 RFE/RL Headlines 6/8/2010 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty RFE/RL is looking for guest bloggers, preferably writing from and about our broadcast region. If you're interested, drop us a line at webteam@rferl.org. |
| Features  UN Sanctions Proposal Takes Aim At Iran's Shipping Industry The Iran sanctions proposal that is likely to go to the UN Security Council this week includes a new element: targeting Iran's shipping industry. The move comes amid mounting evidence that Iran's state shipping company frequently changes the names of its vessels in order to conceal their transport of military-use goods to Iran. More  Gulf Oil Damage Will Last 'Years' Damage from the massive oil spill off the southeastern coast of the United States will take "years" to repair. The fallout from the collapse of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 22 has now become the worst environmental disaster in the country's history. More  Two Ukrainian Opposition TV Channels Stripped Of Frequencies A court has stripped two Ukrainian TV channels -- Channel 5 and TVi -- of their new broadcast frequencies. More  Envoy Predicts Independence Ruling On Kosovo Will Be 'Mixed' But Break New Ground A senior international official in Kosovo, Pieter Feith, says he expects the International Court of Justice to issue a "mixed" ruling on the legality of Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia in 2008 -- a decision he suggests will give "comfort" to both sides. More  EU-Russia Rapprochement Set To Continue EU member-state ambassadors in Brussels today are debating a new proposal to intensify foreign-policy cooperation between the bloc and Moscow. The proposal was part of a joint memorandum signed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Dmitry Medvedev during their weekend meeting in the German town of Meseberg. More  Strike Hits Debt-Ridden Spain Labor unions have called almost 3 million public-sector workers out on strike today to protest the Spanish government's stringent austerity measures, designed to prevent Spain from slipping into a Greek-style financial crisis. More  Ahmadinejad Issues Sanctions Warning President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has warned that Iran will cut off any talks about its nuclear program if the United Nations adopts new sanctions against his country. More  Tajik Farmers Seek New Markets After Russian Ban Farmers and businessmen in Tajikistan's northern province of Sughd are desperately seeking new markets following a ban by Russia on the import of dried fruit and nuts from Tajikistan. More  Fate Of Bodies Of Executed Iranian Prisoners Still Unclear A month after the execution in Tehran of five imprisoned activists, a lawyer involved in the case has told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that he still does not know what has been done with their bodies. More  Criticism For Tajik Response To 'Biased' Russian Comments Tajik independent journalists and analysts have criticized the belated official response to Russian officials’ negative remarks about the country, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. More Activists in St. Petersburg are claiming victory after a court ruling saved a historic building from demolition. More  World Water Summit Opens In Dushanbe A UN-sponsored international water conference has opened in Dushanbe, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. More  Pakistan’s 'Third Gender' Demand Rights Protection The head of a new group representing Pakistani transvestites, transsexuals, and eunuchs is demanding greater rights protection for the community, RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal reports. More  U.K. Group To Expand Karabakh Demining A British humanitarian organization says it has cleared land mines and unexploded ordnance from the bulk of Nagorno-Karabakh's war-affected territory and will soon begin demining Armenian-controlled areas outside the disputed region. More Kyrgyzstan's acting chief mufti, Suyun-Hajji Kuluev, has been hospitalized after being beaten during a religious gathering in the capital Bishkek. More Some 500 protesters from a village near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, blocked a major highway today, demanding the authorities provide their village with clean water and electricity. More  Challenge To Moscow Demolitions Russian Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika has officially asked Moscow's prosecutor to scrutinize the legality of the demolition of old buildings in Moscow's historic Kadashi district. More  Belarus Activist 'Guilty Of Hooliganism' Minsk's Pershamay District Court found Syarhey Kavalenka, a member of the Belarusian National Front (BNF), guilty of "using vulgar language in a public place" on May 8, the eve of Victory Day. More  Polls Show Strong Yanukovych Support Four months after his election victory to vanquish the forces of the so-called Orange Revolution, new polling indicates that President Viktor Yanukovych has the support of 65 percent of Ukrainians. More A former official in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has been jailed for 2 1/2 years for taking a bribe related to a land deal. More The Week In Facebook RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. Click on any of the status updates for more information. More  Reuters' Recurring Photaux Pas Reuters appears to have stepped in it again with creative photo editing. More Mystery Deepens Over Missing Iranian Scientist After Second YouTube Video Surfaces A new video posted on YouTube has deepened the mystery over the dissapearance of Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who went missing about a year ago on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. More  Did Hassan Khomeini Punch Iran's Interior Minister In The Nose? More  Azerbaijan Belongs On Obama's List Of Violators Of Press Freedom Azerbaijan's petro-dictatorship not only qualifies as a gross violator of press freedom by any reasonable criteria, it also often uses its energy and geopolitical cooperation with the West to deflect criticism on human rights and democracy. Thus, the inclusion of this regime would send a strong message about the list's impartiality and credibility. More |
