Category: World

Bridges are meant to connect people, but the one over the Ibar River in Kosovo has long been a tool of separation, used by ethnic Serbs to maintain isolation from the Albanian majority in southern Mitrovica. …

Hope Solo, the U.S. women’s soccer (football) team’s standout goalkeeper, says that former FIFA president Sepp Blatter sexually assaulted her in 2013 at an awards event. Blatter denied allegations Saturday that he had grabbed her backside, calling them “absurd.” Speaking with Portuguese newspaper Expresso on Friday, the 36-year-old Solo said that the then-FIFA president had …

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Videos of brutal attacks in Uzbekistan against suspected thieves, prostitutes, and homosexuals have gone viral recently, prompting one criminal investigation but also leading to a government campaign urging Uzbeks “not to take the garbage out of the house for the outside world to see.” …

The unexpected sighting of an aircraft forced Orbital ATK on November 11 to cancel its planned launch of an unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station. …

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was involved in an alleged plan to seize a Muslim cleric and deliver him to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Under the plan, Flynn, who was fired by Trump after …

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U.S. women’s soccer star Hope Solo on Friday accused Sepp Blatter of sexual assault, claiming the disgraced former FIFA president groped her backside at the 2013 Ballon d’Or ceremony. Solo, 36, her country’s standout goalkeeper, said Blatter, 81, committed the act shortly before she was to present an award to her teammate Abby Wambach. “It …

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Several thousand Brazilians demonstrated on Friday as part of a day of national mobilization against government austerity measures, including a labor law that will soon come into effect. Demonstrators were also protesting against a highly-unpopular pension reform project and the wave of privatization recently announced by President Michel Temer’s government. “We must prevent the destruction …

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The foreign ministers of the five Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan — have signed a Program on Mutual Cooperation for 2018-19. …

Education officials in several Russian cities have begun rescheduling exams and other academic programs for the spring of 2018 because the government plans to use dormitories to house police and security forces during the 2018 World Cup soccer championship. …

A new park in Belgrade has been named in honor of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the Russian Army choir which lost dozens of members in a 2016 plane crash. (RFE/RL’s Balkan Service) …

Vice President Mike Pence has expressed “deep concern” to visiting Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim about the arrest of U.S. citizens and Turkish local staff at U.S. consulates in Turkey. But Pence and Yildirim also expressed hope that their meeting would help to usher in a new chapter in U.S.-Turkey relations and agreed on the …

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The White House Friday attempted to put to rest speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump might hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific economic summit in Vietnam. Both presidents are attending the summit, and may have a brief chat, but will have no substantive talks, according to White …

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Pakistan’s government has decided to refer 29 cases of terrorism to military courts for investigation and trial. The courts were established two years ago after the deadly Taliban attack on a military-run school in Peshawar that claimed the lives of more than 130 children. Last week Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal confirmed the federal cabinet’s …

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French President Emmanuel Macron is blaming Iran for a ballistic missile launch by Yemeni rebels targeting Riyadh last weekend, and said it illustrates the need for negotiations with Tehran over its missile development. …

Canada is making a significant diplomatic push to gather international support behind Ukraine’s UN peacekeeping plan, its foreign minister has announced. …

Four more Russian cross-country skiers on November 9 were found guilty of doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, including silver medalist Maksim Vylegzhanin. …

The Syrian Army and its allies have taken Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Syria, Albu Kamal, and are now fighting the last remaining IS pockets in the country’s eastern desert, the army’s general command said on November 9. …

A suicide blast in southwestern Pakistan has killed a senior police officer and his two subordinates. The anti-state Pakistani Taliban claimed credit for plotting Thursday’s deadly attack in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province. Police said slain deputy inspector general Hamid Shakeel was traveling to work from home when a suicide bomber struck his vehicle on a busy …

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A court in Moscow has ordered the seizure of property belonging to theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov, who has been charged with embezzlement in a case Kremlin critics say is politically motivated. …

A Russian 10-year-old has won the hearts of compatriots with a poignant video about a party she threw that no one attended. …

A Syrian war monitor says Islamic State militants have withdrawn from their last stronghold following a government offensive.  The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government forces and allied troops, including Iraqi fighters, are combing Boukamal, a strategic town on the border with Iraq, on Thursday after IS militants withdrew.  Syrian pro-government media say …

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A large long-term study on the use of the big-selling weedkiller glyphosate by agricultural workers in the United States has found no firm link between exposure to the pesticide and cancer, scientists said Thursday. Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI), the study found there was “no association between glyphosate,” the main …

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Argentine President Mauricio Macri says it’s still not clear how a crusading prosecutor died in 2015.   Macri says that it’s vital for his country to clear up the politically charged case and determine how Alberto Nisman died and “who did it.”   Macri’s English-language comments Tuesday in New York follow a recent forensic report …

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Country star Keith Urban will debut a new song on the Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday inspired by the allegations of sexual assault and harassment hurled against Harvey Weinstein. BMI country songwriter of the year Ross Copperman said that the widening sexual harassment crisis that has developed after multiple women accused the top producer …

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