Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL Headlines 12/21/2010 9:05:33 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.

 

News Russia Rebuilds Georgian War Memorial Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has unveiled a new memorial dedicated to World War II veterans of the former USSR, replacing an older monument that was blown up by the Georgians a year ago. More   Montenegro's Prime Minister Djukanovic Steps Down The prime minister of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, has announced his resignation. He's the longest serving political leader in the Balkans, having held the office of prime minister on three occasions, and that of state president once. More   Stiff Upper Lip In Moscow As London Airports Paralyzed By Snow With travel in Europe paralyzed by snowstorms and forecasts of the worst winter in a century, perhaps the West should seek advice from a capital city used to coping with whiteouts: Moscow. More   More Than 600 Arrested As Standoff Between Lukashenka, Belarus Opposition Continues President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has further tightened the screws on Belarus's opposition after police broke up mass protests against his reelection. More   Turkmenistan Loses Mobile Coverage Most of Turkmenistan is without cell-phone service after officials suspended the license of MTS-Turkmenistan, the country's largest mobile-phone-service provider. There's been no explanation for the suspension, which the Russian company said could last for a month. More   From Our Bureaus Former Kazakh Health Minister's Trial To Start In January Former Kazakh Health Minister Zhaqsylyq Dosqaliev will go on trial in January on charges of financial crimes. More   Khodorkovsky Supporters Rally In Russian City Dozens of supporters of jailed former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky held a public protest in Saratov today. More   Ukraine 'Concerned' About Belarus The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed concern about the use of violence against opposition demonstrators in Belarus following the December 19 presidential election. More   New Kyrgyz Region Joins Teacher Strike Some 60 secondary school teachers picketed the municipal administration building in the town of Batken in southern Kyrgyzstan today in a protest over pay. More   Uzbekistan 'Cuts Natural Gas Delivery' To Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz officials say Uzbekistan has reduced natural gas deliveries to Kyrgyzstan's southern regions due to Bishkek's debts. More   Transport Strike Continues In Eastern Ukraine Public transportation workers in the east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv say they will continue their strike until their overdue salaries are fully paid. More   Four Young Iranian Activists Detained Four young Iranian reformists have been taken into custody after being summoned to the prosecutor's office at Tehran's Evin prison. More   Transmission WikiLeaks Cables Add To Speculation Over Litvinenko Some of the purported U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks this month appear to shed light on the killing of former KGB officer Aleksandr Litvinenko, who died of radioactive poisoning in London in November 2006. So says the headline in "The New York Times," which reported the story on Monday. If anything, they add more circumstantial evidence of a possible Russian cover-up of the prominent Kremlin critic's murder. More   Lukashenka's Cave Where might Belarus's "flawed" elections and its brutal beatdown of demonstrators lead? Nowhere quickly, it's a safe bet. More   WikiLeaks, Belarusian Style Lukashenka seemed to become the first official to appropriate the WikiLeaks model for a government-led transparency initiative. Well, sort of. As in, not really. More   Commentary Thaci Allegations Don’t Change The Broader Perspective On Kosovo Even if Dick Marty is able to prove the worst of his allegations against Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and KLA members, it would not erase the crimes committed by Milosevic’s forces. And, crucially, it does not undermine the reasons for NATO intervention in 1999. More   Russia's Minorities Have Plenty Of Questions For Putin In his recent, nationally televised question-and-answer session, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claimed that "the state exists to provide for the interests of the majority." Fair enough, but what about minorities? Who will protect them from the majority? More