Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL Headlines 5/3/2011 5:26:46 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 Osama Is Dead, But His War Continues Osama bin Laden is dead. The man responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents, and who struck fear into the hearts of millions of others, is no more. More   For Journalists In Belarus, One Of World's Least-Free Countries, Things Only Getting Worse May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, but there is little to celebrate in Belarus. In a country where media freedom is already severely constrained, authorities have launched proceedings to close down two of the remaining independent newspapers. More   Painstaking Intelligence Work Led U.S. To Bin Laden What started with a single name four years ago has ended with the death of Osama bin Laden. How vaguely connected bits of information, cooperation among multiple intelligence agencies, and a "gutsy" decision by Obama found the world's most wanted man. More   News EU East Partnership Assembly Kicks Off Lawmakers from the European Union and further east have inaugurated their interparliamentary assembly in Brussels -- with the noticeable absence of Belarus. More   Ethnic Uzbeks Suffered 'Disproportionately' In Kyrgyz Violence, Report Concludes An independent report released today suggests Kyrgyz government forces may have been complicit in the bloody ethnic violence that rocked southern Kyrgyzstan last June. The report by the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission also says some attacks on Uzbek communities there might qualify as crimes against humanity. More   Euronest Meets Without Belarus The inaugural meeting of the European Union's Eastern Partnership, or Euronest, has taken place in Brussels. More   Russian Arms-Control Expert Wins Case At Strasbourg Rights Court A Russian arms-control expert at the center of last year's "spy swap" between Russia and the United States has won his case against the Russian government at the European Court of Human Rights. More   From Our Bureaus Kyrgyz Launch Probe Into Beating Of Interfax Journalist Kyrgyz officials in the southern city of Osh are investigating the beating of a journalist working for the Russian news agency Interfax. More   Kazakhs Sentenced In Clash With Police Over Land More than 30 men and women arrested during clashes between police and would-be settlers on the outskirts of Almaty were sentenced today to between seven and 10 days of jail. More   Azerbaijani Activist Again Charged With Election Violations An Azerbaijani court has charged human rights activist and former parliamentary candidate Vidadi Isgandarli with election violations and remanded him in pretrial custody for two months. More   Kazakh President Wants 'Road Map' For New International Currency Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has again called on the international community to outline a plan for a new world currency. More   Kyrgyz Authorities Search For Authors Of Controversial Books Kyrgyz authorities say they are searching for the authors of two books about last year's deadly ethnic clashes that they fear could cause ethnic tensions to flare up again. More   Jailed Iranian Teachers Demand Labor Activism Rights A number of jailed Iranian teachers have issued a statement criticizing the authorities for incarcerating teachers because of their trade union activities. More   Armenian Inflation In Single Digits Consumer price inflation in Armenia eased for the second consecutive month in April but still remained well above the maximum level targeted by the authorities. More   3 Karabakh Armenian Soldiers Killed Three Armenian soldiers were killed in skirmishes along the main Armenian-Azerbaijani "line of contact" around the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, military authorities in Stepanakert say. More   Kyrgyz Officials Probe Alleged Racist Statements In Media The Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's Office says it has launched an investigation into reports that some newspapers have been publishing anti-Semitic and ultranationalist statements. More   Transmission The Month In Facebook RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last month's events. Click on any of the status updates for more information. More   Caucasus Report Daghestan Jamaat Support Personnel Arrested in Czech Republic The Czech Interior Ministry announced today the arrest on April 6 in Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic of eight persons from Bulgaria, Moldova, and Daghestan suspected of providing false identity documents and weaponry to Daghestan's Jamaat Shariat. Their identity and ethnicity has not been made public. The arrests were not reported on Jamaat Shariat's eponymous website. More   Georgia Downplays ECHR Criticism Of High-Profile Murder Trial The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that "different branches of state power -- including the Ministry of the Interior, the prosecution authority, the domestic courts and the president of Georgia -- had all acted in concert in preventing justice from being done" in a high-profile murder case in 2006. More   Commentary Of Facts And Fables In Afghanistan Fabrication, exaggeration and drama seem to be necessary elements in writing about Afghanistan today. A better approach would be for writers to acknowledge their ignorance of the place and to understand that Afghanistan is a complex land that offers more than just terrorism, fundamentalism, and poverty. More   At Large Ron Asmus, R.I.P. On April 30, Ron Asmus passed away following a long struggle with cancer. More