Don Hill

Europe: Obituary -- U.S. Balloon Evangelist Fought Communism With Bibles

Billy James Hargis, a U.S. evangelist who attracted international attention for sending thousands of Bible tracts from West Germany into Russia, Czechoslovakia, and other communist nations during the early Cold War, has died at the age of 79. Hargis leaped over German objections and numerous organizational hurdles to get his balloon ministry off the ground. He built a nationwide evangelical ministry and kept it going for half a century through personal scandal, organizational problems and -- in recent years -- disabling Alzheimer's disease.

World: Prominent Western Muslim Rejects 'Clash Of Civilizations' Idea

At an interfaith conference in Prague sponsored by former Czech president Vaclav Havel, a prominent Muslim intellectual rejected the notion that the world is on the verge of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. Tariq Ramadan describes himself as a "Western Muslim." He says the "clash of civilizations" idea fails to consider the large and growing Muslim presence in the West. Ramadan and other participants at the conference also challenged the idea that religion and government should be totally separate.

World: Watchdog Says Press Freedoms Eroding

The World Association of Newspapers -- known as the WAN -- says that 10 more journalists have died while working this year worldwide than in all of 2003. It said that press freedoms are under assault at what it calls "an alarming rate," especially in Iraq, China, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. WAN told RFE/RL that deaths of journalists in Iraq make news reporting perilous there, but that reporting is even more dangerous elsewhere.

Europe: Scholar Says Europe’s Security Policy Becoming 'Easternized'

Prague, 12 November 2004 (RFE/RL) -- There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the "Westernization" of Eastern Europe. The words sometimes seem to conjure up the image of the EU and NATO with new-member states such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic tacked on like a tail. Now comes think-tank scholar and author Tomas Valasek with a new book -- "The Easternization of Europe's Security Policy." Valasek writes that these newcomers bring their own perspectives and policies to the European table. There will be instances, he says, of the Eastern tail wagging the Western dog. RFE/RL interviews Valasek, director of the Brussels office of the independent Center for Defense Information.

Europe: New Play By Dario Fo Puts Putin's Brain In Berlusconi's Body

Berlusconi's got his brain How is this for a literary conceit? Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's rotund, irrepressible prime minister, is entertaining Vladimir Putin, Russia's trim, self-disciplined president, in Sardinia at the prime minister's summer residence. Chechen terrorists invade the meeting. They shoot Putin dead and mortally wound the prime minister. Two hours later, surgeons announce that Berlusconi's life can be saved only by transplanting Putin's brain into the Italian's body. The families agree, and the transplant succeeds.

Belarus: Critics Target Minsk In Weeks Since Referendum

A storm of criticism has rained on Belarus in the several weeks since the Alyaksandr Lukashenka government won a referendum -- widely denounced as fraudulent -- that will permit Lukashenka to seek another presidential term. The religious news agency Forum 18 reports continued suppression of religious minorities. And international press organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and the International Press Institute are expressing alarm at further suppression of an already controlled press. RFE/RL reports that a variety of government actions are limiting free expression in Belarus.

Europe: Dutch Filmmaker Who Criticized Islam Is Slain In Amsterdam

Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh received death threats after a recent movie criticized the way women are treated under Islam. Yesterday, the threats became reality. Van Gogh was stabbed and shot to death in Amsterdam. Police have arrested a man with dual Moroccan and Dutch citizenship and a record of violent crime. RFE/RL reports that 20,000 people poured onto Amsterdam's central square later in the day to protest the killing and demonstrate in support of freedom of expression.

World: Sampling Of Reaction To U.S. Vote Shows Cautious Optimism

In opinion polls before the 2 November vote in the United States, citizens of countries from Canada to South Korea -- with the notable exceptions of Russia and Israel -- declared an overwhelming preference for Democratic Senator John Kerry to win the U.S. presidential election over Republican incumbent George W. Bush. But as the time neared for declaring an actual winner, international figures and people on the streets displayed a cautious optimism. RFE/RL collects a sampling of various opinions from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and around the world.

Armenia: Jehovah's Witnesses Trapped In Bureaucratic Maze

At a gathering of the Council of Europe in June, the deputy speaker of Armenia's parliament said Yerevan would free Jehovah's Witnesses who had been jailed as conscientious objectors -- as soon as parliament passed a new alternative-service law. The law was passed in July, but at least 13 conscientious objectors remain in jail in Armenia, including five jailed just this month. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has questioned the country's actions, as have other civil rights organizations.

Indonesia: Versatile 'S-B-Y' Inaugurated As Country's First Directly Elected President

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- known to his countrymen simply as S-B-Y -- took office yesterday as Indonesia's first directly elected president. He is a man of contrasts. A general and his country's one-time security chief, Yudhoyono is respected for his intellectual bent and cautious decision-making style. He made a name for himself with his antiterrorism efforts and then established himself as a popular leader in a country whose 220 million people make it the world's largest Islamic-majority state. RFE/RL reports that Yudhoyono has singled out the economy, corruption, and terrorism as his first priorities.

Belarus: Election Officials Say Voters Back Lukashenka

Counting the votes Prague, 18 October 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The election commission in Belarus says voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum allowing President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to run for a third term and stacked parliament with pro-government candidates.

Bosnia: Muslim Commander Charged In Pre-Srebrenica Atrocities

When Bosnian Serb militias massacred more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995, they imprinted the name of the town of their crime -- Srebrenica -- on the world's consciousness. The tragedy came to be known, in the words of U.S. writer George Will, as "Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War." Less known, however, was an earlier campaign by Bosnian Muslims against their Serb neighbors. This week, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia starts the war crimes trial of Naser Oric. The former Bosnian Muslim commander is charged with leading a three-year fury of murder and plunder prior to the Srebrenica massacre.

World: 'Letter of 100' Warns Western Leaders That Putin Is Suppressing Russian Democracy

More than 100 world figures have sent an open letter to Western heads of state and government, warning that their current policies toward Russia are failing. The letter calls on Western governments and institutions to side openly with democratic forces in Russia and to oppose what they say is President Vladimir Putin's undercutting of fragile democratic institutions there. The letter also condemns what it calls Putin's "increasingly threatening" conduct of foreign policy. In response, Russian political analyst Sergei Markov said the signatories fail to understand the practical problems Putin is facing in governing Russia. RFE/RL spoke with Markov and one of the letter's signatories, former Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis.

Syria: Killing Of Hamas Official May Have Broad Implications, But Few Repercussions

Russia: Historic Kazan Icon Stands At Center Of Religious Issues

Pope John Paul II with the Kazan icon A little Christian icon stands this week at the center of a long-running debate between the Catholic pope in Rome and the Russian Orthodox patriarch in Moscow. It is an 18th-century copy of a legendary 16th-century icon known as Mother of God of Kazan (Lady of Kazan), a depiction of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus Christ. Pope John Paul II has sought for years to deliver the icon personally to Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksii II, as part of a long-sought visit to Russia. But the Patriarchate has repeatedly refused to sanction the visit. RFE/RL reports that the 30-centimeter-high icon, which is due to return to Russia tomorrow, is a small symbol of a large controversy between these two branches of Christianity.

Olympics 2004: Athens Readies For Spectacular Opening Ceremony

Athens is checking final details for the opening ceremony tomorrow of its first Olympic Games in more than a century. The Greek capital hopes to impress the world with its efficiency and splendor -- and attention to security. The Greeks have invested more than 6 billion euros in preparations, with the intent of amazing the critics who said they could not be ready on time. Although the earliest contests -- in soccer -- have already been played, tomorrow's ceremony will be the official welcome to 10,500 athletes from 202 countries. RFE/RL reports that security has dominated world attention in the days preceding Athens 2004 -- the first Summer Games staged since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.

World: U.S., Pakistani Authorities Hail Antiterrorism 'Breakthroughs'

Does the crackdown signal increased efforts by President Musharraf? (file photo) Pakistani and U.S. authorities say they have opened a new front in the war on terrorism. In the latest development, authorities in the United Arab Emirates arrested Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a leader of the outlawed Pakistan militant group Harakat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami, and delivered him to Islamabad on 8 August. U.S. officials say they believe Al-Qaeda's plans to attack the United States have been undermined by the recent arrests.

World: U.S. Diplomat Leads Charge Against Human Trafficking

The U.S. diplomat in charge of leading an American worldwide campaign against what is called "trafficking in people" says that no nation in the world -- including the United States itself -- is doing enough to combat the practice. Ambassador John Miller, senior State Department adviser on people trafficking, says the world must take a more serious stance on a crime that is enslaving more than 800,000 people a year -- mostly women and children. Miller is visiting the Czech Republic this week in connection with a move there to legalize prostitution.

World: Maritime Piracy Grows As Threat To World Commerce

The Jolly Roger -- the skull-and-crossbones flag of the pirates of old -- no longer flies from the masts of ships marauding the Barbary Coast. Bearded men wearing eye patches and peg legs and brandishing swords and flintlock pistols no longer lead shrieking boarders over the sides of helpless merchant ships. But if you thought that maritime piracy was a thing of the past, you were wrong. Pirates still menace the world's shipping, and the problem is getting worse.

World: Physicist Hawking Concedes Error In Famous Black Hole Theory

The world's theoretical physicists long have accepted that the amount of matter and energy in the universe remains constant. They also have been confounded by the discoveries of famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking that suggest that matter and energy can disappear forever into black holes of super gravity created when stars burn out. Now Hawking says he may have solved the paradox by proving that he has been wrong all these years.