Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
Slain humanitarian activist Marla Ruzicka Human rights groups, aid workers and war correspondents around the world are paying tribute to the courage of a young American activist who was killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad Saturday. Marla Ruzicka worked tirelessly in Afghanistan and Iraq to document cases in which innocent civilians were killed during combat involving U.S. forces. In an effort to get the U.S. government to compensate the families of civilian war victims, Ruzicka founded a nongovernmental group called CIVIC -- "Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict." Her efforts convinced the U.S. Congress to allocate some 17 million dollars in direct aid to civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf The leaders of Pakistan and India say the peace process is "irreversible." The announcement comes in a joint statement issued at the end of a three-day visit to New Delhi by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The Pakistani leader warns that it will take a long time to reach a final settlement on Kashmir. But today, he said both sides are now being more flexible on their positions and his visit has achieved more than expected.
Children herd goats in front of Kabul's war-ravaged Darulaman Palace. The Afghan government wants to restore a war-damaged former royal palace so it can be used as the seat of parliament. The Darulaman Palace was built in the 1920s by former King Amanullah Khan as part of his plan for social and political modernization. It originally was intended to house Afghanistan's first elected parliament. But before that legislature could be created, Amanullah Khan was forced into exile by conservative Pashtun tribesmen who opposed his reforms. RFE/RL takes a closer look at the history of the building and the plans for its future.
Indian and Chinese leaders today signed landmark agreements aimed at ending their long-standing border disputes. The series of accords could also boost economic cooperation between the giant emerging economies. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the agreements will "reshape the world order."
Pakistani soldiers (file photo) Indian and Pakistani authorities today are pushing ahead with the maiden voyages of a direct bus link between the divided parts of Kashmir -- the first such journeys in more than half a century. The transport link has raised hopes for peace on the subcontinent, despite an attack by suspected Islamic militants yesterday at the Indian government complex in Srinagar where passengers were staying
Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak says Kabul is continuing negotiations with the United States about a possible long-term U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. Wardak said Kabul is eager for what he called "enduring arrangements" with the United States and other countries. But Wardak also said it is too early to know whether such arrangements will include permanent U.S. bases in Afghanistan.
Combat in Iraq leaves some U.S. soldiers bearing mental scars even if they are not wounded physically It has been two years since the U.S. troops who spearheaded the invasion of Iraq in 2003 first entered Baghdad. As urban warfare in Iraq enters its third year, the U.S. military is fighting a growing problem -- what to do with soldiers who are mentally scarred by combat. Scientists in the United States are working on a new kind of high-tech treatment. It is a “virtual reality" computer program that recreates front-line experiences -- forcing veterans to confront their war-zone memories in a controlled environment.
Syrian President Bashir Al-Assad (file photo) Syria's president has formally promised that all Syrian troops and intelligence agents will be withdrawn from Lebanon by 30 April. Syria also has agreed to allow UN monitors to verify the withdrawal. By sending its troops home after 29 years in Lebanon, Syria will meet demands by both the United States and the United Nations to end its military presence there.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami (center) accompanied journalists on the tour of the Natanz facility. (AFP) Iran's President Mohammad Khatami has taken a group of journalists into an underground nuclear facility that Washington wants dismantled. Until 2002, Tehran had kept the existence of the Natanz facility a secret. Iranian officials continue to deny allegations from the United States that facilities like Natanz are part of a program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. But the U.S. State Department is dismissing yesterday's tour as a "staged media event" that falls short of the openness needed to end the nuclear dispute.
Indonesians feared a repeat of the death and destruction of the tsunami that wreaked havoc on 26 December. (file photo) Officials say more than 1,000 people may have been killed by a powerful overnight earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Worst hit is Indonesia's tiny Nias Island, where authorities fear up to 1,000 people may have died. So far, 330 people have been found dead on Nias and about 100 others on neighboring Simeulue island. The quake struck the same region as the tremor that caused a tsunami three months ago -- leaving some 300,000 people dead or missing along coastal areas of the Indian Ocean. Scientists say the latest quake also caused a tsunami. But it was directed away from coastal areas.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says migration flows to the United States, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom have decreased noticeably in the past two years. Many of those who have migrated are highly skilled workers. One reason is stricter laws on entry and residence for foreigners since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. But experts say economics has been a contributing factor. The latest data also show a dramatic fall in the number of foreign students going to the United States. That is attributed directly to tighter security measures. But the trend for students might not be permanent.
Hundreds of Afghans were reported killed by floodwaters raging through mountain gorges across the country in the past week. Rivers already swollen by snowmelt from the harshest winter in years have been overflowing in the wake of heavy rains. But as the floodwaters recede in some areas, the death toll doesn't appear to be as high as initially reported by provincial officials.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (file photo) Afghanistan's long-delayed elections to the lower house of parliament will be held on 18 September. Afghan voters will also elect their provincial assemblies on that day. But more complicated elections for local district councils within each province also are needed to complete the upper house of parliament. Those elections are being put off until a national census is complete and electoral district boundaries are determined. In the meantime, a temporary upper chamber of parliament is being created.
Prague, 20 March 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Antigovernment protesters in the southern Kyrgyzstan town of Jalal-Abad have retaken the provincial administration building and set fire to a police station after overnight raids by security forces. At least 10,000 demonstrators gathered in the streets of Jalal-Abad today after police evicted protesters from the administration building earlier in the day.
Paul Wolfowitz (file photo) France, Britain, and other European countries are reacting coolly to a decision by U.S. President George W. Bush to nominate his deputy defense secretary as head of the World Bank. Paul Wolfowitz was a key architect of the Iraq war and his hard-line foreign policies have made him a target of international criticism. His nomination could set off a dispute on the World Bank board at a time when Bush says he is trying to improve trans-Atlantic relations. Despite the potential objections, however, experts say Wolfowitz is likely to be approved.
The Black Hawk baby with mother, Melawa An Afghan woman from a village near the border with Pakistan has given birth to a healthy girl aboard a U.S. Army helicopter. She is the wife of a Pashtun village elder who asked U.S. medics for help after he learned that both mother and child might die without a doctor. The couple lives in an area where coalition forces still battle Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters -- just across the border from Pakistan's tribal region of South Waziristan.
Opium crops in Afghanistan (file photo) A Paris-based think tank is studying whether Afghan farmers should be licensed to grow opium poppies for legal medicines like morphine and codeine. The Senlis Council says such a policy could shift income from Afghanistan's illegal opium production away from drug lords. The group says the idea could also boost development in rural parts of Afghanistan.
Most of the heroin linked to Afghanistan's soaring poppy cultivation is smuggled abroad, ending up as far away as Europe and the United States. But in Badakhshan, near Afghanistan's northeastern border with Tajikistan, aid workers say the number of Afghan addicts is increasing at an alarming rate. Provincial officials elsewhere also are sounding warnings about rising heroin addiction.
For the past 25 years, violence by militants and factional militias in Afghanistan has typically increased once the spring thaw makes it easier for fighters to move about and stay in the field for long periods. A surge in Taliban attacks is expected again this spring as the country emerges from a particularly harsh winter. But a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says he expects the Taliban's so-called spring offensive to be much weaker than in the past three years.
The presidents of Syria and Lebanon have agreed to a redeployment of Syrian troops into Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. But their plan delays for up to one month a decision about how long or how many Syrian troops will remain in that eastern part of Lebanon, near the Syrian border. Today's decision in Damascus calls for the first stage of a Syrian troop redeployment toward Lebanon's eastern border to take place by the end of March. The announcement makes no mention of specific troop numbers or the withdrawal of Syrian security agents, and it offers no timeline for Syrian troops to actually leave Lebanese territory. Those points are at the heart of international demands for Syria to remove all of its forces from Lebanon quickly. U.S. officials argue that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's promises are full of vague "generalities and half measures" that will not bring Damascus into compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559.
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