Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
The international community has been examining the role of NATO's Provincial Reconstruction Teams in delivering aid to Afghanistan. Focusing on lessons to be learned from mistakes of the past, a conference in Prague this week featured frank and open talks between NATO officials, donor countries, aid workers and the Afghan government.
The presidents of Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are meeting in Istanbul today to discuss how they can work together better to resolve conflict with Taliban militants. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai held a bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, before three-way talks with Abdullah Gul of Turkey.
China's position on the Google dispute, which comes amid attempts by many authoritarian regimes to control the Internet, has led some commentators to question whether a new trend toward local or state control over the Internet is developing.
The year 2009 was a crucial one for U.S. foreign policy on Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Bosnia. RFE/RL takes a closer look at developments and challenges involving those countries in the year ahead.
A court in Thailand has extended by 12 days the detention of an aircraft crew that landed in Bangkok with an illegal arms shipment from North Korea. Charged with illegal possession of weapons, four of the crew members are from Kazakhstan while the plane's captain is from Belarus.
The United States and Russia, deeply divided over the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence, have presented opposing arguments about the move to the International Court of Justice.
Controversy is growing over the reported seizure by Iranian authorities of human rights activist Shirin Ebadi's 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. Ebadi disclosed the seizure of her Nobel medal and the freezing of her bank accounts during an exclusive interview with RFE/RL.
Some were peaceful and some were violent. Some were popular revolts and some were orchestrated within the Communist Party leadership. The revolutions of 1989 cast aside Europe's Cold War dictators, paving the way for democracy and the free-market reforms of the 1990s.
A new global address system for the Internet will soon be introduced that will make the Internet even more international -- making it possible for web domain names written entirely in Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, or other scripts not based on the Latin alphabet.
The genocide trial of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic opened in The Hague today with Karadzic boycotting the proceedings. The trial was adjourned, with judges saying they may be forced to appoint a legal team to represent Karadzic.
Ankara says it barred longtime ally Israel from participating in a NATO military exercise in Turkey because of public concerns about Israel's Gaza offensive early this year. But some say it shows that Turkey's military may be losing influence over foreign-policy decisions, and that it could signal a major shift in the geopolitics of the Middle East -- the end of the unlikely but convenient alliance between the two countries' military forces.
The United States and some of its European allies have threatened tougher sanctions against Iran if Tehran fails to prove claims that its nuclear program is only for peaceful energy production. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks in Moscow with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the threat of sanctions at this time is "counterproductive."
Although many parts of the world are seeing a return to growth after the global financial crisis, Central and Eastern Europe are seeing a much slower recovery. That's the assessment of Erik Berglof, the chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
International financial institutions have been lending billions of dollars to governments in Central and Eastern Europe during the past year to help them weather the global financial crisis. Unlike previous lending by the IMF and the World Bank, the new loans carry fewer, but more focused requirements on economic reforms.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator has begun a meeting with officials from the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany. The P5+1 meeting comes amid international concern about the build-up of a covert Iranian atomic program -- and ongoing suspicions that Iran wants the ability to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran has revealed the existence of a second uranium-enrichment facility in the country. The United States, Britain, and France called on the UN's nuclear watchdog to immediately investigate "this disturbing information" and demanded that Tehran comply with international rules. Iran's president responded angrily.
The United States, European Union and United Nations have exerted strong pressure on Honduras's de facto government to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya, saying his removal from power was a coup that violated the rule of law. But there is a growing debate over Zelaya's removal -- with some arguing the move was not only legal under the country's constitution, but also necessary to preserve the rule of law there.
France plans to close makeshift camps housing hundreds of illegal migrants. The crackdown follows the bulldozing of a similar refugee camp in Greece. Rights activists say hundreds of refugees will now be forced to go into hiding or face jail and deportation.
The Pentagon has reportedly begun putting a program in place that will give hundreds of detainees at the U.S. military's Bagram prison in Afghanistan the right to challenge their incarceration. Human rights advocates are welcoming the reports, but also are expressing some skepticism.
In the eight years since 9/11, Al-Qaeda's operational tactics have been evolving within its strategically flexible ideology. Experts agree Al-Qaeda is no longer the same organization it was in 2001. But for all the research that has been done, much remains unknown or a matter of speculation -- including whether Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is still alive.
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