RFE/RL Headlines
12/20/2010 8:50:34 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. |
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Features
Economists Say Iran Subsidy Plan A Weapon Of Political Control
Iran has finally introduced a program of drastic subsidy cuts that President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has vowed will save the government $100 billion a year and target aid to the poorest. But economists warn that the new system of cash handouts is being used to punish and intimidate those deemed politically suspect or disloyal. More 
Tajikistan On Road To Energy Self-Sufficiency, Dicier Relations With Tashkent
Russia's Gazprom says it's found a significant volume of gas in Tajikistan -- not a large amount, but enough to change the country's fortunes and possibly the regional balance of power. More 
Ukraine Ex-PM Charged With Abuse Of Office
Ukraine's prosecutor-general says former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been charged with abuse of power while in office. More 
Lukashenka Claims Victory Amid Mounting Criticism
Longtime Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has claimed his fourth presidential term with an overwhelming victory in December 19 elections. But the capital, Minsk, has been the scene of violence, with police arresting seven of Lukashenka's rivals in the race and cracking down on opposition demonstrators who say the vote results were rigged. Western officials and election observers have sharply criticized authorities' heavy-handed response to the protests. More Accidents In Siberia Leave Thousands Without Heat, Water Thousands of residents of the southeast Siberian city of Irkutsk have been left without heating and running water after a double accident. More 
Kyrgyz Activists Protest Belarusian Election Arrests
About 20 Kyrgyz human rights activists have picketed the Belarusian Embassy in Bishkek to protest Belarusian police violence and the arrests of opposition activists after the presidential election on December 19. More 
Kazakh Jailed Over Housing Protest
A Kazakh activist has been jailed for 15 days for organizing a protest against Almaty authorities over real-estate deals gone wrong. More The authorities in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk have launched an investigation into the beating of the wife of the local university's de facto rector, Yuriy Lysenko. More Public transportation workers in the east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv held a one-day strike today to protest overdue wages. More 
More Kyrgyz Teachers Join Pay Protest
Some 600 secondary school and kindergarten teachers today picketed the municipal administration building in Balykchy in Kyrgyzstan's northern Issyk-Kul region in a protest over pay. More 
Georgian President's Olive Branch Fails To Expedite Progress In Geneva Talks
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili recently affirmed that Georgia "will never use military force to restore its territorial integrity," meaning to reimpose its hegemony over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But hopes for progress at the internationally mediated talks in Geneva proved illusory. More 
Belarusian Opposition Websites ‘Hijacked’
Belarus is holding a presidential election today (hard-line President Lukashenka is expected to win) and there are reports that a number of the country’s opposition websites have been subjected to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. More 
Watching WikiLeaks' 'Cablegate' From Tbilisi
In the end, the shouts of the extreme anarchists of all countries to the effect that bold individuals have defeated repressive institutions and that the dark deeds of the mighty in this world (particularly those of the American imperialists) have finally been exposed for all to see turn out to be worthless. More |
