Decades of war and the Taliban's five-year ban on music took their toll on Afghan classical music. Musicians have been trying to resuscitate the art since the end of Taliban rule. But they face serious economic and artistic challenges -- including the threat of possible attack by Taliban fighters if they perform in provincial areas.
Twenty-five years ago next Wednesday -- 31 August 1980 -- unemployed Polish electrician Lech Walesa struck a major blow to Soviet communism when, after leading a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, he announced the official birth of the Solidarity independent trade union. Solidarity went on to play a central role in the demise of communism across the Soviet bloc, changing forever the course of history in Europe.
A policeman arrests a prostitute in Russia in 2001 UNESCO, the UN's cultural organization, has proclaimed 23 August as International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. But despite laws against slavery in all of the world's countries, modern-day slavery continues to thrive in illegal underground forms. In the second of a two-part series, RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz examines how the latest wave of sex-slave trafficking preys upon Eastern European women to fuel the global sex trade.
Rwanda's genocide erupted 10 years ago, with a savagery and thoroughness that shocked the international community. In just 100 days, an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsis were killed. The killing was particularly efficient in the remote western province of Kibuye, where 22-year-old Immaculee Ilibagiza lived with her Tutsi family. Now a UN employee in New York, Ilibagiza shares with RFE/RL a personal tale about the genocide.
