Category: World

Oil prices have risen in the wake of a U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base, as investors worried about potential supply disruptions in the event of a wider conflict. …

Military analysts say that Russia’s sophisticated air-defense systems stationed in Syria could not intercept the U.S. cruise-missile strike on a Syrian air base because they were out of range. …

New Delhi and Dhaka are set to sign an umbrella agreement to increase defense cooperation during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s four-day visit to India, which begins Friday. All deals would be struck maintaining the friendly terms between the two countries, and there will be nothing detrimental to the interests of Bangladesh in the agreement, …

Read more “Many in Bangladesh Oppose Proposed Defense Pact With India”

Jupiter is extra close and extra bright this week, and that means some amazing, new close-ups. The Hubble Space Telescope zoomed in on the solar system giant Monday, and NASA released the pictures Thursday. Jupiter was a relatively close 415 million miles (668 million kilometers) away. The planet’s Great Red Spot is especially vivid. It’s …

Read more “Jupiter Aligns With Earth for Its Extra Bright Close-up”

Collapsing Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria will not be enough to slow the terror group’s plots against the West and elsewhere, according to multiple U.S. and Western officials. U.S. officials, in particular, are bracing for what could be a “significant lag” between the time Islamic State is routed from its remaining holdings …

Read more “Less Potent Islamic State Still Something to Fear, Officials Say”

The United States is reportedly weighing possible military responses to the apparent use of chemical weapons by the military of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. …

In what is being hailed by Israeli media as an “unexpected, unprecedented, and curious move,” Russia has said it envisions West Jerusalem as the future capital of Israel and East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state. …

The government of Moldova has condemned a recent appeal by the de facto authorities in the country’s breakaway Trandniester region asking Russia to recognize the region’s travel documents. …

More than 400 icebergs have drifted into the North Atlantic shipping lanes over the past week in an unusually large swarm for this early in the season, forcing vessels to slow to a crawl or take detours of hundreds of miles. Experts are attributing it to uncommonly strong counter-clockwise winds that are drawing the icebergs …

Read more “Unusually Large Swarm of Icebergs Drifts into Shipping Lanes”

China’s environment ministry said it will send 5,600 inspectors on a year-long investigation into the sources of air pollution in major northern cities. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said in a notice posted late Wednesday on its official website that inspections into 28 northern cities in and around the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will focus on …

Read more “China Sends Inspectors to Hunt Down Air Polluters”

Many companies aim for “Best in Class” status, but some are seeking another “B” — B corporation certification. Certified B corporations, or “B corps,” address the growing consumer interest in supporting socially and environmentally responsible companies. B corps are essentially for-profit companies that behave more like nonprofits, tackling global issues such as pollution and income …

Read more “For ‘B Corporations,’ Real Value in Social Values    “

A Kazakh-born man accused of working with Russian intelligence officials to hack over a half billion Yahoo e-mail accounts asked a Canadian court on April 5 to release him on bail. …

A major dam on the Euphrates river that had been threatening to collapse after being hit by air strikes returned to normal operation again on April 5. …

The world’s most experienced woman in space will add to her record-setting achievements by spending an extra three months in orbit on the International Space Station, NASA has announced. …

Part of President Donald Trump’s proposed deep budget cuts in foreign aid could be significant reductions in U.N. peacekeeping missions in some of the world’s most dangerous places. On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council meets on the issue at the United States’ request. Here’s a look at some of the 16 current peacekeeping missions around …

Read more “A Look at UN Peacekeeping Missions as US Seeks Cuts”

There are conflicting reports about the damage caused to a dam on the Euphrates River close to the Syrian city of Raqqa. Local villagers say Islamic State militants have threatened to destroy the Tabqa dam – a key staging post on the route to the terror group’s de facto capital. As Henry Ridgwell reports, that …

Read more “Fears Over Damage to Syrian Dam as Battle for Raqqa Intensifies”

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyaev to the Kremlin on April 5, as Mirziyaev made his first official visit to Moscow since taking power last year. (AP) …

April 5 is the 25th anniversary of the shootings in Sarajevo of two peace demonstrators, a flash point triggering the 1,425-day siege of the Bosnian capital by Bosnian Serb forces. (The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL.) …

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

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “deeply regrets” the United States’ decision to cut funding to the U.N. Population Fund, which provides life-saving care to millions of women and girls around the world.   The Trump administration said Monday it would no longer fund the program, because it has determined that it “supports, or participates in the …

Read more “US Criticized for Slashing Funds to UN Population Fund”

Large numbers of job seekers from around the world are filing applications at U.S. federal offices as the season opened Monday for H1-B visas for foreign workers.   H1-Bs allow employers – mostly high-tech firms – to hire skilled foreign workers for jobs in the United States for three years. Eighty-five thousand slots are available …

Read more “Thousands of Non-US Job Seekers Apply for H1-B Visas”

Russian authorities are trying to piece together a portrait of the Kyrgyz-born Russian citizen identified as the chief suspect in the deadly St. Petersburg subway explosion. …

A few hours after 20-year-old Zeena escaped Islamic State militants in Mosul on Monday, she is at a makeshift bus station where fleeing Mosul residents gather to be assigned tents or catch buses to relatives’ homes. As it starts to rain, Zeena says she and her family are among the lucky ones. When militants caught …

Read more “Dark Times Ahead in Battle for Mosul”

A Russian emergency medical worker has been sentenced to three years in prison for failing to take seriously an emergency call from a 12-year-old boy seeking help in 2016 when two boats were capsized by a summer storm at a holiday camp in Karelia. …