Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL Headlines 6/8/2011 8:03:08 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 In Osh, One Neighborhood, Two Histories -- And No Trust Two women, one Kyrgyz, one Uzbek, live side by side in the Osh neighborhood that saw some of the worst violence during Kyrgyzstan's June 2010 ethnic clashes. Both suffered in the violence, but one year later, neither appears prepared to forgive or forget. More   Questions Grow Over Afghanistan's Post-U.S. Future Talk of the planned U.S. troop withdrawal has Afghan citizens mulling their future. More   In Iran, Beware Of New Facebook 'Friends' When Houshang Fanaian joined Facebook last year, little did he expect it would land him in an Iranian prison. That's exactly where he finds himself today, however. In late May, the 47-year-old Baha'i had one year tacked on to a larger prison sentence due to his activities on the social-networking site. More   Azerbaijani Bank Identified As Major Spam Facilitator A team of computer scientists in California has been investigating Internet spam for years and found that just a handful of banks are processing nearly all of the transactions generated by those unsolicited e-mail messages. More   AIDS At 30: From Death Sentence To Chronic Disease Thirty years ago researchers first identified AIDS as a disease caused by the HIV. Now a pandemic, AIDS has been recognized as a major threat to humanity. But if early on catching AIDS was viewed as an automatic death sentence, now that is no longer the case, and overall new HIV infections rates are declining. More   Amnesty, HRW Say Kyrgyz Government Failing To Deal With Aftermath Of Osh Clashes International watchdog groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued dual reports criticizing the government of Kyrgyzstan for failing to provide justice for the victims of deadly 2010 clashes in the country's south or to stem a wave of rights violations that have followed. More   News U.S. Can't 'Walk Away' In Afghanistan U.S. President Barack Obama's choice for the new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan says Washington can't afford to "walk away" from the country and risk it again becoming a haven for terrorists. More   Iran 'To Triple' Uranium Enrichment Iran has announced plans to triple its production of higher-grade uranium in a move that will further raise tensions with the west over its nuclear program. The country's nuclear chief also said it would shift enrichment activities to a site whose existence was only revealed in 2009. More   U.K., France Propose UN Syria Resolution Hundreds of people are fleeing northwestern Syria and crossing the border into Turkey to escape violence -- as Western allies push for a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria's crackdown on opposition protesters. More   From Our Bureaus Slain Kyrgyz Journalist Told He Was On 'Black List' The wife of slain independent Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk says he was told his name was on a "black list." More   Belgrade Erects Statue To Former Azerbaijani President A statue of late Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev has been unveiled in a Belgrade park whose renovation was aided by 2 million euros ($2.9 million) from the Azerbaijani government. More   Iran's 'Blogfather' Loses Appeal An Iranian appeals court has upheld a 19 1/2-year jail term for Iranian Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, his family has told RFE/RL's Radio Farda. More   Belarusian Union Activist Briefly Detained Without Explanation Belarusian police have detained an independent trade union leader for almost three hours without explanation. More   Tajik Teen Dies In Police Detention A 16-year-old Tajik boy died this week in Dushanbe's central detention center after reportedly being beaten. More   Russian Police Abuse Trial Resumes The trial of a former Russian policeman accused of abusing demonstrators continued today with the viewing of a video from the demonstration where the alleged crimes took place. More   Interpreter Replaced In Trial Of Former Kyrgyz President The judge in the trial of former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev and 27 of his former associates has ruled that the Kyrgyz-Russian interpreter being used in the case should be replaced, making her the seventh interpreter to be replaced since the trial resumed on March 18 after a four-month break. More   Kyrgyz Activists Protest Release Of Turk Suspected Of Assault Dozens of Kyrgyz youth activists have picketed the Supreme Court in Bishkek to demand an investigation into the release of a Turkish citizen accused of assaulting a Kyrgyz woman. More   Sons Of Tajik Journalists Claim Police Beat Them The sons of two prominent Tajik journalists say police in the southern city of Kulob have detained and beat them. More   Azerbaijan Removes Mubarak Statue The authorities in Azerbaijan have removed a monument to deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The statue of the former Egyptian leader sitting in an armchair in front of three pyramids was taken away from a park in the town of Khirdalan near the capital on June 7. More   Caucasus Report The Georgian Political Landscape After May 26 The demonstrations in Tbilisi that culminated in the violent dispersal of protesters by police early on May 26 did not achieve their stated goal of forcing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to step down. The events of the past two weeks have nonetheless changed the alignment of political forces in the country, calling into question the authorities' respect for the rule of law and seriously damaging the credibility of at least two prominent opposition politicians. More   Tangled Web Old-School Hacker Oxblood Ruffin Discusses Anonymous And The Future Of Hacktivism I spoke by email with Oxblood Ruffin, a Canadian hacker who is a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), a hackers' group that coined the word "hacktivist." I asked him about Anonymous's recent operations and the ethics and rules of engagement of hacktivism. More   Commentary The Arab Spring, Kyrgyzstan, And Reaping What We Sow As much as Kyrgyzstan may serve as a model for those nations in the Arab orbit undergoing unprecedented change, American policy toward the country offers important lessons for the future. Most significant among them is that the United States ought not to treat nations as a means to accomplishing other policy goals, but as ends in and of themselves. More