Margot Buff is a multimedia editor for RFE/RL.
One of Armenia's medieval Christian sites hides an acoustic marvel that attracts pilgrims from across the Caucasus. For those who know where to find it, a chapel carved into the cliffs of the Geghard monastery rewards singers with extraordinary sounds.
Mohammad Khan's family fled Pakistan's Waziristan region during anti-Taliban military operations and endured the hardships of life as displaced people. Determined to help other struggling families, Khan founded his own school in a poor neighborhood for kids with no other access to education.
Demonstrations have broken out in Kyrgyzstan after the bodies of a young woman and her suspected abductor were discovered after a two-day search. The woman was abducted on a city street by several people in an apparent instance of "bride kidnapping," in which victims can be forced into marriage.
Igor Krainov was detained on drug charges in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod in 2019. But CCTV footage helped him get the charges dropped and turn the tables on the police, who appeared to plant evidence in his pocket. Three officers lost their jobs and are facing a criminal investigation.
Vasfije Krasniqi-Goodman, a newly elected member of Kosovo's parliament, has broken taboos in the country by speaking about her experience as a survivor of rape during the 1998-99 war. She says she will try to act as the voice of her fellow survivors as she fights for justice.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bulgaria is struggling with a separate, ongoing health crisis: Most patients who need an organ transplant are unable to get one. Bulgaria's restrictive laws on living organ donations have driven some patients to travel abroad for life-saving operations.
Twenty-five-year old Pegah plays music on the street, gathers with friends in the park, and dresses as she pleases -- all things that were difficult in her native Iran. After repeated arrests for violating Iran's dress code, she fled to Georgia, where she's finding her way in a more open society.
In March 2001, Taliban extremists used dynamite and artillery to demolish two towering Buddha statues that had stood in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Province for nearly 1,500 years. Today, the country is still not at peace, and hopes of rebuilding the statues are stymied by prohibitive costs.
Starshel, whose name means "The Hornet," is Bulgaria's oldest satirical publication. In its early days under communist rule, it poked fun at capitalism and American imperialism, but it also sometimes took on the country's own leadership.
In Iran's conservative Islamic society, prostitution is illegal, immoral, and rarely discussed. But in an investigative documentary by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, sex workers in Tehran describe a routine business where clients are easily found and family members turn a blind eye.
Nano Mikautadze used to cover her head in public after an autoimmune disorder caused her hair to fall out. But in her 20s, she stopped wearing head scarves and decorated her scalp with a floral tattoo. RFE/RL's Georgian Service spoke with Mikautadze about how she celebrates her unique traits.
Members of Afghanistan's Jogi minority are not counted as citizens, which means they have no rights to receive an education, vote, or own property. But activists in northern Jowzjan Province have succeeded in bringing about a first step toward change: a school for both children and adults.
After a deadly bombing in the Afghan capital on February 21, a video went viral showing two children crying for their wounded mother, who was hospitalized afterward. The video provoked strong emotions and debates over which scenes of violence are too shocking to share. [Warning: Disturbing images]
A NASA rover named Perseverance touched down on Mars on February 18, landing in an ancient lake bed named Jezero Crater. Back on Earth, Bosnians in the town of Jezero celebrated their local connection to interplanetary events.
A villa in Cannes, a Swiss chateau, an entire block in central London: those are just a few of the investments made by relatives of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who acquired vast wealth during his nearly three decades in power.
Former patients who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies in their blood that might be able to fight the virus inside another patient's body. Blood plasma transfusions have been used successfully against other infections, but researchers have only just begun to investigate whether it's an effective strategy against the coronavirus.
Muhammad Munir, a virologist at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, says governments and public health officials need much more data before deciding when to relax lockdown restrictions. In an interview with RFE/RL's Balkan Service, he said a second wave of infections could have an even worse impact than the first.
Some patients with severe cases of COVID-19 recover fully after intensive treatment, but the process is long and harrowing. Survivors describe the nightmare of seeing their skin turn blue, saying goodbye to loved ones, and witnessing others succumb to the disease.
As millions of people shelter at home during the coronavirus pandemic, cases of domestic violence are rising rapidly in Russia, the United States, and elsewhere. Activists say victims face an untenable situation as they are forced into self-isolation with their abusers.
Some cities have ordered public areas to be sprayed with disinfectant in an effort to curb the coronavirus, which can be spread by contact with surfaces. In the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, engineers repurposed jet engines to create a powerful antiviral blast.
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