Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL Headlines 4/18/2011 9:15:01 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 Iraqi Foreign Minister Says Camp Ashraf Must Go, And That Iraq Admired As Arab Revolutions Unfold During a visit to RFE/RL's Prague headquarters, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari spoke to correspondent Joseph Hammond about Camp Ashraf, the pending U.S. military withdraw from the country, the tense situation around the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, and the transformative politics sweeping the Arab world. More   Watching The Detectives: Popular Russian Crime Novelist Discusses His Craft Boris Akunin is one of Russia's most popular crime fiction writers. His detective novels featuring the "gentleman sleuth" Erast Fandorin have won awards and critical acclaim, both at home and abroad. RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal spoke to Akunin about his work and also discussed the changes that have occurred in Russian literature in recent decades. More   News Report: U.S. Has Been Funding Syrian Opposition The United States has been secretly financing opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables provided by WikiLeaks to "The Washington Post." The report says the U.S. State Department funneled some $6 million since 2006 to finance a London-based satellite channel. The report comes amid continued deadly clashes between Syrian forces and antigovernment protesters. More   Nationalist Finnish Party Makes Gains A nationalist euroskeptic party has made big gains in Finland's general election, potentially complicating Europe's plans to rescue debt-ridden economies. More   From Our Bureaus Kazakh President Suggests Staying In Power Until 2030 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev said today at the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan that he wants to remain in power until 2030. More   Iran Workers Protest Over Wage Arrears Workers in the northwestern Iranian city of Qazvin have staged protests in recent days to demand the payment of wage arrears. More   Georgia Eyes EU Membership Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze has expressed hope that his country will become a European Union member -- or be in the final stages of joining the union -- in 15 years. More   Irkutsk Communists Protest Visit By Russian State Council Communist Party members in the eastern Russian city of Irkutsk protested a visit today by members of a Kremlin advisory body, the Russian State Council Presidium. More   Belarus Rejects Chornobyl Rallies Officials in the eastern Belarusian city of Babruisk have refused to allow opposition groups to hold a rally to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in neighboring Ukraine. More   Kyrgyz Opposition Defection Is 'Illegal' Kyrgyzstan's opposition Ar-Namys (Dignity) party says a decision by 10 of its members to join the ruling majority in parliament is illegal because it was made before they quit the Ar-Namys parliament faction. More   Kyrgyz-Tajik Border Tense After Arrest About 100 people from a southern Kyrgyz village have gathered on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border demanding the immediate release of a man being held by Tajiks. More   Bill To Boost Montenegro Royals The Montenegrin government has proposed a law approved by the great grandson of the country's last monarch that would rehabilitate the royal family. More   Inmates Report Torture In Kyrgyzstan A Kyrgyz human rights group says inmates have been tortured in detention in the southern town of Bazar-Korgon. More   Belarus Media Warned On Subway Bomb The Belarusian Information Ministry has warned the opposition newspaper "Nasha niva" about "possible consequences" of its inaccurate coverage of Minsk's deadly bomb blast. More   Transmission Little Azeri Girl May Be Nameless, But She's Far From Powerless No one knows her name, but she's quickly becoming the new symbol of pro-democracy protests in Azerbaijan. More   Caucasus Report Daghestan Insurgency Commander Reported Killed Russian media have reported the death of Israpil Velijanov, who succeeded Magomed Vagapov in late August 2010 as head of the Daghestan wing of the North Caucasus insurgency. The insurgency websites kavkazcenter.com and jamaatshariat.com have reported the Russian claims, but not yet confirmed them. More   Tangled Web Is The Syrian Government Responsible For Spam Polluting #Syria On Twitter? Critics of Twitter often accuse it of being too much noise and not enough signal. More   Freedom House: More Web Censorship, Cyberattacks, And Crackdowns On Bloggers A new study from Freedom House paints a dismal picture of the growing threat to global Internet freedom. More   Video Archive Scraping Together A Living From Garbage In Iraq A dump on the outskirts of Baghdad offers the only income for dozens of Iraqis who search for scrap metal and other remains to sell for a few dinars. The work is grueling and uncertain -- but with nearly of quarter of the country living in poverty, it's the only means of survival these Iraqis can find. More