 RFE/RL Headlines 8/4/2010 7:49:15 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  Karachi Violence Leads To Political Cracks, But No Fractures After some 60 people died amid an outbreak of ethnic violence in Pakistan's largest city this week, residents of Karachi are fearful of a return to the random violence in which thousands died in the 1980s and 1990s. More  Azerbaijan's Beach Bummer: Loophole Lets Businesses Charge Hefty Entry Fees This year, vacationers to Baku are having to pay fees ranging from $4 to $12 per day -- plus parking and other costs -- to gain access to the city's best beaches, which are being rented by private businesses. More  Activists Say Demolition of Moscow Mansion Foreshadows Fate Of Other Historic Buildings Following the controversial demolition of a 19th-century mansion in Moscow, preservation activists warn that the city is planning to knock down more historic buildings as part of a controversial development plan for the Russian capital. More  Petraeus Issues Civilian Casualty Rules General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has issued fresh guidelines emphasizing the need to avoid civilian casualties. More  Kyrgyz Youth Groups Reject OSCE Police Representatives of 35 of Kyrgyz youth groups announced in Bishkek today that they have united to oppose plans to send a 52-man international police force to the southern city of Osh. More The Khujand city court in northern Tajikistan has sentenced 10 people to jail after finding them guilty of being members of the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir. More  Taliban Kills Top Pakistani Police Officer Police in Pakistan say a suicide bomber struck near a paramilitary police building in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing three people, including a senior police officer. More  Video Claims Chechen Rebel Reversal A man claiming to be Doku Umarov was shown speaking in a video on www.kavkazcenter.com -- which had reported on August 1 that Umarov was stepping down for "health reasons" and would hand over leadership of the Islamist rebel movement to Aslambek Vadalov. More  BlackBerry Row Continues To Spread The controversy over the Canadian-made BlackBerry "smartphone" appears to be widening, with India joining the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in demanding access to the material being carried by the hand-held device. More  Deadly Fires, Heat Bear Down Further On Moscow Air-quality levels in Moscow are at an eight-year low due to intense heat and fires ranging throughout Russia's central region. The state agency that monitors pollution announced that nighttime carbon-monoxide levels are almost six times safe levels. More  Confusion Around 'Assassination' Attempt On Ahmadinejad Confusion surrounded a presumed assassination attempt on Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad today after officials denied reports that an assailant had thrown an explosive device at his convoy. More  Iran To Restrict Students Going Abroad Iranian Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi has announced that new restrictions will be applied on students seeking to study in Britain and the United States. More  Kyrgyz Official Seeks To Avert Self-Immolation Protest The governor of Kyrgyzstan's Jalal-Abad Oblast, Bektur Asanov, says he has begun talks with a local man and his relatives to dissuade him from killing himself in protest at a local politician. More  Azeris Demand Soldier's Body Return Dozens of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and veterans of the Nagorno-Karabakh war held a rally on August 4 in central Azerbaijan to demand that Armenian authorities return the body of an Azerbaijani soldier. More  OSCE Aims For Kyrgyz Force Next Month The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says it expects to have an advisory police force in southern Kyrgyzstan by early September. More  Kazakh Journalist Jailed In Manure Incident A Kazakh journalist was sentenced today to 10 days in jail for throwing dung at the Almaty city court building. More  Khimki Forest Protest Leader Detained A leader of the protest movement against the building of a highway through the Khimki forest outside of Moscow was detained today by police. More  Ukrainian Sculptor Unveils Yanukovych Bust A sculptor in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk has unveiled a bronze bust of President Viktor Yanukovych titled "Among Emperors." More  Russia, Ukraine To Demarcate Border Russia has officially confirmed its readiness to demarcate its border with Ukraine. More  Russian State News Agency Honors Barack Obama On His Birthday What more evidence do you need that the reset is working? More Kasparov.ru says porcelain busts of Russian leaders have reached clamoring mobs of kitsch-starved shoppers in Yakutsk, where Putin sells for 200 rubles more than Medvedev. More  The Rundown - August 4 A review of news and opinion on RFE/RL's broadcast region. More 'England Is A Small Island In West Africa,' Says Ahmadinejad Apparently England is a small island located in west Africa, according to a speech given by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in Hamedan today. More  Umarov's U-Turn Doku Umarov has disavowed as "totally fabricated" a video clip in which he passed on leadership of the North Caucasus insurgency to a successor. More  Russia's Gangsters With Convictions It is easy to see the Russian underworld as chaotic, lawless in every sense. Of late, it has also looked as though a mob war loomed. However, as with so much in Russia, the underworld may look entirely unruly but it is in fact governed by a form of "managed anarchy." More |