As the Western military withdrawal date from Afghanistan nears, a Taliban push for imposing Shari'a law in the regions they control has rekindled a century-old debate about the role of Islamic law in the country. As RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique explains, the solution might lie in finding a broadly acceptable middle ground.
Dragan Stavljanin, a broadcaster with RFE/RL's Balkans Service, recently spoke about the latest developments regarding Kosovo with Stefan Wolff, a professor of international security at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and an expert in postconflict reconstruction.
Historically a cultural and architectural center, Ukraine's Chernivtsi was even dubbed Little Vienna and Jerusalem-upon-the-Prut, after a Danube tributary that runs through the city. This multicultural city is currently hosting an international poetry festival, "Meridian Czernowitz." RFE/RL speaks to one of the festival's organizers, Igor Pomerantsev.
Voters in Moldova are voting in a referendum on whether to establish direct presidential elections -- a vote aimed at helping break a political deadlock that has gripped the country since April 2009.
The capacity-building that thousands of U.S. civilians are charged with carrying out in Iraq presents a new and daunting set of security challenges, including protecting State Department employees working in a country that remains among the world's most dangerous.
Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has defended a number of political and human rights activists in Iran, is now facing her own day in court. After security forces searched her home and office and took away some of her personal belongings, she was charged with crimes against the state and ordered to face questioning this week.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ride across Siberia in a brand new Lada Kalina, designed to boost both Russia's flailing car industry and his own popularity ratings, appears to have run into an embarrassing glitch. Amateur videos showing three identical presidential Kalinas, one of them on a tow truck, are making the rounds on the Internet.
Ordered by Kabul to resign, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States says that while it's normal for him to step down after so long at the post, he's complained of a "smear campaign" against him in Afghanistan.
Analysts abroad warn that a "state-induced" boom on the Tehran stock exchange could end in a catastrophic crash, triggering a long depression that throws millions out of work.
As of September 1, the 50,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq officially begin a new mission: not fighting but "advising and assisting." But what exactly does that mean?
Director Aleksandr Valov has made a career out of mocking foreign leaders who have fallen out of favor with the Kremlin. Now he is turning his lens on Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenko.
As his neighbors work to salvage what possessions they can from their ruined homes, Gul Shirin sits in silence amid 13 freshly dug graves. The 80-year-old Swat Valley resident has lost nearly his entire family to the floods that continue to ravage Pakistan.
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