worldwide news
Yemeni officials and witnesses say the U.S. military has launched airstrikes on suspected al-Qaida targets in southern Yemen for a second straight day. Yemeni officials say the home of an al-Qaida leader was one of the targets in the pre-dawn attack Friday in Wadi Yashbam in Shabwe province. Attacks were also carried out in neighboring …
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL. …
Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies plan to detain the head of the tax and customs service, Roman Nasirov, over the alleged embezzlement of around 2 billion hryvnias ($75 million), a senior prosecutor said Friday. Television footage showed an unconscious-looking Nasirov being stretchered into an ambulance and taken to Kyiv’s Feofania hospital late Thursday. Reporters said he had …
Read more “Ukraine’s Tax and Customs Chief Accused of Embezzling Millions”
European Union ambassadors have decided to prolong asset freezes imposed by Brussels against Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych and 14 of his associates. …
President Donald Trump did not utter the word “Russia” In his address to the U.S. Congress earlier this week. Still, observers in Moscow zeroed in on parts of his speech, including this one: “America is willing to find new friends, and to forge new partnerships, where shared interests align.” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, …
Read more “Russian Observers Parse US President’s Congressional Speech”
Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was killed February 13 when two women smeared a liquid that Malaysian authorities say is VX nerve agent on his face at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong have been charged with murder, a crime that …
Read more “After Alleged VX Nerve Agent Use by North Korea, What Response Should Follow?”
China’s government says it will support the World Trade Organization, arguing that an “open and unbiased” trading system benefits global economic growth and is in everyone’s interest. Beijing’s comments come just a day after the Trump administration said it might not comply with WTO rulings it judged to violate American national sovereignty. Wednesday, the administration …
Read more “China Supports WTO After Washington Criticizes Trade Organization”
Moscow says Syria’s armed forced have recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State (IS) militants. …
Georgia’s military held medical evacuation drills as NATO officials began a two-day visit to discuss closer cooperation. (RFE/RL’s Georgian Service) …
A bipartisan group of U.S. members of Congress has backed a proposal for $7.5 billion of new military funding for U.S. forces and their allies in the Asia-Pacific region, where tensions have risen over China’s territorial ambitions and military buildup. Five members of the U.S. House of Representatives and eight senators from both the Democratic …
Read more “US House, Senate Letters Back Asia Military Funding Proposal”
Iran has wrapped up a large-scale naval exercise involving missile tests at a time of heightened tension with the United States. The U.S. downplayed the Iranian maneuvers as a “standard practice.” Iranian state media said the navy drill that ended Tuesday spanned 2 million square kilometers of the Arabian Sea, extending to the entrances of …
Read more “Iran’s Major Naval Exercise, Missile Tests a ‘Standard Practice’”
The wife of Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen will be allowed to go free from jail ahead of her trial on charge of aiding terrorism. A California judge ruled Wednesday that Noor Salman, 31, was not dangerous and had no connections to the Islamic State group or extremist views. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu also …
Read more “Pulse Nightclub Gunman’s Wife Freed to Await Trial”
The U.S. commander of coalition forces in Iraq and Syria says a Russian air strike in northern Syria accidently struck U.S.-backed Syrian Arab forces who are part of the fight against so-called Islamic State (IS) militants. …
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has reiterated Washington’s support for the NATO alliance a day after President Donald Trump told the U.S. Congress that NATO allies “are beginning to” meet their financial obligations on military spending. …
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has been a master gamer in his relations with Russia. But the game is getting more dangerous. (The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.) …
A former employee of an electronics export company in the U.S. city of Houston has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally export about $50 million of microelectronics to Russia. …
Senior Russian and British military officials held rare talks in Moscow on February 28 aimed at avoiding clashes and lowering tensions that have spiked to their highest levels since the Cold War. …
Negotiators for the European Parliament and European Union member states have reached a deal to allow Ukrainian citizens to enter the political bloc without a visa. …
A Tibet women’s soccer team has been denied U.S. visas to participate in a tournament in Dallas. Cassie Childers, a coach and executive director for Tibet Women’s Soccer, said that 16 members of the team were told at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, that they “have no good reason to visit the …
Read more “Tibet Women’s Soccer Team Denied US Travel Visas”
Former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear says U.S. President Donald Trump is not holding up his promise to help people “struggling to make ends meet,” and that his commitment to national security is “being tested.” Beshear gave the customary Democratic response to Trump’s joint address to Congress Tuesday night. “President Trump is ignoring serious threats to …
Read more “Democrats Questions Trump’s Record on National Security, Helping Poor”
Barack and Michelle Obama have book deals. The former president and first lady have signed with Penguin Random House, the publisher announced Tuesday. Financial terms were not disclosed for the books, which several publishers had competed for, although the deals are likely in the tens of millions of dollars. Both Obamas have published through Crown, …
Read more “Former President Obama, First Lady Land Book Deals”
Pakistan has put in place extremely tight security measures in and around its capital, Islamabad, ahead of Wednesday’s regional economic cooperation summit, where presidents of Iran and Turkey will also be in attendance. The high-profile meeting of the 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization, or ECO, has been convened at a time when Pakistan is experiencing a …
Read more “Pakistan Hosts Regional Summit Under Tight Security”
Rahul Kolli, a 23-year-old engineering graduate from India’s southern Chennai city, was happy when he gained admission to Michigan Tech University in the United States to complete his masters degree in data analytics. He was chasing the same dream pursued for decades by tens of thousands of Indians – studying in an American university, working …
Read more “Tough Rhetoric Prompts Indian Students to Reconsider Plans for US Education”
Russia’s Supreme Court has ordered a lower court to review the case of a kindergarten teacher who was imprisoned for reposting a child-abuse video in what she said was an innocent effort to raise awareness. …