Neil Bowdler is a multimedia editor at RFE/RL.
People have raised nearly $27,000 to buy a new apartment for a disabled man in the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk after a Current Time report showed the squalid housing conditions in which he was living.
Drug addicts in Farah City in Afghanistan's Farah Province say they have been forced to work without pay for the local police. They claim they were made to work away from prying eyes on construction sites inside military compounds.
Dozens of international migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina have taken to bathing in natural thermal spring waters to keep clean. They say the water at the spring in the town of Ilidza, near Sarajevo, is warmer than in the nearby Blazuj camp where they have been living.
A new pine-nut processing factory has opened in the Afghan city of Gardez, the capital of the southeastern Afghan province of Paktia. Officials say $6 million was invested in building the facility, which they say could create up to 1,000 new jobs.
Iranian nurse Somayeh Hosseinzadeh had to work back-to-back shifts away from her family for the first few weeks of the coronavirus pandemic and says her department at Tehran's Shariati Hospital was like a "war scene," with elderly people and pregnant women dying around her.
Tair Borubaev has been working as a coal miner for eight years in the Suluktu coalfield in southern Kyrgyzstan. It's the oldest operational coalfield in Central Asia. He's a qualified teacher, but says a teacher's salary won't feed his family, so he instead heads underground to work.
Roman is a trained violinist who signed up to fight Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. He takes out his violin and plays for half an hour once or twice a week and says music distracts him from the war and the possibility of dying.
Snow and low temperatures have brought more misery for migrants living in a makeshift camp in a forest above the town of Velika Kladusa in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina. They set up the camp because they say they have been denied access to an official temporary shelter for migrants in the area.
Delbar and her family of eight fled war in Afghanistan's Faryab Province almost a year ago and their home district is currently under the control of Taliban militants. They now live in tents in the snow in the city of Sheberghan in neighboring Jawzjan Province and say they don't have enough food.
Sadyr Japrov is considered the front-runner in Kyrgyzstan's presidential election on January 10. A little more than three months ago, he was in prison. He said charges that he took part in an attempted hostage-taking scheme were politically motivated.
Tatar grandmothers in Western Siberia have set up a group to sew traditional garments, make a little money, and give added meaning to their lives. Members of the My Grandma project make socks and slippers, conduct master classes, and spend time together.
A TV and print journalist in the Pakistani city of Peshawar has been forced into work on construction sites after he lost his job. Shakirullah used to report on issues such as local militant groups, but says he was laid off after his company decided to downsize.
A group of industrial workers in the central Russian region of Chelyabinsk have tried to survive on the national monthly minimum wage for one month. They found themselves starving, unable to afford medicine or treatment, and underperforming at work.
Abdul Hakim Karimizada is one of just a few artists in the city of Herat who are trained in traditional Islamic calligraphy. He recently displayed his work in an exhibition dedicated to themes of peace, love, and unity.
Russians have been telling RFE/RL about their experiences with the new Sputnik-V COVID-19 vaccine after the country began a mass vaccination program. President Vladimir Putin said on December 2 that 2 million doses of the Russian-made vaccine would be made available within days.
The authorities in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, have ordered a clampdown on what they say are illegally constructed homes on state-owned land, demolishing over a dozen houses in a small settlement on the outskirts of the capital.
A woman who has become famous for wearing a white-and-red wedding dress during protests against longtime Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka has fled to Ukraine with her children, fearing persecution. Ina Zaitsava earlier spent three days in an isolation ward and was fined $250.
Under the European Green Deal initiative, the European Union is aiming to reduce its net greenhouse-gas emissions to zero by 2050. That target poses a big challenge for EU member state Bulgaria, where 60 percent of the country's power comes from plants that burn mostly coal.
Bibi is 55 years old and has only one name. She and her family fled her home in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province as fighting raged between government forces and Islamic State militants. She works in a brick factory and supports her wounded son, her daughter-in-law, and nine grandchildren.
The Taj Majal and Stonehenge are UNESCO World Heritage sites and the Ukrainian government hopes that the exclusion zone around the radioactive wreckage of the Chernobyl nuclear plant will be added to the list.
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