Ukraine’s tax and customs service chief has been suspended from his post amid a graft investigation that marks a rare attempt to prosecute a senior official on suspicion of corruption. …

Senior Taliban officials say a suspected American drone strike has killed a key Taliban commander who told captured U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl “Don’t come back to Afghanistan” moments before releasing him to the U.S. military in a prisoner swap three years ago. The U.S. military, however, told VOA Friday, “Neither U.S. forces Afghanistan nor …

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Sailor Vladimir Shalayev died of heart failure shortly after returning from a Russian naval mission off the coast of Syria. His mother, Vera Shalayeva, is now engaged in a legal battle with the military, which denies that Shalayev served in a combat mission and refuses to grant the payment that Shalayeva says their family deserves. …

Read more “Mother Of Late Russian Sailor Seeks Pay Denied By Military”

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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”