 RFE/RL Headlines 10/25/2010 6:22:05 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  Russian Musicians Play Their Part On Both Sides Of Political Divide Like thousands of Russians who in recent years have abandoned civic complacency in favor of civil engagement, some of the country's best-known musicians have changed. More  Russia's Kasyanov Says Regime Trying To Hoodwink Youth Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who currently leads the extraparliamentary People's Democratic Union, spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Nikola Krastev in New York about Moscow's rights record, its "national disaster" of corruption, and who he thinks will become president in 2012. More  Moscow Sends Mixed Signals On Transdniester Settlement Russian President Dmitri Medvedev says negotiations to resolve the frozen conflict in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region could resume soon. The Kremlin leader also raised eyebrows by suggesting that Romania, which Moscow had previously tried to freeze out of negotiations, also has a role to play in the process. Are efforts to resolve one of Europe's most intractable conflicts about to get a fresh life? More  Islamic Party Cries Foul As Tajikistan's 'Women's Mosque' Burns An Islamic religious center in Dushanbe, known as the "women's mosque," has been destroyed by fire, just a day after the opposition party that owned it was warned about using the premises for prayer. More  Six Reported Killed In Sufi Shrine Bomb At least four people are reported to have been killed and others wounded in a bomb explosion targeting a popular Sufi Muslim shrine in Pakistan. More  Iraqi Officials Vow To Probe Abuse Cases Detailed In WikiLeaks Files Iraqi officials have vowed to investigate all cases where its police and soldiers are believed to have committed abuses in the country's sectarian war. The pledge came after the release of nearly 400,000 classified U.S. files by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. More  Kyrgyz Politician Alleges State Attack Tensions are simmering in Kyrgyzstan after the leader of a nationalist party claimed he was the target of an assassination attempt by state security forces. Kamchybek Tashiev, head of the Ata-Jurt party said his bodyguards seized pistols from the attackers, as well as an identity card of a member of Kyrgyzstan's GSNB state security police. More Life Sentence Urged For Russian Skinhead The prosecutor in the trial of a Russian skinhead found guilty of killing 15 non-Slavic people asked the judge today to sentence him to life in prison. More  One Reported Killed In Explosion At Belarusian Plant An explosion today at a plywood plant in the southwestern Belarusian town of Pinsk resulted in one reported death and several injuries. More  Slovenia's Black Mayor 'Not An Obama' Peter Bossman, a doctor who was born in Ghana, came to study medicine in what was then Yugoslavia in 1977 and, on October 24, narrowly beat the incumbent to become mayor of the small coastal town of Piran. More Tajik television journalist Husnigul Daminova is seeking release from custody, one month after her detention on charges of "hooliganism." More  Kyrgyz Charged In 'Mass Disorder' Iskhak Masaliev, former parliament member and head of Kyrgyzstan's Communist Party, and Usen Sydykov, the former chief of President Kurmanbek Bakiev's office, have officially been charged with the crimes. More  Kazakh Oil Strike Goes On Despite Release Taghan Qoshchanov's co-workers at the OzenMunayGaz operation in Zhana Ozen, in the Manghystau region, went on strike on October 21, demanding his release. They say the strike will continue until he is fully exonerated of all charges. More Residents of Moscow's Patriarch's Ponds district have staged two protests over the past four days to delay construction of a seven-story hotel. More Moscow's Southeastern District has decided not to build a new mosque in a park after numerous complaints by local residents concerned about the potential increase in traffic and loss of green space. More  Armenian Body 'Still Held By Azerbaijan' An Armenian government official says the body of an Armenian captive who died under disputed circumstances in Azerbaijani custody earlier this month has not yet been handed over to Armenia. More  Hard-Line Serbian Parties Vow Strength The leaders of hard-line ethnic Serbian parties have vowed to strengthen parallel Serbian institutions in northern Kosovo after assuming control of local structures in the region. More  Iran's Establishment And Citizen Journalism The citizen journalism the Iranian establishment is promoting is likely to be tightly monitored and subject to censorship in case the content citizens send happens to contain material considered damaging to the government. More  Balkar Militant Leader Promises Not To Target Officers Who Quit Police Asker Djappuyev (nom de guerre Amir Abdullakh), leader of the Kabardino-Balkar-Karachai (KBK) jamaat of the North Caucasus insurgency, has warned his fighters that there will be no breathing space with the advent of winter. More  Georgian Minister Rejects Chechen Allegation Of Support For Insurgency Georgian Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili has rejected as "without foundation" Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov's allegation that Georgian authorities provide a safe haven and support for the Chechen insurgency. More  Pakistan's Pashtuns Feel More Alone Than Ever Shaheen Buneri of RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal says Pashtuns straddling the Pakistani-Afghan border face serious challenges to their survival, and it's very hard for them to know whether the world has dismissed them as simply Taliban supporters and sympathizers. More  Russia In Moldova – Soft Power Or Soft Force? Irina Severin argues that all of Russia’s efforts to employ "soft power" -- which Moscow understands to be a synonym for "information war" -- inevitably end up turning into the use of “hard power.” More |
