Category: World

Turkey has arrested the organizer of an exhibition in Ankara where a gunman assassinated the Russian ambassador in December 2016. …

Hundreds of Iranians protested in the northeastern city of Mashhad against the rising cost of food and other essentials, with local authorities saying an unspecified number of people had been arrested. …

At least four people are reported dead after an explosion Thursday in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. The health ministry said that six others were wounded. Reuters reports that the blast hit near the offices of the Afghan Voice news agency. AFP quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying it’s unclear whether the target was the media …

Read more “Four Dead After Blast Hits Kabul”

If there is a single word that has dogged and defined Donald Trump’s presidency, it is Russia. VOA White House correspondent Peter Heinlein has a look at how Trump’s relationship with Russia, and the Kremlin’s role in his election, has hung over every moment of his term in office. …

Vote counting is underway in Liberia as the country’s newspapers report low turnout for a runoff presidential poll. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. …

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has belittled U.S. President Donald Trump, saying his tough stance toward Iran will fail like efforts by his hard-line predecessor, Ronald Reagan. …

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko has been replaced as chairman of the 2018 World Cup organizing committee amid pressure over allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia. …

More than a hundred refugees and migrants were still wandering around the Serbian border town of Sid on December 27 one day after Serbian police broke up a protest there. …

An Australian woman has been acquitted by a Malaysian court of charges of illicit drug trafficking. Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto was arrested three years ago this month at Kuala Lumpur’s International Airport after police found more than one kilogram of methamphetamine in her backpack. Lawyers for Exposto, a 54-year-old mother of three from Sydney, say …

Read more “Australian Woman Acquitted of Drug Trafficking Charges in Malaysia”

A group of teachers and linguists is mounting a petition drive to urge President Vladimir Putin to preserve the mandatory status of Ossetian-language classes in the North Ossetia region. …

A suicide car bombing at a military base in southern Afghanistan Wednesday killed at least two soldiers and wounded 15 others. The attack happened in Lashkargah, capital of restive Helmand province, and targeted a contingent of Afghan National Army soldiers who were about to leave the base for a counter-Taliban operation in a nearby district. A provincial …

Read more “Taliban Suicide Bombers Attack Afghan Army Base”

A 2015 deal reached between South Korea and Japan to resolve the issue of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese colonial forces was insufficient, a special South Korean task force announced Wednesday. The deal was reached between Seoul and Tokyo under the administration of ousted President Park Geun-hye. Japan agreed to apologize for …

Read more “S. Korea Says 2015 Deal with Japan Over ‘Comfort Women’ Faulty”

A Tatar activist who was convicted of separatism and inciting ethnic hatred in a case he said was politically motivated has been released from prison in northern Russia after serving a three-year term. …

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL. …

Since South Sudan’s government captured a rebel base last week in the country’s southwest, hundreds of refugees have poured into Democratic Republic of Congo. Among them may be rebels, and the Congolese army, wary of conflict spilling into their nation, is arresting any suspected fighters. Refugees, however, say innocent young men are being caught up …

Read more “Congo Watches for Rebels Among South Sudan Refugees”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he is “united in opinion” with his U.S. counterpart Rex Tillerson on the issue of North Korea but that they differ on how to resolve the crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. …

The All-Russia People’s Front (ONF), an action group consisting of politicians, celebrities, and other well-known Russians, has officially nominated Vladimir Putin as an independent candidate in next year’s presidential election. …

Before becoming president, Donald Trump railed against US wars overseas, saying it was better to spend money at home than, in his words, “waste” it overseas. But as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports, Trump has at times struggled to carry out what he calls his “America First” approach to the world during his first year as …

Read more “America First? Trump Struggles to Implement Campaign Promises on US Military”

Russia’s telecommunications watchdog has demanded an explanation from social media networks Facebook and Instagram for their disabling of accounts belonging to Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya. …

Federal police arrested a man early Monday suspected of planning and helping carry out the March murder of Miroslava Breach, one of the highest-profile journalists slain this year amid a wave of such killings in Mexico. The National Security Commission said in a statement that the 43-year-old suspect was detained along with two others in …

Read more “Mexico Nabs Alleged Planner of Journalist Breach’s Killing”

Nigerian soldiers thwarted an attempted terrorist attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on the city of Maiduguri Monday, sending panicked residents fleeing for their lives. Army officials gave no details on what happened. But one a local militia leader told the French News Agency the militants used the cover of a civilian convoy to approach …

Read more “Nigerian Troops Thwart Terrorist Attack”

Attackers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo burned down a farmhouse belonging to President Joseph Kabila Monday, killing a policeman. Kabila was not at the house near the village of Musienene. It is unclear how the officer was killed. “We firmly condemn this barbarous act and call on the population…to disassociate from any actions …

Read more “Attackers Burn Down Farmhouse Belonging to DRC President Kabila”

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia should scrap the 13 percent profit tax on funds repatriated from abroad and renew an amnesty from penalties for businesses returning capital. …

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko is temporarily stepping down from his post as head of the country’s soccer federation amid pressure over allegations of systematic doping, Russian news agencies reported on December 25, quoting federation sources. …