Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
Prague, 20 March 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Antigovernment protesters in the southern Kyrgyzstan town of Jalal-Abad have retaken the provincial administration building and set fire to a police station after overnight raids by security forces. At least 10,000 demonstrators gathered in the streets of Jalal-Abad today after police evicted protesters from the administration building earlier in the day.
Paul Wolfowitz (file photo) France, Britain, and other European countries are reacting coolly to a decision by U.S. President George W. Bush to nominate his deputy defense secretary as head of the World Bank. Paul Wolfowitz was a key architect of the Iraq war and his hard-line foreign policies have made him a target of international criticism. His nomination could set off a dispute on the World Bank board at a time when Bush says he is trying to improve trans-Atlantic relations. Despite the potential objections, however, experts say Wolfowitz is likely to be approved.
The Black Hawk baby with mother, Melawa An Afghan woman from a village near the border with Pakistan has given birth to a healthy girl aboard a U.S. Army helicopter. She is the wife of a Pashtun village elder who asked U.S. medics for help after he learned that both mother and child might die without a doctor. The couple lives in an area where coalition forces still battle Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters -- just across the border from Pakistan's tribal region of South Waziristan.
Opium crops in Afghanistan (file photo) A Paris-based think tank is studying whether Afghan farmers should be licensed to grow opium poppies for legal medicines like morphine and codeine. The Senlis Council says such a policy could shift income from Afghanistan's illegal opium production away from drug lords. The group says the idea could also boost development in rural parts of Afghanistan.
Most of the heroin linked to Afghanistan's soaring poppy cultivation is smuggled abroad, ending up as far away as Europe and the United States. But in Badakhshan, near Afghanistan's northeastern border with Tajikistan, aid workers say the number of Afghan addicts is increasing at an alarming rate. Provincial officials elsewhere also are sounding warnings about rising heroin addiction.
For the past 25 years, violence by militants and factional militias in Afghanistan has typically increased once the spring thaw makes it easier for fighters to move about and stay in the field for long periods. A surge in Taliban attacks is expected again this spring as the country emerges from a particularly harsh winter. But a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says he expects the Taliban's so-called spring offensive to be much weaker than in the past three years.
The presidents of Syria and Lebanon have agreed to a redeployment of Syrian troops into Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. But their plan delays for up to one month a decision about how long or how many Syrian troops will remain in that eastern part of Lebanon, near the Syrian border. Today's decision in Damascus calls for the first stage of a Syrian troop redeployment toward Lebanon's eastern border to take place by the end of March. The announcement makes no mention of specific troop numbers or the withdrawal of Syrian security agents, and it offers no timeline for Syrian troops to actually leave Lebanese territory. Those points are at the heart of international demands for Syria to remove all of its forces from Lebanon quickly. U.S. officials argue that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's promises are full of vague "generalities and half measures" that will not bring Damascus into compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559.
Syria is coming under growing international pressure over its military presence in Lebanon. Since Lebanon's pro-Syrian government resigned on 28 Febraury, both Paris and Washington have reiterated their calls for Damascus to withdraw its 14,000 troops. In a recent interview with the U.S. news weekly “Time,” the Syrian president has promised he can do so "within months, not more." But experts see that remark as a negotiating tactic. They say a withdrawal is unlikely without further pressure -- and possibly a different negotiating approach.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (file photo) Afghan President Hamid Karzai is on the second day of a three-day state visit to India aimed at improving trade links between the two countries. Karzai said in New Delhi on Wednesday that he has asked Pakistan to open a trade corridor for Indian exports to Afghanistan. At the same time, India and Pakistan announced an agreement to cut bureaucratic barriers that hamper trade. Indian officials and independent analysts say New Delhi sees Afghanistan not only as a partner for bilateral trade but also as a transit route for greater ties to markets in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
U.S. Senator John McCain told reporters in Kabul on 22 February that America's strategic partnership with Afghanistan should include "permanent bases" for U.S. military forces. The Afghan government says it wants a long-term military, economic and political partnership with the United States. But a spokesman for the Afghan president says establishing permanent U.S. bases requires approval from the yet-to-be created Afghan parliament. McCain did not elaborate about what form 'permanent bases' might take.
The report says nearly two-thirds of children not in school (file photo) Afghanistan could fall back into chaos if complaints from Afghans about poverty are not addressed. That is one of the key findings in a report released yesterday by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Afghan government. In fact, the Afghan "National Human Development Report" was written by a team of researchers independent of the UN and the Afghan government. It is the first such assessment of Afghanistan's economy and society after more than two decades of war.
Ariel Sharon (file photo) Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet approved his Gaza disengagement plan yesterday by a vote of 17 to five. The plan calls for the removal of all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of the 120 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Analysts describe it as a bold step that confirms Sharon's political will for disengagement. But another cabinet vote yesterday added to Palestinian concerns that Israel may be trying to impose de facto borders around large swathes of occupied Palestinian territory before final status talks on a future Palestinian state. In that vote, Sharon's cabinet endorsed a new route for a controversial security barrier that loops around some remaining Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Young Afghans are enthusiastically tuning in to pop music. Three years after the collapse of the Taliban regime -- which had banned any music it deemed as "un-Islamic" -- the popularity of pop music programs aired by Afghanistan's new private broadcasters is on the rise. Kabul's private Tolo TV has been broadcasting a nightly one-hour music video program for the past five months called "Hop." The format is similar to that of the international music television channel MTV -- with an Afghan twist. But conservative Islamists complain that programs like "Hop" are corrupting Afghan youth.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran says officials in New Delhi are looking forward to next week’s visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that aims to improve diplomatic and economic ties. Saran said after meeting Karzai in Kabul yesterday that New Delhi sees Afghanistan not only as a partner for bilateral trade, but also as an important economic link with all of Central Asia.
NATO defense ministers are arriving today in Nice, France, for a two-day meeting focusing on the possible expansion of the alliance into western and southern Afghanistan. The ministers also will discuss NATO's role in Iraq and the Balkans. The talks will prepare the way for political decisions to be made at a 22 February NATO summit in Brussels, scheduled to be attended by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas both proclaimed a formal end to violence during a summit at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik today. The cease-fire aims to bring an end to the Palestinian intifada and Israeli military activity that has left more than 4,000 people dead since September 2000. Palestinian officials say they also hope the summit will pave the way for new peace negotiations. Today's summit is part of a growing rapprochement since Abbas was elected in January to head the Palestinian Authority. But despite the proclamation of hope, officials, and analyts say there are potential pitfalls ahead.
Iran's top nuclear official, Hassan Rohani (file photo) Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani has warned of "retaliation" and an acceleration of Tehran's efforts to master nuclear technology if the United States or Israel attacks its nuclear facilities.
Self-immolation by women in the western Afghan province of Herat continues to alarm officials and aid workers more than a year after a delegation from Kabul investigated the trend. The delegation determined that within just a few months, at least 52 women in the province had burned themselves to death -- often to escape an abusive marriage. Afghan doctors and officials say at least 184 woman brought to Herat's regional hospital are thought to have set themselves on fire during the past year -- and more than 60 have died as a result. The real number of self-immolation suicides and attempted suicides is likely to be even higher because only those brought to a hospital are being registered.
Prague, 3 February 2005 (RFE/RL) -- There are few Western universities where students can learn about the musical traditions of Central Asia. But at the University of London, within the Department of Music in the School of Oriental and African Studies, a new course has begun for ethnomusicology students focusing on the social meaning of music in Central Asia.
U.S. soldiers in Iraq (file photo) Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawar says the departure of U.S.-led multinational forces from Iraq is not likely by the end of this year. But he says a reduction of foreign troop numbers could start by then. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also says that, despite the turnout of millions of voters in 30 January elections, it is still too early to speak about an exit strategy for the more than 170,000 foreign troops in Iraq. Analysts tend to agree.
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