Breffni O'Rourke

Also by Breffni O'Rourke

• October 14, 2009

  Frankfurt Book Fair Opens Amid Controversy Over Guest Of Honor

  The world's biggest book fair is under way in Germany, with this year's event highlighting Chinese publishers, authors, and artists.There's a certain tension in the air, because the delegation from Beijing wants to present its own vision of Chinese literature, while some others have different ideas.

• August 25, 2009

  Galileo's Telescope Changed The World

  Four hundred years ago, the great astronomer and thinker Galileo Galilei presented his telescope to a world that had no idea how this piece of technology would change perceptions of man's place in the universe. For using this telescope caused Galileo to advance the theory that the Earth was not the center point of creation.

• August 24, 2009

  Poland Remembers First Postcommunist Government

  Poland today marks the 20th anniversary of its first postcommunist government. Headed by Tadeusz Mazowiecki, it was formed after the Solidarity union won a massive victory in elections. It's an oft-forgotten moment, but Poles know its true significance in hastening the fall of the Berlin Wall.

• August 19, 2009

  The Day The Iron Curtain Began To Rip

  It's just an ordinary-looking farm paddock near the Hungarian city of Sopron. But it's the spot where the Iron Curtain, which had divided Europe so cruelly for more than four decades, began to rip. Commemorations are taking place today to mark the 20th anniversary of the "Pan-European Picnic."

• July 29, 2009

  Russia Draws Closer To Latin American Leftists

  Russia and Nicaragua have signed an agreement on visa-free travel between the two countries, in Moscow’s latest move to increase its ties in Latin America.

• July 28, 2009

  U.S. Drive For Middle East Peace Gathers Pace

  The United States has committed four top officials to the effort to secure a comprehensive peace deal in the Middle East. This is the first time that such a concentration of U.S. diplomatic "firepower" has been applied simultaneously to the region's intractable problems.

• July 27, 2009

  Russian Patriarch Visits Kyiv, But Motives Questioned

  Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has begun a 10-day visit to Ukraine. But some in Ukraine suspect the visit is not so much pastoral as aimed at boosting Russian political influence in their country.

• July 21, 2009

  Tatar Writer, Angering President, Lands In Court

  Tatar writer and journalist Irek Murtazin has gone on trial in Kazan on charges brought by Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev, which include disseminating false information about the head of state. A former spokesman for Shaimiev, Murtazin has several times fallen afoul of the authorities for his writings. Before the proceedings got under way, he told RFE/RL that he doubted he could receive an unbiased trial.

• July 16, 2009

  Swine Flu, A Quiet Enemy, Bides Its Time

  The H1N1 strain of influenza, popularly known as swine flu, is continuing to spread around the globe in an unspectacular but persistent way. Experts estimate that more than 1 million people have been infected, although fewer than 500 are confirmed to have died. One of the most troubling aspects of the situation is that no specific vaccine against it has yet been developed, and even when it is, distributing it around the world will be a massive and slow undertaking.

• July 14, 2009

  British Government On Defensive Over War Effort

  As British casualties in the Afghan conflict rise steeply, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is being subjected to scathing criticism from the opposition for its alleged lack of strategy and its failure to properly equip the British troops. It's not clear whether British public opinion will sustain these casualty levels for long.

• July 08, 2009

  A Uyghurs Primer

  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.

• June 27, 2009

  Israeli President's Azerbaijan Trip Breaks New Ground

  As part of a strategy by Israel to improve relations with moderate, secular countries of the Islamic world, President Shimon Peres is visiting Azerbaijan on June 28.

• June 25, 2009

  Iraq Bombing Meant To Rattle Authorities As U.S. Pulls Out

  A major bomb blast in Baghdad has killed at least 69 people and injured more than a hundred others. The bombing is the most serious in a series of explosions to hit Iraq in the run-up to the withdrawal next week of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities. The attacks on Shi'ite targets appear aimed at provoking new sectarian strife with the minority Sunni community.

• May 05, 2009

  NATO A Magnet For Spies Over Decades

  NATO's decision to expel two Russian diplomats on spying charges is only the latest espionage incident in a long line of such cases. The Western alliance was a natural target of Soviet espionage efforts during the Cold War, and Russia has evidently inherited that interest. And of course, the West has had its own agents working for the benefit of the alliance.

• April 16, 2009

  U.S. Envoy In Israel For First Talks With New Government

  The U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is in Israel for his first meetings with the new government since it took office last month. Mitchell is due to meet rightist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has not endorsed the goal of creating a Palestinian state.

• April 09, 2009

  Rocket Launch, Reelection Boost Kim Jong-Il's Standing

  The North Korean parliament has reelected supreme leader Kim Jong Il as chairman of the National Defense Commission, thereby confirming his control on the levers of power in the reclusive communist state.

• March 05, 2009

  Sudan Ousts Aid Agencies Following ICC Warrant

  Sudan's president has ordered 10 leading foreign aid agencies to leave the country after the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes in Darfur. The withdrawal of the operating licenses for the aid agencies will have a major impact on tens of thousands of impoverished Sudanese, and appears to be one of the unintended consequences of the ICC's action.

• February 05, 2009

  Prime Minister's Bloc Wins In Baghdad, Southern Iraq

  According to preliminary official results in Iraq's provincial elections, the State of Law alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has won in the country's two biggest cities, Baghdad and Al-Basrah. The secular, national-unity-oriented bloc appears to have taken support away from Shi'ite religious-oriented and pro-Iranian parties.

• January 21, 2009

  Obama Orders Halt To Guantanamo Trials

  Hours after taking office on January 20, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to ask for a 120-day halt in all pending cases.

• December 16, 2008

  Armenians, Turks Bring Genocide Issue Into Open

  Intellectuals in both Turkey and Armenia have taken steps to bring a new openness to the debate about the mass deaths of ethnic Armenians in Turkey during World War I. Yerevan says the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks is genocide, a definition that Turkey totally rejects. Now, several hundred Turkish intellectuals are personally apologizing to the Armenian nation, while Armenians are appealing to Ankara to rethink its refusal to use that one key word.

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