Last year's global economic crisis may have slowed Russia's progress in pushing new energy projects in the lucrative European market. But those days appear to be coming to an end. More Chechen Leader Linked To Vienna Murder, But Unlikely To Be Indicted A spokesman for the Vienna prosecutor's office has confirmed press reports implicating Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in the botched attempted abduction of a Chechen emigre in a Vienna suburb. More Russia has made available to the public for the first time some files on the World War II-era Katyn massacre, when thousands of Polish officers and others were killed on the orders of Soviet leader Josef Stalin. More Stock prices around the world have fallen following a decision by the Standard & Poor's rating agency to cut Greece's credit rating to the level of "junk." Analysts say this is a sign that the Greek financial crisis is beginning to run out of control, with potential to affect not only the European eurozone economies, but the world at large. More Developments in Kyrgyzstan will form the centerpiece of an informal EU-Central Asia meeting in Brussels today. Officials in Brussels say the EU is keen to drum up support in the region for its efforts to help Kyrgyzstan move away from a presidential system. More Rights Group Criticizes Death Sentences For Iranian Protesters A U.S.-based Iranian rights group is protesting the 11 death sentences thus far given to people arrested in postelection protests last year. More Communists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk want to erect a monument to Soviet leader Josef Stalin. More Moscow officials have given permission for the first time for opposition groups and human rights activists to hold a so-called "Day of Wrath" protest. More Tractor plant workers in the central Russian town of Rubtsovsk have warned President Dmitry Medvedev that they will start a hunger strike unless they receive their overdue salaries. More Kyrgyzstan's interim government said today it will allow Askar Akaev, the country's first president, to return to the country from Russia. More A journalist has been severely beaten in Russia's Black Sea city of Sochi, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More Leaflets and compact discs are being circulated in southern Kyrgyzstan calling on citizens to create a "South Kyrgyzstan Democratic Republic" with ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiev as its leader. More The 'Boobquake' Continues: A Linguistic Analysis The "Boobquake" campaign quickly claimed some 100,000 members online and the interest of international press. But in Iran, even its supporters ran into some unexpected trouble: how does one say "Boobquake" in Persian? More In an interview with the "Financial Times," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's younger half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, clamed that he is the "Nancy Pelosi of Kandahar." More According to UN diplomats who requested anonymity, the president of Iran, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, has applied for a U.S. visa to attend a high-level nuclear nonproliferation conference that begins at UN headquarters in New York City on Monday. More Iran Increases Pressure On Teachers Ahead of Teachers Day ran has increased pressure on teachers over their union and social activities ahead of Teachers Day on May 2, apparently in an effort to prevent protests. More While reformist criticism of Iran's judiciary has drawn international attention, conservative elements in Iran are also dissatisfied with the country's courts. More Pakistan Security Operations Bring Few Positive Results RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal broadcaster Daud Khattak says terrified and war-weary locals in the region have ever reason to wonder if the fighting will ever end. More |
Everyday of Freedom is an Act of Faith for my writings ============> http://robertoscaruffi.blogspot.com for something on religions ===> http://scaruffi1.blogspot.com