A rights advocacy groups says more than 50 countries cooperated with the CIA's secret program to detain and forcefully interrogate terrorist suspects following deadly attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is posting black and white photos from the 1970s, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is tweeting nostalgically romantic tweets about nightlife in Chechnya while Uzbekistan's Gulnara Karimova and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are mastering the fine art of Instagram. RFE/RL takes a look at how these autocratic regimes are using (or abusing) social media channels for their political and personal purposes.

An accomplished author in Azerbaijan has raised a storm of criticism with a new novel that casts the country's traditional rival, Armenia, in a sympathetic light.

Azerbaijan has seen a rare spike in opposition protests this month, with rallies denouncing poverty, unemployment, and what many see as a corrupt and repressive government.

There is no single standard for what makes a political prisoner, however, and international bodies and state governments are not always in agreement. RFE/RL looks at efforts to build a standard definition.

It once named him a prisoner of conscience after he was jailed in Azerbaijan on charges related to his journalism work. But now Amnesty International says it is cutting ties with Eynulla Fatullayev.

A recent report by a Sarajevo-based investigative journalism NGO that criticized Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has generated thousands of e-mails purporting to come from outraged Azerbaijanis. There is evidence the campaign may be part of a larger effort by pro-government forces in Azerbaijan to control the way their country is portrayed on the Internet.

When Congress begins its new session this month, two new lawmakers will lead its key foreign-relations committees who might challenge some Obama administration foreign policies, especially toward Iran and the Caucasus.

A former university rector in Azerbaijan has set off the scandal of the season with a series of videos that appear to implicate Ilham Aliyev's right-hand man in everything from kidnapping to selling off parliament seats for $1 million apiece.