An Afghan official says a suicide bomber has struck near the Supreme Court building in central Kabul, killing 12 people. …

Afghan officials say a suicide bomb attack near the Supreme Court building in the capital, Kabul, has killed at least  20 people and wounded about 40 others. Most of the victims are said to be court employees. Details of the incident are still coming in. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack came …

Read more “Deadly Suicide Blast Hits Near Kabul Supreme Court”

Russia’s deputy prime minister in charge of sport has admitted that many Russian coaches have been responsible for track-and-field athletes using performance-enhancing drugs. …

U.S. First Lady Melania Trump has re-filed a defamation lawsuit against the company that publishes the Daily Mail’s website, saying an article posted there in August 2016 harmed her ability to earn millions of dollars during a time when she would be “one of the most photographed women in the world.” The article discussed false …

Read more “Melania Trump Lawsuit Says ‘Daily Mail’ Article Cost Her Millions in Business”

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

Soldiers say they fired mortars with explosives so bright they could scan the Tigris River after hearing Islamic State militants were preparing boats to once again approach Iraqi-forces controlled eastern Mosul late Saturday. VOA’s Heather Murdock is on the scene in Mosul, where Iraqi forces say they believe the lights deterred the potential militant attack. …

Read more “Iraqi Forces Light Up Sky, Thwarting IS Attack”

The president of South Sudan said on Monday that soldiers who rape civilians should be shot, trying to mollify citizens outraged by abuses by security forces and quell growing international anger over attacks. South Sudan was plunged into a sporadic civil war in 2013 when Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, an ethnic …

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French presidential candidate Francois Fillon says he will continue his campaign, despite criticism amid media reports he paid his wife an unjustified salary for 15 years while he was a member of parliament. Claiming his wife was paid fairly for work she did, Fillon only apologized for the “error” of judgement in employing his family, …

Read more “Despite Scandal, Fillon Continues French Presidential Campaign”

In January, Russian media mentioned Donald Trump more often than Vladimir Putin, according to the Interfax news agency. What are Russian news outlets saying about the new U.S. president? (RFE/RL’s Russian Service) …

Russia, Turkey, and Iran on February 6 discussed the implementation of the cease-fire they brokered in Syria and reportedly agreed to meet again later this month. …

The wife of a Swedish-based academic and researcher says Iran has sentenced her husband to death on espionage-related charges. …

Egypt loses African soccer cup, Hamada Elrasam documents, the Egyptian soccer supporters reactions during and after the game, at one of the biggest gathering for soccer fans in Cairo. …

Kurdish security forces have captured dozens of cellphones the so-called Islamic State (IS) rigged with explosives for terrorist attacks in northern Iraq. …

Serbs in Kosovo’s ethnically divided city of Mitrovica Sunday tore down a controversial wall that ethnic Albanians say aggravated an already tense situation. Bulldozers quietly knocked down the 2-meter concrete barrier after talks between the ethnic Albanians and the city’s Serb minority, mediated by the European Union and U.S. diplomats. EU foreign policy chief Federica …

Read more “Serbs in Mitrovica Tear Down Controversial Wall”

Local Kosovar Serb authorities in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica have demolished a concrete wall they had built near the Ibar River in December 2016 that they called a landslide barrier. However, the Kosovar government saw it as a provocation, and parliament voted to knock it down. The demolition was carried out on February …

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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has warned Iran “not to test the resolve” of the Donald Trump administration days after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on the Islamic republic over a ballistic-missile test. …

A century ago, Faberge produced its last legendary Easter egg. The following year, in 1918, in the early days of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution, the legendary Russian jewelry firm was nationalized and destroyed. The Faberge family and many of the firm’s masterpieces found refuge in the West, where the firm’s legacy is being preserved today. …