Sunday, May 26, 2013
A woman walks past a branch of the Noor Islamic Bank in Dubai. Although there have long been many Islamic banks in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, they are now also spreading rapidly in the West. (file photo)

Explainer: What Is Islamic Banking?

Islamic banks are rising as an alternative to conventional Western banks, partly due to their success in weathering the current economic crisis. How do they work? More

Iranian authorities are doing their utmost to ensure that there is no repeat of the daily unrest that followed the 2009 presidential election. (file photo)

Iran Prepares Itself for June Presidential Vote By Stepping Up Security Measures

Iran's establishment has prepared itself for the June 14 presidential election by upping intelligence-gathering efforts, disrupting the Internet, and launching special units intended to help it prevent the type of mass unrest seen after the 2009 vote. More

Efforts to move Transdniester's center of administration from Tiraspol to the breakway region's second city, Bender (pictured), have caused consternation in some quarters. (file photo)

In Moldova’s Breakaway Transdniester, A Tale Of Two Cities

The 5+2 group tasked with negotiating a settlement to Moldova’s breakaway Transdniester region is expected to conclude a second day of talks Friday (May 24) with few, if any, results. The latest talks come as Transdniester has raised alarm in the region with a proposal to move its parliament from Tiraspol across the Dniester River to the historically symbolic city of Bender. More

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's vote will have a major say in who wins the upcoming presidential election.

Video A Guide To Iran's Presidential Election

Millions of Iranians will head to the polls on June 14 to determine Iran's next president. As the campaign officially kicks off, RFE/RL has compiled this guide to Iran's rival factions, prominent campaign issues, and the intricacies of the Islamic republic's electoral system. More

A poster on the home in Basra, Iraq, of Dhia Mutashar Gatie al-Issawi, an Iraqi who was fighting on behalf of the Syrian government before he was killed in Damascus.

Iraqi Volunteers Join Both Sides Of War In Syria

Iraqi volunteers -- both Sunni and Shi'ite -- are slipping into Syria. There, they fight on opposite sides, raising fears the war will spill back to Iraq. More

Recent Features

President Barack Obama said the U.S. now has stricter standards for targeting suspected terrorists with drone strikes.

Former Intelligence Director Cordesman Says Obama Made 'Promise He Can't Keep'

Anthony Cordesman is a former director of intelligence assessment for the U.S. secretary of defense’s office and a recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal. He now holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He gave RFE/RL Washington Bureau Chief Heather Maher his thoughts about President Barack Obama’s May 23 national security speech.
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People in the capital, Tehran, reading newspapers the day the shortlist of presidential candidates for the June 14 election was announced.

What's A Disqualified Iranian Candidate To Do?

This week Iran's electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, approved the candidacies of just eight of the nearly 700 people who applied to run in next month's presidential election. Those disqualified included two prominent nominees -- former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a close ally of current President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. So what recourse, if any, do disqualified candidates have to overturn the decision?
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Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has been implicated in a major bribery scandal. (file photo)

Gulnara Karimova Takes To Twitter Following Critical Report

A report by RFE/RL and Swedish television documenting links between Gulnara Karimova and large-scale bribery has drawn a furious response on Twitter, where the Uzbek president's daughter and her supporters have posted a flurry of tweets criticizing the report and speculating that Karimova's rivals within Uzbekistan are to blame.
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Amnesty International says abusive governments can no longer use the issue of sovereignty to justify their actions.

Video Amnesty Report Notes Worldwide Abuses, As Well As Courage Of Activists

In a new report, the global rights group Amnesty International documents abuses in 159 countries and territories that it says were "inflicted by those in power on those who stand in the way of their vested interests."
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Former Georgian Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili attends a preliminary hearing of his case at the court in Kutaisi on May 22.

Who In Georgia Is Merabishvili's Arrest Meant To Scare?

The arrest of Vano Merabishvili, Mikheil Saakashvili's most powerful ally, appears to tighten the noose around the weakened Georgian president, who has seen his support base crumble since Bidzina Ivanishvili's rise to power last October. But observers in Georgia say the arrest may also be a response to a vicious religious crackdown against gay-rights groups – and a sign that Ivanishvili's true rival is no longer Saakashvili but the church.
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A man reads a campaign pamphlet in central Tehran ahead of Iran

Vox Pop: Iranians React To Dismissal Of Presidential Hopefuls

RFE/RL's Radio Farda received a flood of comments via e-mail, Facebook, telephone calls, and SMS messages from its audience in Iran that overwhelmingly express disappointment and anger at the Guardians Council's final list of candidates for Iran's June 14 presidential election.
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Iran's Shortlisted Presidential Candidates

Iran's Interior Ministry has announced the official shortlist of candidates that will be vying to succeed President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in that country's June 14 election.
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A recent political protest in the heart of Zugdidi

Stuck In The Middle: Abkhazia's Ethnic Georgians Feel The Squeeze

The Georgian government of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili is seeking to change the dynamic of Tbilisi's relationship with the breakaway region of Abkhazia. And the mostly ethnic-Georgian population of Abkhazia's Gali district is once again feeling the squeeze.
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Tubercular patients at a penal colony in the Ukrainian village of Zhdanovka, in the Donetsk region, line up to enter the canteen.

Study Claims Vitamin C Kills 'Hard-To-Kill' Tuberculosis

Scientists in the United States say they have discovered that a common substance might be able to wipe out even the hardest-to-kill tuberculosis bacteria: vitamin C.
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TeliaSonera CEO Lars Nyberg (shown in January) stepped down February 1 as the company, whose two largest stakeholders are the Swedish and Finnish governments, came under increasing scrutiny for its activities in Uzbekistan.

Video New Documents Suggest Fresh Evidence Of TeliaSonera Ties To Karimova

Documents leaked to Swedish investigative journalists and reviewed by RFE/RL appear to offer fresh evidence of a link between Swedish telecom giant TeliaSonera and Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the president of Uzbekistan.
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