Daisy Sindelar is the vice president and editor in chief of RFE/RL.
Days after Belarusian authorities execute the two men judged responsible for a deadly subway bombing, observers wonder if the government acted too hastily in carrying out the death sentences, and whether the men's supporters hurt their case by asking Europe to intervene.
The British lawyers of a Pakistani man whose father was killed in a U.S. drone attack have initiated legal action against British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who they say violated international law by using his country's civilian intelligence corps to assist in the U.S. attacks.
With 100 days left until the start of the Euro 2012 football championship, first-time hosts Poland and Ukraine say work is nearly complete on stadiums, roads, hotels, and airports being prepared for an onslaught of visiting fans and players. But officials from the UEFA football governing body say that a combination of high prices and poor service may prove an image-breaker as the two countries prepare for hundreds of thousands of visitors from Western Europe and beyond.
The daughter of Ukraine's jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko tells RFE/RL that she's afraid her mother may die because of what she describes as abusive prison conditions.
Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12.
Organizers of a flash mob in central Moscow originally pledged the event would take just five minutes.
More than a decade has passed since the end of the Balkan wars, where international observers say ethnic Serb fighters were responsible for the bulk of atrocities in the region, particularly Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. But despite the handover of major war-crimes suspects like Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, Belgrade remains reluctant to face the sins of the past. Lawyer Natasa Kandic has built an unpopular and often dangerous career out of pushing her country to face the truth about its history.
Russian-born Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus are set to face off on January 28 in the women's final of the Australian Open tennis tournament. Both players have gained notoriety as some of the loudest grunters in the sport, prompting expectations the women's final may be the loudest tennis match in history.
Fifteen Georgian and three Turkish sailors returned home earlier this month after spending 16 months being held hostage by Somali pirates. The ship's 63-year-old captain, Memed Zakaradze, recounts the ordeal.
Russian Prime Minister and presidential hopeful Vladimir Putin has published a campaign article on the country's "national" question. In it, he addressed traditional issues like immigration and xenophobia. But he also proposed the formation of a list of 100 books to serve as essential, identity-building reading for the country's next generation of young Russians.
Gay-rights activists have welcomed a U.S. move to call on government agencies to lead the fight to combat antigay discrimination abroad. But others have warned it may make the struggle for gay rights even harder in parts of the world where anti-American sentiment is rising.
Al-Jazeera, renowned for its in-depth investigations and rare insights into the Arab world, has set its sights on expansion, launching a new station in the Balkans and looking ahead to similar channels in Turkey and East Africa.
Kadyrjan Batyrov was once one of the most outspoken and influential members of Kyrgyzstan's minority Uzbek community. But after last year's deadly ethnic clashes in the country's south, many people -- including some Uzbeks themselves -- accused Batyrov of orchestrating the bloodshed.
A German spy expert has revealed that a female intelligence agent working in Dresden in the 1980s was able to infiltrate the inner circle of Russia's prime minister and former president, Vladimir Putin, while he was working as a KGB agent. The agent, known as Lenchen or Lenochka, became close friends with Putin's wife, Lyudmila, who apparently revealed that her husband beat her and enjoyed numerous sexual trysts with other women.
Kyrgyzstan's bumpy presidential election this October 30 drew a few harsh words from the international community, which approved the results but said "significant" work was still needed to avoid voter irregularities.But for perspective, look around the Central Asian neighborhood.
As Kyrgyzstan prepared to vote for a new president on October 30, many were hoping the ballot would usher in a period of stability after a volatile season of public protests, deadly clashes, and a dramatic presidential ouster.
Daisy Sindelar first traveled to the southern city of Osh in October 2010, where she talked to residents, both Kyrgyz and Uzbek, about their ordeals. She recently returned to see how those people's lives had changed. What she found was a city that, resident by resident, was slowly falling apart.
If there's a certain dilemma to interviewing Uzbeks in Osh, it's that they are unfailingly reserved -- wary might be the better word -- even when standing amid the charred wreckage of their once-beautiful homes.
When Kyrgyz residents of Osh are pressed to explain any historic resentment toward their Uzbek neighbors, an astonishing number seem to focus on a single, vivid image -- that of the two-car family.
Yryskul Amanov is still known as a hero in his neighborhood in the Tulekyen district in southeastern Osh.
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