 RFE/RL Headlines 01.06.2009 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Five Reported Killed In Arson Attack In Southeastern Iran At least five people have been killed in an arson attack on a building in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, where a bomb attack on a Shi'ite mosque last week left 25 people dead. More  Ruling Party Sweeps Yerevan Polls As Opposition Cries Foul President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) has swept to a landslide victory in municipal elections in Yerevan, which the two main opposition groups have denounced as fraudulent. More Russian Woman Detained For Attempting To Sell Daughter A spokesman for the Regional Interior Affairs Department in Rostov said the suspect, who reportedly has a criminal record, was detained after she received 4 million rubles (about $107,000) from an undercover policeman in payment for her 6-year-old daughter. More Sabantuy traditionally is celebrated by Tatar farmers to mark the end of the spring farming season. More Several of the hunger strikers have been hospitalized since the protest began on May 14. More  Kyrgyz Opposition Prevented From Holding Congress Kyrgyz opposition activists have been prevented by counterprotesters from holding a congress, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. More  'Benetton Diplomacy' In Georgia Benetton's plan to open a store in Abkhazia has been nixed after Benetton retailers in Georgia shut up shop in protest. More  Returning To Srebrenica We blogged on May 29 about the former Dutch UN peacekeeper Rob Zomer who is returning to Srebrenica to live and work. More A wanted list in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province recently included someone who was already in jail. More  At These Prices, Why Vote? Zarehbiin advises against excessive economic optimism, no matter who wins the election. More  Candidate Fatimah? Safahatekhali asks what Iran's election vetters would have said had the Prophet Muhammad's daughter herself applied to run in the June presidential election. More  Video: Young And Homeless In Almaty Sixteen-year-old Sava expected to spend International Children's Day like any other: living on the Kazakh streets. He talked to RFE/RL about his broken family, police roundups that keep kids like him out of the public eye, and the stares of strangers. More Moldova's Cupcui Orphanage Thirty-seven children live in the run-down state orphanage in the Moldovan village of Cupcui. But only one of them is actually an orphan. Many children in Moldovan state institutions have been placed there by their parents, motivated by grinding poverty, alcoholism, or other family problems and encouraged by a paternalistic state. A project spearheaded by UNICEF and the European Union to reunite children with their families, when possible, or place them in foster homes, hopes to change that. More  Fruit, Nut Trees Of Global Importance Under Threat Scientists believe that many of the fruit and nut trees commonly cultivated around the world originated in Central Asia and were brought west along the Silk Road centuries ago. But a new survey shows that some of these wild ancestors of the fruits we eat today are threatened with extinction, posing a potential risk to our food security. More  Child Protective Strains In Azerbaijan Former residents at an Azerbaijani orphanage allege punishments that included beatings for dozing during all-night shifts and the scalding of 4- and 5-year-olds with metal spoons. The politically connected director of the Ganja orphanage rejects them as "lies," but outsiders note that the charges aren't far-fetched in a troubled system of child-protective services. More  The State's Children Over the last two years, about a quarter of the 12,000 children being raised in Moldovan state institutions have been returned to their families or placed in foster homes. But the internationally sponsored initiative has met considerable resistance in a country with a strong culture of state paternalism. More  Lawmakers Turned Poachers Rile Russian Public In Russia, two fatal helicopter crashes this year have exposed a predilection among the country's political elite to engage in illegal hunting excursions. The incidents have sparked outrage among local populations who see the authorities as putting themselves above the law. More  Fortunes Dim, Migrants' Children Get Left Behind The post-Soviet period has seen millions of people from Central Asia and the South Caucasus migrate to Russia in search of work. One consequence of that trend has been a rise in migrants' children living in Russian orphanages after being abandoned or taken away from neglectful parents. More  Georgians, And Others, Nervous As Deadlock Persists For almost two months, central Tbilisi has been paralyzed by protesters insisting that President Mikheil Saakashvili resign, which he has said he will not do. Given that Saakashvili's resignation is extremely unlikely, and the radical wing of the opposition remains intransigent, there are two options left: either the opposition gradually winds up its street protests, or police resort to force to quash them. More  Iran's 'Michelle Obama' Stands By Her Man It had previously been pretty much unheard-of in the Islamic Republic of Iran for the wife of a candidate to play an active role in her husband's presidential race. More  'Mahmud is Gone' A viral photo doing the rounds shows a man holding the Iranian daily "Ettelaat." The paper has a big headline that says " Mahmud is Gone." More |
