Новости за 03.05.2024

Democratic U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges on May 3 in connection with a U.S. Department of Justice probe into ties between American business leaders and the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.

The Russian Justice Ministry on May 3 added a Turkey-based group called the Committee for the Ingush Independence to its registry of "undesirable organizations."

Eyewitnesses described to RFE/RL the terrifying moment when an ice-cream truck raced down a hill into a gathering of children at a national holiday celebration in Kyrgyzstan's Suzak region. At least 29 children were injured, some seriously, on May 2 after an unmanned truck's brakes failed, sending it careening into hundreds of people. Most of them were schoolchildren who had gathered to participate in a performance of the epic poem of Manas.

The United States has "strongly" condemned a series of cyberattcks it says were conducted by a unit of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) on several countries in Europe, including Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.

The Georgian Service spoke to protesters, journalists, and others affected by police actions and apparent thug attacks on demonstrators and other Georgians.

A military court in Moscow on May 3 extended the pretrial detention until at least October 22 for theater director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriichuk in a high-profile terrorism case that rights defenders call trumped-up.

Three international human rights organizations issued a statement on May 3 expressing concerns over the fate of Suhrob Zafar, a leader of outlawed opposition Group 24 movement, whose whereabouts have been unknown since early March.

The Kazakh Prosecutor-General's Office said on May 3 that a court in Astana had ruled that former Interior Minister Erlan Turghymbaev, who was detained this week on a charge of abuse of office and power, must stay in pretrial detention for at least two months

One year ago, Serbia was rocked by two separate mass shootings just a day apart, one at a Belgrade school, the other in villages in central Serbia. The killings triggered several months of protests but promised government action to tighten gun control is progressing slowly.

A Pakistani journalist and two other people were killed in car-bomb blast on May 2 in southwestern Balochistan province's Khuzdar district, 400 kilometers west of provincial capital Quetta.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has accused the United States of making "false" statements over the controversial "foreign agents" law being pushed through parliament and protests that have seen several Georgians injured by security forces.

Global human rights coalition the Cotton Campaign has urged Uzbek authorities to thoroughly investigate an attack on Uzbekistan’s noted human rights activist Umida Niyazova and her associate.

Heavy rains in Afghanistan have killed more than 100 people and damaged thousands of hectares of land in recent weeks. I'm Abubakar Siddique, senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

Kyrgyzstan has advised its citizens to refrain from traveling to Russia amid increased pressures faced by Central Asians there following the deadly Crocus City Hall attack near Moscow in late March.

At least 20 people were killed when a bus fell into a ravine in Pakistan's northern Gilgit-Baltistan region early on May 3, officials said.

U.S. President Joe Biden has called for the release of all imprisoned journalists, including RFE/RL's Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal, who have been detained in Russia on charges they, their employers, and their supporters reject as politically motivated.

Suppression of press freedom has been on the rise over the past year in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where governments with increasingly authoritarian tendencies have taken after Russia's example, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in their annual media world ranking published on May 3.

The European Union and the United States have condemned the controversial "foreign agent" legislation making its way through Georgia's parliament as peaceful protests against the bill continued on May 2 in Tbilisi following violent clashes that shook the country.

In an unusual move, a court in Russia's North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria acquitted a Jehovah's Witness in an extremism case.

A military court in Russia's Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk on May 3 sentenced anti-war activist Angel Nikolayev to 15 years in prison on a charge of arson against a military recruitment center, desecration of Russia's national flag, and vandalism.

Over 300 journalists are imprisoned worldwide. Journalists are imprisoned on charges ranging from violating censorship to insulting religions and defamation. Explore the map to discover the number of journalists behind bars in each country and the charges (if any) they face.

Tensions remain high in Tbilisi as a standoff continues between the government and Georgians opposed to a controversial "foreign agent" law who have been staging large protests that authorities have attempted to disperse using violent means, including rubber bullets, according to eyewitnesses.

The Taliban's crackdown on the free press has transformed how journalists work in Afghanistan, where reporters face restrictions on what they can cover, how they can cover it, and who they can interview.

Following massive pro-democracy protests in Belarus in 2020, the government has cracked down – targeting independent media, among others. Some of the many journalists who have fled their profession, or the country entirely, recounted how their lives have been altered forever.

The ink was hardly dry on hard-hitting investigative nonprofit Atlatszo's major journalism prize when an attack by a pro-Orban group showed how the new Sovereignty Protection Act endangers a free press.