Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
The International Olympic Committee has never given cash prizes to medalists. But many countries are now promising lucrative bonus awards to their athletes who win Olympic medals at London 2012.
Faced with denials from defense authorities in Minsk and skepticism from state-controlled media in Belarus, a Swedish public relations firm is releasing evidence it says proves that it dropped 1,000 teddy bears into Belarus as a show of solidarity with pro-democracy activists in Belarus.
The Rolling Stones are marking their 50th anniversary as a live act. RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz takes a closer look at the band's cultural significance during the last half century.
The execution of a married Afghan woman for adultery has caused a storm of criticism within Afghanistan, where even the Taliban is saying the extrajudicial punishment was un-Islamic.
Rights group Amnesty International has warned that the threat to security for many residents of Russia's North Caucasus region comes as much from law-enforcement agencies as it does from armed groups.
More than its weapons sales to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia's greatest strategic and geopolitical interest in Syria is the use of a deep-water port at Tartus.
The 2012 Summer Olympics in London take place during Islam's holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are required to fast and refrain from drinking water from sunrise to sunset. How will Muslim athletes cope?
Tajikistan's fortune-tellers are being asked to cross someone else's palm with silver -- the tax collector.
Anticorruption group Transparency International says close relationships between businesses and governments are enabling corruption and undermining economic stability in Europe.
Two days of voting began on May 23 in the first round of Egypt's presidential election -- a ballot that comes 15 months after longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak was ousted by Egypt's Arab Spring uprising. If none of the 12 candidates secures more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two will face off against each other in a June 16-17 runoff.
In the run-up to next week's Eurovision Song Contest, seven hotels in the host city, Baku, have been quizzed by a rights group about claims that hidden cameras have been placed in guest rooms to record people having sex so as to blackmail them.
French voters go to the polls on April 22 for the first round of a presidential election expected to determine the future of a French-German alliance that recently has guided European policy.
An investigation is yet to be completed into the suspected poisoning of 140 schoolgirls and their teachers in Afghanistan. But authorities strongly suspect the incident was the result of a Taliban attack.
Macedonian leaders are trying to curb the threat of renewed ethnic violence in their country amid speculation over recent killings that has fueled tensions.
For the first time in more than 20 years and amid heavy security, Iraq is hosting an Arab League summit this week in Baghdad, where the Syrian crisis is expected to dominate proceedings.
A newly planned social network -- conceived during the early days of last year's Arab Spring uprisings -- seeks to link the world's Muslims on a platform where they won't be exposed to pornography, insults to Islam or a political agenda. But some Muslims have their doubts.
The first ex-communist countries to join the European Union are now working to help bring former Soviet republics closer to the EU.
A Baku-born aviation engineer is trying to make a niche for his private company in Germany by producing multirotar miniature drone aircraft that sell for about 5,000 euros each
Following a police raid on a madrasah in Karachi, children as young as 7 have told horrific tales of being shackled together in a dungeon-like basement where they were starved and regularly beaten by teachers.
Calls for a more coordinated system of international financial regulation have been growing as the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York inspire similar demonstrations around the world.
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