Ex-Vigilante 'Shocked' At Iran Violence 

After his falling out, a founding member of one of Iran's thuggish "pressure groups" learned what it was like to be on the other side of the truncheons. More recently, Amir Farshad Ebrahimi has watched from exile as former colleagues mete out brutal justice to quell postelection protests. More

North Korea Suspected Of Attacking U.S., South Korea 

South Korea is on high alert amid suspicions that North Korea was behind a recent wave of website outages in South Korea and the United States. The attacks are being called the most widespread cyberoffensive in recent years. More

Looking For Signs And Prophets 

Everything here is still topsy-turvy. I never imagined I would watch and listen to the Friday Prayer sermon by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, call Rafsanjani the "last hope," listen and enjoy speeches by Hadi Ghaffari, who was one of the most radical clerics during the revolution and now has turned his attacks on the supreme leader. More

Who Are Iran’s Vigilantes? 

The most-feared force that keeps protestors off the streets of Tehran is a shadowy group of men who wear street clothes and carry clubs and pistols. When they swoop down on a demonstration in cars without license plates, the police stand back and so does the Basij militia. The men literally get away with murder. Who are they? More

U.S. Shift In Afghan Antidrug Policy Wins Mixed Reviews 

U.S. regional envoy Richard Holbrooke recently announced that Washington will move away from emphasizing the eradication of opium poppy to stem drug production in Afghanistan, and will instead focus on stopping trafficking, enforcing drug laws, and substituting crops. But officials in Kabul are skeptical about the potential success of this strategy. More

China's Uyghurs -- A Minority In Their Own Land? 

The Uyghurs of western China are an ethnic Turkic people who are by tradition Muslim, and who feel more kinship with the peoples of Central Asia than with the Han Chinese -- the communist state's dominant population. After decades of Han immigration into their region, the Uyghurs are close to being a minority in their own land. More

People Swayed By Obama Diplomacy, But Kremlin Another Matter 

Barack Obama's first trip to Russia as U.S. president this week was part of his ongoing overhaul of U.S. foreign policy. In meetings and a major speech, Obama sought to begin overcoming what Washington characterizes as the Kremlin's "zero-sum" approach to relations with the United States. More

Obama Addresses Civil-Society Issues In Russia  

The second day of Barack Obama's trip to Moscow had the U.S. president attempting a difficult balancing act -- seeking Russian support on issues of global concern, like nuclear proliferation, but also making clear U.S. concerns over such things as Moscow's meddling in its neighbor's affairs. More

Vox Pop: Obama Receives Mixed Reception 

Barack Obama is in Russia, on his first visit as U.S. president, trying to "reset" relations with Russia after they descended into acrimony during the Bush administration. So how are the residents of one small town in Russia's North Caucasus taking to Obama? More

Belarusian Leader, Berezovsky Colluded In Arrest, Lawyer Says 

Few stories are as Byzantine as the recent case involving Emanuel Zeltser, an American lawyer who late last month was released from a Belarusian jail after spending nearly a year behind bars on charges of industrial espionage. Zeltser, who returned to the United States last week, spoke to RFE/RL about his ordeal. More