The Rundown - May 20

News & views on RFE/RL's broadcast region

Pakistan

# The Pakistani government has blocked Facebook
# "Baloch Nationalism Gone Wrong" - Malik Siraj Akbar, "The Express Tribune"
# More than 20 people are dead in violence in Karachi

Afghanistan
# Steve Coll interviews Abdullah Abdullah
# "Talk to the Taliban" - Brig. General (ret.) Shaukat Qadir, "The National"
# James Traub wonders if Ahmed Wali Karzai is an asset or a menace
# Jean MacKenzie on the Taliban's attack on Bagram
# Moscow wants the U.S. to fight a drug war in Afghanistan

Iran
# "Oil Trade with Iran Thrives, Discreetly" - Stecklow, Swartz & Coker, "The Wall Street Journal"
# "Dealing With Iran" - Ted Galen Carpenter, "National Interest"
# The "Christian Science Monitor" looks at Turkey's role in the Iran nuclear fuel deal

Russia
# "The Show Trial of Mikhail Khordokovsky" - Yuri Schmidt, "The Wall Street Journal"
# "The Courage of Russia's Journalists" - Editorial, "International Herald Tribune"
# Mikhail Khordokovsky ends his 2-day hunger strike (his statement here)
# "Forever Stuck in Stagnation" - Vladimir Ryzhkov, "Moscow Times"
# Sergei Lavrov says the OSCE is too easy on NGOs

Of Interest
# "Europe is Sleepwalking to Decline" - Timothy Garton Ash, "The Guardian"
# The "PBS Newshour" interviews BP's Robert Dudley
# Google goes on trial in Hamburg, Germany

U.S. Politics/Foreign Policy

# "Russia Shows U.S. How to Deal with Syria" - Jmaes Denselow, "The Guardian"