Recently in Europe & Central Asia Category

A protester is detained by Azerbaijani police in the capital, Baku, 11 March 2011                                                         

Photograph: Atilay Abbas

As 2011 dawned, a wave of protest across the Middle East and North Africa overthrew and challenged dictatorial regimes inspiring others to take action. Azerbaijani activist, Arzu Geybullayeva speaks to journalist Aoife Allen

Mikhail Beketov had been warned, but would not stop writing. About dubious land deals. Crooked loans. Under-the-table hush money. All evidence, he argued in his newspaper, of rampant corruption in this Moscow suburb. Not long after, he was savagely beaten outside his home and left to bleed in the snow. His fingers were bashed, and three later had to be amputated, as if his assailants had sought to make sure that he would never write another word. He lost a leg. Now 52, he is in a wheelchair, his brain so damaged that he cannot utter a simple sentence. Read on at the NYT here Interview with Alexander Lebedev from KGB operative to owner of The Independent. Here

By Sinead O'Connor

When I was a child, Ireland was a Catholic theocracy. If a bishop came walking down the street, people would move to make a path for him. If a bishop attended a national sporting event, the team would kneel to kiss his ring. If someone made a mistake, instead of saying, "Nobody's perfect," we said, "Ah sure, it could happen to a bishop." The expression was more accurate than we knew. This month, Pope Benedict XVI wrote a pastoral letter of apology -- of sorts -- to Ireland to atone for decades of sexual abuse of minors by priests whom those children were supposed to trust.

● Children as young as 10 work cotton fields for two months or more

The report says  the Government of Uzbekistan continues to lie to the international community while routinely compelling hundreds of thousands of children as labourers in the country's annual cotton harvest.

It presents evidence that little has changed despite the promises of the Uzbek
Government and with the spring planting season just around the corner, EJF asks
whether it will be children forced to pick the crop again when the harvest comes
around later this year.

 

"Iceland b

eing bullied by two much larger powers, US cannot stay neutral"

Icelandic official named "Guy Burgess" warns US of imminent default

Leaked US cable reveals UK pressure to block IMF rescue funds for Iceland

By Leonard Doyle, Washington

A leaked US diplomatic cable (below) reveals that the US has been asked to intercede in the spiraling row between Iceland, the UK and the Netherlands over threats to block International Monetary Fund loans for the indebted country.

Efforts by London and The Hague to link the crisis to Iceland's attempts to join the EU are expected to be rejected by the European Commission. But the Icelandic Parliament has been in uproar over the leak which suggests that its officials were on virtual hands and knees begging for US help to ensure that IMF funds are not witheld.

 

The classified cable described a meeting between the Reykjavik US embassy head Sam Watson and Permanent Secretary Einar Gunnarsson and Political advisor Kristjan Guy Burgess at the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Whether he's related to the British Cold War Spy Guy Burgess was not immediately clear, but a quick check of Iceland's famous genealogy website Íslendingabók          

indic

ates perhaps not. 

Kristján Guy Burgess' father  is John Noël L

ewellyn Burgess, born in Britain on January 3rd, 1947. 

How he came to be in R

eykjavík and why he named his son after the infamous Cambridge Spy is not known. Perhaps 

Kristján will explain how he got his name.

Above,

British 

wanted poster for Cold War 

spies 

Burgess and Donald Maclean

 

An Avar (from Dagestan) is driving through the Caspian port city of Makhachkala with a Lakh in the passenger seat. Spotting a red light, he pumps the accelerator and speeds through it. "You just ran a red light!" the Lakh says. "Avars don't stop for red lights," the Avar explains, and speeds through another. In a few minutes, they come to a green light, and the Avar stops. "Why did you stop?" the Lakh asks. "You can't be too careful," his friend says, "an Avar might be coming the other way."

By Amy Knight How long will Vladimir Putin last? It is hard to imagine Russia without its steely-eyed, iron-fisted, and hugely popular prime minister, especially since he has hinted so broadly that he might run again for the Russian presidency when the term of his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, expires in 2012. Starting in that year, the Russian presidential term will extend from four to six years (a change introduced by Medvedev) and Putin would legally be allowed to serve two more terms. This means he could conceivably be Russia's leader until May 2024, when he would be seventy-one years old.

Uzbekistan sent a chilling warning to its photographers and artists this week by convicting, Umida Akhmedova, the acclaimed photographer and documentary filmmaker, in a slander trial that harked back to the days of Soviet censorship. Can a photographer actually be guilty of defamation for taking photographs that reveal poverty rather than the cherubic photographs of put out by the tourist board?

By Takis Michas In Greece, as elsewhere, if the management of a company reports misleading figures about the company's financial situation in order to boost the price of the shares or to support the sale of securities, it risks facing criminal charges. Around the world, including in Greece, this is securities fraud.

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• Q&A: Greece's financial crisis explained (cnn.com)
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