Serbia's Muslim community is claiming its own cartoon controversy. And it's threatening to divide the country's Bosniaks and disrupt a historic experiment in political representation for national minorities.
While the government says blaming one side or another for the ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan will only prompt further strife, critics say that's because it's tacitly backing a wave of nationalism.
Kyrgyzstan's interim government has blamed supporters of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiev for the recent unrest in the country's south. But a closer examination of the violence, and the events leading up to it, paint a more complicated picture.
Only a few Western rock bands were able to penetrate the Soviet bloc in the 1970s, but those who did went on to enjoy cultlike status that endures until today. One such group was Britain's Uriah Heep, whose songs like "July Morning" and "Free Me" have won generations of fans in Russia and Eastern Europe. RFE/RL looks at the continued appeal of Uriah Heap -- and a long-standing Bulgarian tradition of greeting July 1 by gathering at the seaside by singing "July Morning."
Fears over freedom of speech in Turkey are growing amid increasing Internet censorship. More than 5,000 websites have been blocked under a law introduced by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) three years ago, according to a report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Now controversy over a longstanding ban on YouTube has resurfaced after restrictions were extended to other sites owned by its parent company, Google.
Kyrgyzstan has a new constitution, which creates the strongest parliamentary system in Central Asia. What are its strengths and weaknesses and what pitfalls may lie ahead?
The recent instability and violent interethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan have presented a stark test for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and for Kyrgyz neighbor Kazakhstan, which currently holds the OSCE's rotating chairmanship. Analysts fear that Kazakhstan is failing the test, putting its own national interests above its duties as head of the Eurasian region's premier security body.
The last 10 years have been a "decade of decline" for democratic governance and institutions throughout most of the former Soviet Union, according to the latest edition of "Nations in Transit," an annual report compiled by U.S.-based watchdog Freedom House.
The German port city of Hamburg is no stranger to pirates. The city harbors innumerable legends about the bandits of the sea, many stretching as far back as the 14th century. Now, for the first time in 400 years, the city is preparing to hold a court trial involving real pirates -- 10 men from Somalia charged with hijacking a German ship.
On July 1, Belgium will take over the European Union's rotating presidency. The country is in the throes of a political crisis which could see its two predominant language communities split it in two, but caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme has tried to reassure his EU colleagues, saying much of the day-to-day running of the bloc will be left to the EU's central institutions.
In February, Sayid Fekhretdinov jumped to his death from a fourth-floor window in his Moscow flat. He was just 10 years old. Why did he do it? And why are hundreds of other Russian children doing the same?
Iran's largest private university has become a battleground in a power struggle between factions of the Islamic establishment.
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