 RFE/RL Headlines 7/20/2010 6:21:30 PM 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  Iranian Conservatives Unite In Bid To Undermine Ahmadinejad Conservative opponents of Iran's president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, have launched a rearguard action aimed at weakening him and preventing one of his hard-line followers from succeeding him in the next presidential election. More  Investigation Sheds Light On Giant, Unwieldy U.S. Intelligence System After a two-year investigation into the makeup and management of the U.S. intelligence system, "The Washington Post" describes a top-secret world so massive, with so many redundancies, that it's impossible to keep track of. Moreover, its unwieldiness may compromise its ability to keep U.S. citizens safe. More  Unrest In Baluchistan Contributes To Regional Tensions With the recent unrest in Baluchistan -- a vast desert region spanning Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran along the Arabian Sea shoreline -- comes renewed tensions across the region. And with renewed tensions come further setbacks to efforts to establish regional peace. More  Karzai Wins Afghan Security, Aid Targets The international community has endorsed sweeping Afghan government plans to take responsibility for security across the country by 2014, as well as efforts to forge peace with extremist militants and take greater control of aid projects. More  Kyrgyz To Open 1,300 Unrest Cases The Osh city prosecutor says that nearly 1,300 criminal cases have been opened in the southern Kyrgyz city in relation to last month's deadly ethnic unrest. More  Kyrgyz Defense Minister Resigns To Take Part In Elections Kyrgyz Defense Minister Ismail Isakov has officially resigned in order to be eligible for parliamentary elections scheduled for October. More  Former Armenian President Says Karabakh Resolution Essential Armenian opposition leader and former President Levon Ter-Petrossian said the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations were necessary for the country's security and sustainable development. More  Russian Activists Protest Memorial For Former Soviet Official Members of the Russian opposition party Yabloko have staged a protest in St. Petersburg against a memorial to a Soviet official they say forced prominent cultural figures into exile. More  Ukraine Detains American For Allegedly Smuggling iPads A U.S. citizen has been detained by customs officers in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk for allegedly smuggling Apple iPad computers into the country. More  Pavel The Osminog? Paul the Octopus, the eight-armed Cassandra of the World Cup, might find work in Russia if the head of Russia's National Association of Bookmakers has his way. More  Under Attack In Belarus RFE/RL's resident cartoonist in Belarus, Kaсiaryna Marсinovich, takes on the recent Russian TV documentaries meant to show up Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. More  Diplomatic Mission In a practice reminiscent of the Soviet Union's relations with Warsaw Pact countries, the Kremlin is increasingly appointing politically connected ambassadors to CIS countries. Why? More  You Can Tell Web Censorship Is Really Bad In Iran... ...When even websites based inside the country and close to the establishment provide users with antifiltering tools. More  Reporter's Notebook: Osh Has Cleaned Up But Uzbeks Trust No One RFE/RL correspondent and Chaikhana blogger Bruce Pannier is in Osh to see how the situation has changed there since last month's riots killed some 300 people and left another 400,000 homeless. More  Turkmenistan: No Rush To Democracy First, he suggested setting up opposition parties. Now, the president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, wants to pave the way for private media in his country, known as one of the most closed nations in the world. More  Georgian Opposition Seeks To Delay Adoption Of New Constitution Ten Georgian opposition parties from across the political spectrum have released an open letter appealing to the authorities to postpone the adoption of a new constitution until after the parliamentary elections due in 2012. More  Who Is Targeting Abkhazia's Muslim Clergy? Muslim cleric Emik Chakmach-ogly was shot dead on July 17 in the Abkhaz Black Sea town of Gagra, just one week after a failed attempt on the life of Salih Kvaratskhelia, imam of the Sukhumi mosque. More  Flash Analysis: ICJ Ruling Expected On Kosovo Independence The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is expected to issue a verdict this week on the legality of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of sovereignty from Serbia in February 2008. In this Flash Analysis, RFE/RL's Balkan Service correspondent Dragan Stavljanin speculates about which way the ICJ might rule. More  Blaming Outsiders Won’t Solve Iran's Baluchistan Problem Problems in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan Province have exposed three stark fault lines within the Iranian political system: national-ethnic, Shi’ite-Sunni, and center-periphery. Over the last three decades, the government has done little for the country’s ethnic and religious minorities. More |
