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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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. …

Within hours of the deadly April 3 subway bombing in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, a Kazakh student was described by some media as a suspected suicide attacker. His friends — and his government — say he was a victim. …

A U.S. appeals court said Monday it would hold a hearing in May over a Hawaii federal judge’s order that blocked President Donald Trump’s revised travel restrictions on citizens from six Muslim-majority countries. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously upheld a Seattle judge’s block of Trump’s first travel order. The appeals court did …

Read more “US Appeals Court Sets May Hearing on Revised Trump Travel Order”

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will chair a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the North Korea nuclear issue later this month. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters Monday that Tillerson’s briefing to member states will take place April 28 — well after this week’s summit between President Donald …

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced steps on Monday to prevent the fraudulent use of H1B visas, used by employers to bring in specialized foreign workers temporarily, which appeared to fall short of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to overhaul the program. Trump had promised to end the lottery system for H1B visas, which …

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A subway bombing in Russia’s ‘cultural capital’ shocked Russians and prompted an outpouring of solidarity. …

Russia and Belarus say they have negotiated a settlement over an oil and gas dispute that has heightened tensions between the two neighbors and allies. …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is planning new offensives this spring against groups deemed terrorist groups by Ankara. …

The rival leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus said Sunday more work is needed to prepare the ground for the resumption of stalled reunification talks, despite having their first face-to-face meeting after nearly two months that was hoped would clear the negotiations logjam. Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and the island’s breakaway Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa …

Read more “Cyprus Leaders: More Work Needed to Restart Peace Talks”