Neil Bowdler is a multimedia editor at RFE/RL.
LGBT activists say the return of the Taliban to power in 2021 in Afghanistan has resulted in discrimination, torture, and even murder. One gay man told RFE/RL that he had to quit school to protect his identity while another said he and his boyfriend were tortured by the Taliban.
There are still thousands of phone booths in Hungary, even though few people use them and many are in poor repair or have been vandalized. Around half are card-operated, but phone cards were discontinued in 2011. They can still be used to make emergency calls -- if they're not broken.
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 27-year-old Russian soldier Fyodor was shocked by the scale of the losses. He quit the military and moved to Argentina with his wife, Olena, and scrapes out a living there as a cleaner.
Over 30 years, Ana Furtuna from the Moldovan city of Drochia has been a foster parent to 28 children. When she and her husband first realized they would not be able to have their own children, they took in seven foster kids from an orphanage.
Davit Jeladze was on a family hike when a landslide swept through the Georgian resort town of Shovi on August 3. Jedladze and his 6-year-old niece Masho spent four hours battling through the mud to safety. At least 18 people were killed in the landslide.
The latest reported naval drone attack in the Black Sea is not the first time that Ukraine has allegedly deployed such weapons. A naval expert told Current Time how Ukraine appeared to be using domestically produced naval drones to strike Russian ships in the Black Sea.
An RFE/RL correspondent made a valiant attempt to speak to camera as he reported on a plague of mosquitoes in a Kazakh village. Locals in the village of Boran in eastern Kazakhstan's Kurshim district appeared wearing face protection and giving tips for coping with the swarms.
A team of Georgian archaeologists is racing to map and record a Georgian medieval castle and church complex near the town of Yusufeli in Turkey's Artvin Province. The complex and the town are disappearing underwater as part of a controversial dam project along the Coruh River.
A 40-year-old librarian in Moldova says she has faced discrimination due to her physical disability. Natalia Boghiu was told she could not become a teacher because she was born without one hand and forearm, but she has never given up on her dream.
Olmakhon Ghozieva makes traditional tandoor clay ovens in Uzbekistan's Fergana region. She learned the craft from her father-in-law, despite tandoor-making being seen traditionally as men's work locally.
A law has been implemented in Armenia that bans tinted glass in cars that is less than 70 percent transparent. Drivers will be fined $65 if their windows don't comply. The government says the measure will improve road safety but drivers in the capital, Yerevan, say it leaves them exposed to heat.
A 63-year-old Ukrainian soldier with the call sign "Granddad" is fighting to defend his ancestral Cossack homeland in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan has ordered all taxi drivers in the capital, Kabul, to change the color of their vehicles to turquoise, infuriating many cabbies. Officials say the new color code will reduce kidnappings and other crimes.
Civilians caught near the front line in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region continue to be evacuated. Serhiy Siryak and his wife, Tamara, from the town of Stepnohirsk, finally decided to leave when their house was destroyed by Russian shelling.
Recorded executions in 2022 reached the highest figure in five years, according to Amnesty International's annual global review of the death penalty. It says 883 people were executed across 20 countries in 2022, marking a rise of 53 percent on 2021.
Thousands of people marched through the streets of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, on May 8 demanding the government combat gun violence after the Balkan nation was shaken by two mass shootings. Seventeen people were killed and 21 wounded on May 3 and 4.
Recently freed in a prisoner swap, Ukrainian soldier Valeria Subotina told Current Time how she endured 327 days of Russian captivity as a prisoner of war. After her husband was killed in action two days after their wedding, she says she had nothing more to lose.
Roma living in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh say they continue to face discrimination and have no choice but to beg to make ends meet. Romany women in the city told RFE/RL they receive little financial or social support from the authorities, a claim local officials denied.
Serbia is proposing to extend the country's indoor smoking ban to bars and restaurants, which have so far been exempted. Unlike most countries in Europe, restaurants and bars in the Balkan nation are not required to be smoke-free. About a third of the adult population in Serbia are smokers.
Bulgarians go to the polls on April 2 to vote in the country's fifth parliamentary election in two years amid ongoing political instability. There are concerns over possible political fraud after it was decided voters would be able to use paper ballots as well as electronic voting machines.
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