Daisy Sindelar is the vice president and editor in chief of RFE/RL.
In 2009 in Kyrgyzstan, a powerful political insider was brutally murdered. Two years later, his case is threatening to overshadow the country's October 30 elections.
Still recovering from the ravages of war, Bosnians have no shortage of anxiety, what with growing unemployment and poverty. This has sparked a rise in depression, and with it, a rise in the use of tranquilizers and antidepressants.
The Putin era hasn't been good for Russian media. But the rise of the Internet -- noisy, popular, and community-minded -- might be changing all that.
Eynulla Fatullayev relied on Yesenin, Solzhenitsyn, and his own will to survive four grueling years in Azerbaijani prisons. Now he's free, newly married, and ready to keep his country from turning into a "political desert."
As ties between the United States and Pakistan continue to sour, speculation is mounting that Uzbekistan may become a new ally of convenience in the U.S. war on terror. Is Washington willing to overlook Islam Karimov's record on torture and child labor?
The recent publications of letters and columns by high-profile prisoners Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Yulia Tymoshenko have resurrected interest in the importance of prison correspondence. Methods of communication have become more sophisticated since the Soviet era, when political prisoners' writings were closely scrutinized and rarely published. But even with the growing reach of Facebook and Twitter, the impact of the printed word in traditional media is still proving surprisingly powerful.
Two Chechen teenagers living in Norway are being hailed for their role in rescuing dozens of young people trapped on the island of Utoeya during a massacre by a far-right extremist last month. Rustam Daudov and Movsar Dzhamayev, who emigrated with their families to Norway after living through the war in Chechnya, say they hurled stones in an attempt to disarm Anders Behring Breivik before helping other teenagers attending the island's Labor Party youth camp find shelter in a cave.
Many of the problems that plague Central Asia are a result of neighbors who see each other more as rivals than allies. But institutions like the OSCE Academy in Bishkek are trying to reverse that trend by providing rigorous educations for future politicians, entrepreneurs, and civil-society workers, while also encouraging them to think beyond their national borders to the Eurasian region overall.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych may have hoped he'd seen the last of his arch-rival Yulia Tymoshenko when a judge in Kyiv put her in jail for contempt of court. But five days into her sentence, the charismatic heroine of the Orange Revolution is not only unbowed but positively luminous, appearing in court in a sleek white dress, full makeup, and her traditional braid crown immaculately in place. Her defenders complain prison conditions -- including a lack of hot water and cigarette-smoking cell mates -- will damage the ex-premier's health and morale. But to the outside eye, Tymoshenko has never looked better. What's her secret?
Protests continue as Ukraine's ex-prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, returns to face trial for abuse of office after being jailed on contempt charges. The case has raised hackles in Moscow, where officials have voiced support for Tymoshenko, who is accused of forging a damaging gas deal with Russia.
Death is a reality in every part of the world, not least in a city like Osh, still reeling from clashes last year in which 470 people were killed. RFE/RL speaks to a gravestone carver about his life as an artist helping people at their time of deepest grief.
It isn't hard to find anger still simmering in many corners of the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. But in theaters, schools, and even the marriage bureau, there are plenty of signs that Kyrgyz and Uzbeks are bridging the divide left by last year's violence.
It is now fairly well-known how many people died and how much property was destroyed when clashes broke out between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in southern Kyrgyzstan last year. What is less certain is how many women and men were subjected to rape, a crime that casts a profound stigma on its victims.
Two women, one Kyrgyz, one Uzbek, live side by side in the Osh neighborhood that saw some of the worst violence during Kyrgyzstan's June 2010 ethnic clashes. Both suffered in the violence, but one year later, neither appears prepared to forgive or forget.
International watchdog groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued dual reports criticizing the government of Kyrgyzstan for failing to provide justice for the victims of deadly 2010 clashes in the country's south or to stem a wave of rights violations that have followed.
In Azerbaijan, girls as young as 12 are getting married -- an arrangement that may leave their parents more prosperous but puts the girls at risk of trafficking and abuse.
After 16 long years, Serbia has finally made good on its pledge to arrest the world's most-wanted war crimes suspect, Ratko Mladic. President Boris Tadic appears to have some ideas about what it Belgrade can expect in return.
Amnesty International has recognized Russian businessmen Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev as prisoners of conscience after a Moscow court upheld the men's convictions on money laundering.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is likely to be on his way out. And in some of the IMF's poorer countries, citizens ravaged by its harsh economic policies wonder if it's time for the Fund to change its ways.
Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has built a massive mosque and ordered Lamborghinis for his traffic cops. But all he really wants to do is make his republic the go-to place for professional soccer.
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