 RFE/RL Headlines 8/25/2010 6:17:41 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  Germany To Serbia: It's Time To Toe EU Line On Kosovo When it comes to Kosovo, Serbia and the West occupy alternate realities. Serbia continues to insist Kosovo's independence is not a done deal. The West, with growing impatience, says it is. Germany's foreign minister will become the latest Western diplomat to urge Serbia to leave its reality behind when he travels to Belgrade as part of a three-day Balkans tour. More  Interview: 'Merchant Of Death' Author Discusses Viktor Bout Viktor Bout has been accused by officials in the United States and Europe of being one of the world's most prolific arms traffickers, with a client list that allegedly includes the Taliban and Liberian warlord Charles Taylor. And few people are better acquainted with Bout's business dealings and relationships with both Russia and the United States than Douglas Farah. More  Profile: Viktor Bout, The 'Merchant Of Death' Suspected of arming terrorists and despots from Africa to Afghanistan, Soviet-born Viktor Bout allegedly spent over a decade fueling some of the world's bloodiest conflicts. Now, as he awaits extradition to the United States to face charges, many are asking how he evaded capture for so long and how he became the man dubbed the "Merchant of Death." More  Afghan Police Recruit Shot Dead After Killing Three Spanish Trainers Hundreds of Afghans reportedly tried to storm a NATO-led base in northwestern Afghanistan after a deadly gun battle between Spanish troops and an Afghan police recruit. More  Afghans Try To Storm NATO Base Hundreds of Afghans gathered at the gate of a NATO-run base in western Afghanistan on August 25, chanting and throwing stones after it was reported that an Afghan policeman had been killed in a clash with Spanish troops. More  Former U.S. President Carter In N. Korea North Korea says former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has arrived in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. More  South Kyrgyz Schools 'To Open On Time' Kyrgyz authorities say the new academic year for secondary schools in the southern cities of Osh, Jalal-Abad, and Batken will begin as planned on September 1 -- but that university students will start theirs several weeks later than normal. More  Tajikistan Urges Parents To Recall Children From Foreign Religious Schools The president of Tajikistan has asked parents of students attending religious schools abroad to bring their children back home. More  Armenia Downplays Azeri Missile Deal Armenian Defense Minister says the rumored sale by Russia of sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Azerbaijan will not give Baku a "strategic advantage" in the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. More  Belarusian Investigator Moved To House Arrest Jailed Belarusian investigator Svyatlana Baykova has been transferred from a Committee for State Security (KGB) detention center to house arrest. More  Russia Protest Breakup Investigated An investigation has been opened into the violent dispersal by police of opposition protesters in St. Petersburg on July 31 More  Georgian IDPs Sew Mouths Shut In Protest Four internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia have sewn their mouths shut in a protest at being moved from dwellings in Tbilisi More  Iran Politician's Wife Demands Release The wife of jailed Iranian reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh has written to Tehran's prosecutor expressing concerns about her husband. More  The Kaliningrad Syndrome By replacing Georgy Boos as Kaliningrad governor, the Kremlin appears to have defused a tense situation. But are more Kaliningrads waiting on the horizon? More  Former Nuclear Negotiator Was A Spy, Says Iranian Ministry Former Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian, who is currently a visiting fellow at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is in the news again after being accused of espionage -- again. More  No Kosovo For Kyrgyzstan There is growing resistance in Kyrgyzstan to having police from the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE), an organization in which Kyrgyzstan is a member, sent to two cities in the south. More  Pressure On Abkhaz Leader Intensifies An Abkhaz weekly has accused the Georgian breakaway region's leader of considering new concessions to Russia, including allowing for the return to Abkhazia of thousands of Georgians who fled to the Russian Federation during the 1992-93 war and subsequently acquired Russian citizenship. More  EU Pressures Azerbaijan On 'Donkey Bloggers' Nice to see the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton take a stand on the case of Azerbaijan's "donkey bloggers," who in 2009 received jail terms, ostensibly on hooliganism charges. More |
