http://www.rferl.orgRadio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is an international news and broadcast organization serving Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East and Balkan countriesCopyright 2008 - RFE/RL, Inc.30Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:33:32 GMTPakistani forces have launched a military operation against Taliban militants near the northwestern city of Peshawar. The offensive in the Khyber tribal region marks the first major military action which Pakistan's newly elected government has taken against the Taliban on its territory.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/0882136b-b14a-4951-840b-aac75d01f7c1.htmlSat, 28 Jun 2008 12:33:32 GMTThirty years ago, a 47-year-old Crimean Tatar named Musa Mamut poured gasoline over himself and set himself alight. He lived for five days, eventually dying from his burns on June 28, 1978. Before dying, he is reported to have said, �??I feel the pain of every Tatar who is not allowed to return to his Crimean homeland.�??http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/61c90c4b-55aa-43d1-8ce4-247e1d61966c.htmlSat, 28 Jun 2008 11:30:17 GMTAs hard as it may be to believe, there was a time when many regarded Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu as an open-minded Marxist, a nationalist communist, even a proponent of socialism with a human face. Ceausescu himself cultivated this image at times.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/01112b83-cf05-4052-bba2-04e72f5e7065.htmlSat, 28 Jun 2008 10:40:22 GMTThe government of Pakistan�??s restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has recently appointed veteran Pashtun politician and human rights activist Afrasiab Khattak as its peace envoy. In his new job, Khattak will be dealing with dangerous and complicated security issues along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, widely believed to the bastion of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militancy.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/7f5ae658-2c18-428e-9fc4-25727df466cd.htmlSat, 28 Jun 2008 09:39:27 GMTOn June 24 in Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat, European Union officials opened what is expected to be a series of discussions on human rights in the country. However, the talks got under way just days after Sazak Durdymuradov, a frequent contributor to RFE/RL�??s Turkmen Service, was arrested and reportedly beaten by Turkmen police in a case that throws into question the Central Asian state�??s commitment to human rights.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/1ca5a10c-ab74-4ebb-9e1e-cf7b4adac3d3.htmlFri, 27 Jun 2008 13:55:38 GMTOfficially, it�??s Media Day in Uzbekistan today, although the running joke among journalists is that the government is actually celebrating Victory Day over the country�??s free and independent media.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/f30d0539-653d-4043-8bb4-9e3453b36999.htmlFri, 27 Jun 2008 13:29:06 GMTThere is one new member of the European Union that has been working hard to undermine the rule of law and its own judiciary. Since that country joined the union at the beginning of last year, it has undertaken the systematic retraction of the pledges it made in order to enter the continent's democratic framework.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/c74bbcb0-70cb-4ac6-8b3d-de0b831a08fa.htmlFri, 27 Jun 2008 12:13:16 GMTRFE/RL has learned that Sazak Durdymuradov, a contributor to its Turkmen Service, is being held at an infamous psychiatric clinic in eastern Turkmenistan, one week after his arrest and reported beating and torture by police.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/0c054c11-f64e-42c8-b246-605236a4c964.htmlFri, 27 Jun 2008 11:47:27 GMTRussian and European Union officials meeting in the Siberian oil town of Khanty-Mansiisk have launched negotiations on a new strategic partnership pact, in an apparent step toward more constructive relations between Moscow and Brussels following years of concern over deteriorating ties.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/ec062289-cd4f-4546-87b7-71e3a2482f0b.htmlFri, 27 Jun 2008 10:34:22 GMTThe deputy chief of the U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Kyle Scott, has told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service after his arrival in Kazakhstan that there are lingering concerns over that country's implementation of democratic reforms.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/ee3e1a37-b362-4234-b9f9-54243ef20bec.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 15:46:50 GMTThe Council of Europe this week puzzled many of its newer member states.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/841bacdc-6cc8-4efd-9df4-b753934886ff.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 15:27:34 GMTWould you like to live permanently in another country other than your own? If you're an average citizen of the world, the chances are better than one in four that the answer is yes.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/99e39d99-c4e6-4399-bbad-0d093a89fdb0.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 14:59:12 GMTAmong other proposed amendments to the annual budget, the Georgian Finance Ministry has submitted to parliament a request to increase defense spending for 2008 by 295 million laris ($202.8 million), or approximately 29 percent, civil.ge reported on June 24.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/6f00c441-1d48-4041-969e-3f2f7e8921a5.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 14:46:48 GMTOn June 16, the pro-government factions within the Armenian National Assembly voted unanimously in favor of setting up an ad hoc commission to investigate the March 1-2  clashes in Yerevan between supporters of defeated presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian and security forces that resulted in 10 deaths. The conduct of an "independent, transparent, and credible inquiry" into the postelection violence was one of the key demands addressed to the Armenian authorities by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in a resolution adopted in mid-April.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/75efb6df-bd8e-4813-b88d-23d7ca38c863.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 14:42:01 GMTOver the past 10 days, representatives of ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan have issued two separate public statements affirming their fear of assimilation and soliciting international support. Azerbaijani commentators have dismissed those appeals as unfounded and orchestrated by Moscow.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/d136b60f-f907-4cc7-8297-a5c3b290d008.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 14:38:26 GMTThe Anglican church communion, numbering some 77 million people worldwide, is facing the possibility of a complete fracture over the question of gay clergy.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/53315490-41b6-4959-8281-b6198fa88594.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 14:21:43 GMTWASHINGTON -- North Korea has delivered a long-delayed accounting of its nuclear activities.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/524f3abb-e9b0-4dda-a878-e7dbd572f0ef.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 13:58:50 GMTTensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been rising for months. Now, they have hit a new peak.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/33558ec9-b595-460c-a50e-1b02068b74ed.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 12:07:27 GMTSixty years ago, the people of West Berlin were under blockade.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/da3f5a43-3c20-4479-86d5-b8aa95734643.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 10:20:14 GMTMOSCOW -- EU leaders are gathering in an oil-rich pocket of Siberia, where they will meet new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for the first time during talks aimed at securing a "strategic partnership" pact.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/5a847307-0b1d-43cf-ac5f-df999f37efd2.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 08:58:48 GMTWASHINGTON -- The United States and Iraq are signaling progress in negotiating what's called a Status-of-Forces Agreement (SOFA), which would set the rules for the presence of U.S. forces in the country.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/a3e9db62-5df8-45c1-95dd-c4310991c9a0.htmlThu, 26 Jun 2008 08:17:50 GMTLast week, the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, paid a five-day visit to Belarus. The visit was remarkable for at least two reasons.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/667cce95-464e-47e8-8ffc-d29b69645b04.htmlWed, 25 Jun 2008 13:53:37 GMTNorboy Holjigitov, a former oppositionist and human rights activist serving a long sentence in Uzbekistan, has reportedly fallen seriously ill in recent weeks.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/26645b6c-ec88-4ed5-9b6c-21804a105596.htmlWed, 25 Jun 2008 13:08:06 GMTThe second Eurasian Women's Summit is under way in Astana, bringing together more than 400 women from social, political, and business organizations to discuss strategies for women's empowerment.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/8134c51c-ea56-4f96-bcee-954fa3eb5b3e.htmlWed, 25 Jun 2008 12:13:55 GMTIt's been more than seven years since Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe, the continent's preeminent organization for promoting human rights and democracy. At the time of its admission, the move was hailed as a sign that Azerbaijan had graduated from the post-Soviet doldrums and taken a critical step closer to the league of Western states. Now, however, many question the usefulness of the Council of Europe to the country's democratic development.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/a3e2fa5e-452e-4e57-877d-bb6c6167674c.htmlTue, 24 Jun 2008 14:46:20 GMTSeveral websites in Central Asia have launched what they call an "unlimited campaign" against Internet censorship to protest the increasingly restricted access in Uzbekistan to independent websites.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/0659be0f-edeb-44c3-b74d-92515dbfc071.htmlTue, 24 Jun 2008 14:04:46 GMTAhead of an EU-Turkmen meeting on human rights in Ashgabat, civic activists and independent journalists in the country have been reporting widespread harassment, intimidation, and even the detention of government opponents.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/8b26dc3e-04ac-4098-92a5-c54b11c75aef.htmlTue, 24 Jun 2008 13:13:54 GMTGerman Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung has announced plans to add an additional 1,000 soldiers by the end of this year to the 3,500-strong German contingent already in Afghanistan.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/af608fee-54f9-4daa-be15-c013fe31984c.htmlTue, 24 Jun 2008 10:42:35 GMTThe Socialist Party of late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic has announced a coalition deal with the pro-Western alliance led by the Democratic Party.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/6906754e-6ca1-437d-9bbb-e448ae37c6ad.htmlTue, 24 Jun 2008 10:20:56 GMTU.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has begun a foreign trip to discuss issues ranging from the Middle East peace process to next month's summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial countries. Probably the most pressing issue on her agenda is what to do about the rising price of oil.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/21a75be7-2ce1-44af-8cb7-2b61d0a08692.htmlTue, 24 Jun 2008 08:44:48 GMTHundreds of families in Turkmenistan have reportedly been forced to leave their homes near the Turkmen-Uzbek border and relocate to other parts of the country.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/24e608d8-64bc-4ebe-9a04-a0a4441679e7.htmlMon, 23 Jun 2008 15:04:57 GMTTajikistan's ancient Jewish community lost its only remaining synagogue in downtown Dushanbe, as authorities decided to tear down old buildings in the synagogue's neighborhood so that a third presidential palace can be built.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/719a60b6-ba4f-4e82-8ec3-8074bc40e7ea.htmlMon, 23 Jun 2008 13:59:20 GMTWhen finished, the Nabucco natural-gas pipeline will run from eastern Turkey to the heart of Europe, completely bypassing Russia. But while its route is established, its suppliers have yet to be fully determined. And therein lies the controversy.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/3f4c3dd2-82f1-4350-96b8-70a34e65cbfb.htmlMon, 23 Jun 2008 13:37:57 GMTAlmost two decades after the fall of the communist bloc, the vision for a wider Europe "whole and free" has yet to be attained.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/53eea3e4-7c9f-4183-93db-7378073f661f.htmlMon, 23 Jun 2008 09:30:59 GMTAfghan officials and the international coalition have reported four cross-border attacks on June 21 in which five civilians were killed. On several occasions, NATO-led forces returned fire on positions inside Pakistan.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/2ce9ff70-1be6-4f16-9cc6-55474fcb4231.htmlSun, 22 Jun 2008 14:10:24 GMTHundreds of thousands of people poured out into the streets across Russia early today to a cacophony of honking and shouting following the country's unexpected Euro 2008 quarterfinal victory over the Netherlands.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/544b0056-0dce-4765-91f2-e67b4c9b2f7f.htmlSun, 22 Jun 2008 10:35:21 GMTAfghan President Hamid Karzai's threat to send troops after Taliban militants in neighboring Pakistan has kindled debate about cross-border military incursions and international law.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/2e35904f-2789-4b0c-82a4-3be8f71d2aba.htmlSun, 22 Jun 2008 10:15:42 GMTThe Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will hold its summer session in Strasbourg next week, where it will hold an urgent debate to assess Armenia's compliance with more than a dozen demands leveled by the assembly following postelection violence in March.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/9fb939dc-65a3-4cd1-b979-15da0d535e1a.htmlSat, 21 Jun 2008 12:23:48 GMTMany Iranians believe the country's miserable economic situation is a byproduct of mismanagement and widespread corruption at the top.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/0ad6e0d8-a45e-486c-b07e-740066adeb8b.htmlSat, 21 Jun 2008 11:34:28 GMTProtesters have gathered in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, for the first major opposition demonstration since 10 people died as a result of postelection violence in March.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/2d50120d-c0c9-405f-a65c-ee452bcdbf74.htmlFri, 20 Jun 2008 15:28:59 GMTBRUSSELS -- EU leaders have decided to put off until October all decisions on how to proceed after Irish voters rejected the bloc's Lisbon reform treaty last week.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/49ea1e39-9945-4a43-9543-520373677de3.htmlFri, 20 Jun 2008 14:25:14 GMTTatarstan's president, Mintimer Shaimiyev, set Russia's chattering classes off on June 15 by telling a congress of journalists the country should return to the direct election of regional heads. Those elections, it will be recalled, were eliminated by then-President Vladimir Putin in 2004, supposedly as part of his overall plan to combat terrorism.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/03535e19-bf02-455a-b165-9757013af801.htmlFri, 20 Jun 2008 13:40:55 GMTAn Azerbaijani journalist who has been honored by Amnesty International says authorities have prevented him from taking a flight out of the country.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/1f8d44e5-81d6-4bb7-9ae9-4189b51d6005.htmlFri, 20 Jun 2008 11:55:59 GMTThe European Union has agreed to lift sanctions against Cuba, in a move is meant to encourage the new government in Havana to continue with reforms.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/343e39fd-ce00-44e6-ba32-cdeaaa1e7af4.htmlFri, 20 Jun 2008 10:39:14 GMTIndependent Kosovo's first constitution came into force on June 15. Although problems continue to dog the new country's transition from a UN protectorate to a fully independent state, those difficulties are largely not of Kosovo's own making.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/196a01f9-ac8a-4505-9b4a-ac0403248d59.htmlFri, 20 Jun 2008 09:58:00 GMTArmenia made European headlines for two reasons in the past few months -- one bad and one good.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/56210e78-faa7-48bd-9819-2bb058080656.htmlFri, 20 Jun 2008 08:18:37 GMTThe UN Security Council has approved a resolution that demands warring governments and factions act to halt violence against women, calling rape a war crime and a component of genocide.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/0eb53781-2bc9-482f-8648-dde2142ddd6c.htmlFri, 20 Jun 2008 07:41:43 GMTRussia's Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has become the first company, foreign or domestic, to offer wireless Internet connection in Turkmenistan -- a country dubbed "one of the world's Internet enemies" by a top media rights group.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/f7dcb12d-b4dd-424e-916c-5dd70ebb558c.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2008 15:06:58 GMTBRUSSELS -- Leaders of the 27 nations of the European Union are meeting in Brussels for their regular summer summit, with a number of hot items on the agenda.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/ab3810c3-8673-4954-96a3-0d52f1b670bd.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2008 14:29:30 GMTBRUSSELS -- "Common interests" have become buzzwords for the EU as it attempts to get its relationship with Russia off the ground again after some difficult years.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/21c0333f-aad9-4070-bf70-bab4d4b93696.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2008 13:30:03 GMTThe father of slain journalist Alisher Saipov is accusing Uzbek President Islam Karimov of complicity in his son's murder.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/ebf4ae0f-7f3d-4f50-91ce-7fa8dd0fe32b.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2008 13:02:22 GMTIran has sentenced 177 juvenile offenders to death in the last decade, and 34 of them have been executed for crimes committed before they were 18, according to an international rights group.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/56ed7b4c-7590-4466-acad-147d8dbc53d3.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2008 12:36:42 GMTThe U.S. Treasury Department has announced that it has frozen bank accounts belonging to members of an alleged terrorist group from Uzbekistan that it says is trying to overthrow the Uzbek government as well as attack U.S. targets.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/3fc871c4-cdb4-4e1c-96ab-2264d98c6263.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2008 11:45:08 GMTAfghan officials say that hundreds of Taliban have been killed and wounded in a military operation to clear insurgents from a valley northwest of Kandahar city.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/4222b7da-218d-4025-a153-d9174bac7edb.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2008 11:06:12 GMTWASHINGTON -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried told members of Congress on June 18 that the wave of democracy that swept from Central to Eastern Europe in 1989 has yielded astonishing and successful results in terms of democracy, human rights, and free-market systems. The question now, he said, is whether that wave will extend to the easternmost borders of what he called "wider Europe."http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/a13a80fb-d25a-401c-b82c-71a68c6d2cc3.htmlThu, 19 Jun 2008 09:31:10 GMTThe Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Europe's main human rights watchdog, has expressed concern over Uzbekistan's assault on the independent media, including RFE/RL journalists.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/4951ad0a-2ffc-495d-af33-ba7965aca811.htmlWed, 18 Jun 2008 13:51:04 GMTTensions between Tajikistan's government and local leaders in the remote eastern Badakhshan region appear to be reaching a critical stage.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/04165611-b886-4253-a0df-5e01af779353.htmlWed, 18 Jun 2008 12:45:41 GMTThe Russian Prosecutor-General's Office has announced that the investigation into the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been closed.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/8cbfe68b-5375-40f8-92c1-2b3b1522abd0.htmlWed, 18 Jun 2008 12:44:47 GMTIndependent journalists could soon find their work in Belarus even more difficult as a result of a new media law that is taking shape.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/c3316d6f-722b-46c3-919c-db1fe8d1bf07.htmlWed, 18 Jun 2008 12:40:58 GMTAfghan and NATO forces have launched a military operation against Taliban fighters who fled to villages and farmland north of Kandahar following a massive escape from a Kandahar prison on June 13.http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/6/73b6fa4c-8a64-4e45-b059-b9524bd04121.htmlWed, 18 Jun 2008 12:11:39 GMT