Visiting President Barack Obama dismisses media speculation of a rift between the U.S. and German governments. The media "fuss" stems from the White House's insistence that today's trip remain light on high-level events.
Initial responses to U.S. President Barack Obama's "new beginning" speech were generally but not universally positive. They ranged from a broad welcome by government officials and moderate Islamic leaders to outright rejection by Islamist groups.
Scenes from China horrified the world 20 years ago when the government's killing of Tiananmen Square protesters provided an object lesson in Chairman Mao's adage "all political power comes from the barrel of a gun." But since then, China has also amazed the world with its degree of economic progress and stability. Does that make China an authoritarian success story, or a country highly uncertain of its future? RFE/RL asked Roderick MacFarquhar, an eminent China scholar and professor of history at Harvard University.
Boasting huge hydrocarbon reserves, Central Asia has become accustomed to the stream of foreign companies and politicians who visit hoping to lock up energy deals. For the most part, European representatives have returned home empty-handed. But with Central Asian states seeking to break Russia's dominance of their energy-export routes, they are hitting the road to court the EU.
Hastily arranged high-level meetings between Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and EU officials are being seen in the EU capital as a sign of Ashgabat's growing frustration with Russia. This spring, Russia reneged on an agreement to buy large volumes of natural gas from Turkmenistan at what was then a "European" price, causing the regime in Ashgabat to approach other potential suitors.
In the two decades since Tiananmen Square, China has changed dramatically. The country has become an economic powerhouse with a rising middle class. But one way it has not changed is politically, as the ruling Communist Party retains a full monopoly on power. Will China always be this way, as the ruthless suppression of the Tiananmen protest might suggest? Or will the country's rapid economic development one day bring democracy in its wake?
Alvaro de Soto, a former Peruvian diplomat and former UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, speaks to RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique about some of the most critical issues in the region ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo.
As U.S. President Barack Obama delivered his much-awaited speech to the Muslim world, many were listening keenly to hear his thoughts on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Is that conflict so central to U.S.-Muslim relations and peace in the Muslim world?
Lawmakers in Moldova have failed for a second time to elect a president to succeed longtime leader Vladimir Voronin. As a result, the deadlocked legislature will be disbanded and new legislative elections scheduled for later this summer or in the autumn. So where does the political standoff between the ruling Communist Party and the opposition go from here?
Twenty years ago, on June 4, 1989, Chinese troops and tanks waited for nightfall and then attacked pro-democracy protesters who had occupied Beijing's central Tiananmen Square for more than six weeks. The crushing of China's democracy movement was so brutal, and so closely followed by television viewers in so many countries, that it remains one of the most vivid moments of recent history.
Central Asians are used to seeing pictures of their presidents everywhere -- from bus stops and trolleybus windshields to roadside billboards and office walls. Kazakhstan is currently erecting an extravagant monument to President Nursultan Nazarbaev, while Tajik officials routinely refer to their leader, Emomali Rahmon, as "His Excellency." Has the presidential personality cult become an integral part of political culture in Central Asia?
In choosing a venue for a speech to the Islamic world, U.S. President Barack Obama faced a dilemma. Picking a location within the Arab world risked a failure to appeal to the wider Muslim world; but selecting a site outside the Arab world could have been criticized as exceedingly "safe."
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