April 22, 2008

The war of words between Russia and Georgia about the apparent downing of an unmanned Georgian reconnaissance plane over the separatist region of Abkhazia has prompted calls for caution from both the United States and the United Nations.
Georgia’s Defense Ministry released a video on April 21 purportedly shot by a remote-controlled camera inside the downed [...]

April 2, 2008

Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the “Financial Times,” discusses the origins of the current financial crisis and its potential implications for the United States and the world. In an interview with RFE/RL correspondent Jeremy Bransten, he outlines the different scenarios of how the crisis may play out — from the most optimistic, to the [...]

By Farangis Najibullah
A popular Afghan television channel, known for its Indian soap operas and “Pop Idol”-style talent contest, has come under pressure from Afghan officials for broadcasting what they call “immoral and un-Islamic” programs.
The Afghan Information and Culture Ministry on March 29 “strongly condemned” the broadcasting of a scene on Tolo television that showed a [...]

By Richard Tomkins
ZAHAMM, IRAQ — Villagers digging in an abandoned pomegranate orchard in the Diyala River Valley have unearthed the remains of at least 52 people murdered by Al-Qaeda in Iraq during its two-year reign of terror in the area.
The first victim, whose head had been placed at his feet, was found on March 26 [...]

March 24, 2008

By Brian Whitmore
When Russia and China held joint military exercises last summer, it appeared that a powerful new strategic alliance was about to come of age.
The two countries, after all, routinely cooperate on the UN Security Council to thwart the West on issues ranging from Kosovo’s independence to sanctions against Iran. They are the frontline [...]

March 21, 2008

U.S. President George W. Bush has told Persian-language broadcaster Radio Farda in an exclusive interview that it is Iran’s “right” to have a civilian nuclear-power program but that there is no need for the country to enrich uranium.
Bush also voiced support for offers by third countries, including Russia, to process nuclear fuel for Iran could [...]

March 20, 2008

U.S. President George W. Bush has told Persian-language broadcaster Radio Farda in an exclusive interview that it is Iran’s “right” to have a civilian nuclear-power program but that there is no need for the country to enrich uranium.
Bush also voiced support for offers by third countries, including Russia, to process nuclear fuel for Iran could [...]

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has made an unannounced visit to Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in the middle of what was an announced nine-day tour of the Middle East and Turkey.
Cheney was taken from Kabul International Airport by a U.S. military helicopter to the presidential palace in Kabul where he met [...]

March 19, 2008

By Farangis Najibullah
Iranian authorities have closed down nine, mostly lifestyle, magazines this week for publishing photos of “immoral” Western celebrities and reporting about their private lives.
Thirteen other publications were warned to avoid printing similar photos and stories — or face losing their publishing licenses.
The Culture Ministry announced the closures, accusing them of publishing stories about [...]

By Kathleen Ridolfo
Politics is a dirty business anywhere in the world, but Iraqi politics today rank among the most divisive. While much has been written about Iraq since 2003 — the early mistakes that continue to impede progress, the bitter rivalries that leave so many innocents dead, the roles of superpowers and neighbors — few [...]

March 17, 2008

By RFE/RL analyst Robert Coalson
Although there has been considerable talk in recent months about possible political, constitutional, or economic crises in Russia, only distinguished human rights activist Sergei Kovalyov has drawn attention to a crisis that is already under way: Russia’s “shameful moral crisis.”
In a largely ignored open letter to President Vladimir Putin published shortly [...]

UN police have been forced to withdraw from the Serbian half of the northern Kosovar town of Mitrovica after coming under attack as they stormed a courthouse occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.
More than 20 UN police and at least eight NATO peacekeepers were wounded in grenade and gun attacks after they moved in to [...]

Full results from Iran’s March 14 parliamentary elections have yet to be announced, but the Interior Ministry says conservative allies of hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad received 74 percent of parliament’s 290 seats decided so far.
Although reformists are questioning the vote count, it was always clear that conservatives — who call themselves “principle-ists” for their loyalty [...]

By Claire Bigg
Protests were expected when authorities in February shut down St. Petersburg’s European University, one of the city’s most respected higher-learning institutions.
But the revolt unleashed by the closure may have exceeded authorities’ worst expectations.
Defiant students and professors have launched an all-out campaign to save their university. With their building now off-limits, they have fallen [...]

January 18, 2008

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is accompanying President George W. Bush on his tour of the Middle East, has arrived in Baghdad for previously unannounced talks with Iraqi officials.
Rice came from Saudi Arabia, where Bush is on the latest stop in his regional trip.
Immediately after her arrival in Baghdad on January 15, she [...]

By Sumedha Senanayake
In what is being trumpeted as a major political accomplishment for the Iraqi government, the Council of Representatives on January 12 unanimously passed the Accountability and Justice Law, which revises the de-Ba’athification order passed under the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003.
Under the de-Ba’athification law, thousands of Ba’athists were dismissed from their government jobs. [...]

By Jeffrey Donovan
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has lodged a formal request with the Kyrgyz government to provide more detailed data on the troubling incident that unfolded in the last days of 2007.
But an IAEA official has told RFE/RL that the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog is still awaiting an official reply from Kyrgyz officials [...]

By Ron Synovitz
The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, William Wood, on January 13 met with Mullah Abdul Salaam, the former Taliban commander who recently defected to the side of the Afghan government and now heads the Kabul-backed administration in Musa Qala.
Wood traveled to Musa Qala with the goal of clearing the obstacles that prevent reconstruction aid [...]

By Andrew Tully
2007 was a bad year for freedom, according to a prominent rights-advocacy organization that has registered a global decline in political rights and civil liberties for the second consecutive year.
In its annual “Freedom Of The World” report released today, the New York-based group Freedom House found that one-fifth of the 193 countries it [...]

By Golnaz Esfandiari
An Iranian student detained in the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan Province has died in prison under circumstances described by his family and human rights activists as “suspicious,” Radio Farda reported.
On January 15, nine days after Ebrahim Lotfollahi was detained in front of Payame Nur University in the provincial capital, Sanandaj, officials told his [...]