Valentinas Mite

Also by Valentinas Mite

• December 22, 2005

  Do Western Election Observers Make A Difference?

  Monitoring missions in recent years have drawn attention to flawed elections and the corrupt regimes that conduct them. That's what happened in Georgia in 2003 and in Ukraine in 2004. But in 2005, Western election observers' criticism of polls in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan seemed to fall on deaf ears.

• December 21, 2005

  Kyiv Brings Black Sea Fleet Into Gas Dispute

  In the midst of ongoing gas talks, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has suggested that the Kremlin should pay more to base its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.

• December 20, 2005

  Authorities, Crimean Villagers Worry That Bird Flu Is Spreading

  Ukraine's authorities responded swiftly to an outbreak of bird flu on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in early December, but now fear their containment efforts may not be working.

• December 14, 2005

  Iraq: Voting Begins In Key Parliamentary Elections

  Iraqi expatriates have already started voting in parliamentary polls that many see as a watershed event. Altogether, an estimated 4 million voters will take part in elections tomorrow to select 275 members to a new National Assembly. That body, in turn, will elect a prime minister and president. More than 200 political parties and some 7,000 candidates are in the running. Observers hope that turnout will be high and violence does not disrupt the vote -- the third time this year Iraqis have been called to cast ballots.

• December 09, 2005

  Russia/Germany: Work Begins On Baltic Gas Pipeline

  Unexploded mines on the seabed are a concern for environmentalists (epa) Russian and German officials today observed the start of construction on the Baltic Sea natural gas pipeline. The new pipeline will provide Germany with a direct supply of Russian gas, bypassing existing transit routes and causing concern to Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. It will extend 1,200 kilometers under the Baltic Sea to Greifswald in northeast Germany. The project is particularly important for Germany as the country relies on Russia for a third of its oil and gas imports.

• December 06, 2005

  Emergency Declared In Crimea Following Bird-Flu Outbreak

  Ukraine's parliament has approved President Viktor Yushchenko's proposal to declare a state of emergency in three regions of the Crimean Peninsula following an outbreak of bird flu.

• December 02, 2005

  Moscow Elections A Test For Liberals

  Russia's two leading opposition parties -- Yabloko and the Union of Rightist Forces (SPS) -- have announced they are considering unification ahead of national parliamentary elections in 2006. Already, the parties are running a joint list of candidates in the Moscow City Duma elections on 4 December.

• November 25, 2005

  Iran: U.S., EU Say Tehran Proceeding With Uranium Plans

  The uranium-conversion facility in Isfahan, Iran (file photo) (AFP) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has delayed taking any action on Iran's nuclear program. The move on 24 November to delay sending Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council is aimed at reopening negotiations on a Russian proposal for a compromise that would allow Iran to enrich uranium, but only in Russia and under strict controls. However, the EU and the United States are concerned about Iran having documents that show how to produce parts of nuclear warheads.

• November 25, 2005

  Violence Against Women Emerges As Major Social Issue

  Domestic violence claims the life of one woman every four days in France. The situation is worse in many Asian and African countries.

• November 19, 2005

  Ex-Detainees Meet In London

  Former Guantanamo detainees are meeting for a three-day conference on the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror.

• November 19, 2005

  Iraqi Leaders Meet To Launch Reconciliation Effort

  19 November 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The leaders of Iraq's fractious political scene have begun three days of talks in Cairo on reconciliation and the stabilization of their war-torn country.

• November 16, 2005

  Iraq: Probe Under Way Into Treatment Of 170 Mostly Sunni Detainees

  Iraqi Premier Ibrahim al-Ja'afari (file photo) (AFP) Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'afari has ordered an investigation into the treatment of more than 170 mostly Sunni detainees who appear to have been tortured. The men were discovered in a raid by U.S. forces on an Iraqi Interior Ministry building in Baghdad on 14 November. Al-Ja'afari said the prisoners were malnourished and that there were signs that some of them had been tortured. An investigating committee is to report on its findings within two weeks.

• November 09, 2005

  Iraq: Assassination Of Another Lawyer In Hussein Case Throws Trial Into Question

  Saddam Hussein's trial could be delayed or moved to another country (epa) Gunmen have ambushed two of the defense lawyers taking part in the trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and top members of his regime. The attack yesterday killed one lawyer and seriously injured the other, and follows the killing of another defense lawyer, Sad'un Antar al-Janabi, last month. The incidents might seriously threaten the trial of the former dictator.

• November 08, 2005

  World: Energy Watchdog Says Policies Not Sustainable

  An oil-field worker in Iraq (AFP) The International Energy Agency is warning the world to change its energy consumption habits or face disaster. In its World Energy Outlook report issued on Monday, the Paris-based energy watchdog says energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions will soar by more than 50 percent over the next quarter century if consumers keep burning oil at current rates. Such an outcome would deal a blow to international efforts to curb gas emissions blamed for global warming.

• November 04, 2005

  Eastern Europe: EU, Rights Groups To Investigate Reports Of Secret CIA Prisons

  Prisoners released by the U.S. in Afghanistan (epa) Tensions are rising over the allegations that the U.S. Central Inteligence Agency (CIA) has set up secret jails in Eastern Europe to interrogate Al-Qaeda suspects. Reports have triggered a flurry of denials from governments in the region and prompted European Union officials to investigate. The human-rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says its research and circumstantial evidence suggest Poland and Romania allowed their territory to be used by the CIA.

• November 03, 2005

  Chechen Rebel Leader Threatens Wider Conflict

  In a statement marking the end of Ramadan, Abdul-Khalim Sadullaev said that Russia's policy of "terror" is impelling all the peoples of the North Caucasus to rise up against it.

• October 13, 2005

  Iraq: Saddam Hussein's Trial Could Draw Line Under An Era

  Saddam Hussein (screen capture) at his mid-2004 arraignment... Saddam Hussein's trial is due to start on 19 October, four days after Iraqis vote in a referendum on a draft constitution. The first charges concern a massacre in the village of Dujail, where Saddam's forces killed 143 people in 1982. Alongside Saddam will sit seven other men, including Saddam's half-brother and ex-secret service chief, Barzan al-Tikriti and his former vice- president, Tahir Yassin Ramadan.

• October 10, 2005

  Iraq: Will Voters Be Able To Cast Informed Votes In Constitutional Referendum?

  Iraqis reading copies of the draft constitution along with monthly food rations in Baghdad on 10 October A national referendum on Iraq's draft constitution will be held on Saturday. A four-day national holiday has been declared starting on 13 October, and the country's borders will be closed and a nighttime curfew imposed for a few days surrounding the vote. Some 70,000 Iraqi police and soldiers are being enlisted to ensure that voting is peaceful. However, the political wrangling that led to the draft was long, and the final version of the constitution was published only recently. Can Iraqis cast an informed vote?

• October 06, 2005

  Ukraine: New Premier Seeks To Pursue Closer Ties With EU

  Ukrainian Prime Minister Yekhanurov Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov is in Brussels today to discuss his government's plans for political and economic reform. EU officials say that they will look for reassurances over the direction in which Ukraine was heading.

• October 03, 2005

  Belarus: Opposition Candidate Hopes To Have Broad Public Support

  Milinkevich at the congress on 2 October Prague, 3 October 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Allied Belarusian opposition activists yesterday (2 October) named opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich as their single candidate to challenge President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in next year's presidential election. Milinkevich talked to RFE/RL in a wide-ranging interview.

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