Month: February 2017

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he views U.S. President Donald Trump’s opinion about the conflict in Ukraine as “a qualitative change” compared to that of Barack Obama. …

The Kremlin appears to have no idea what to do with Aleksei Navalny. They seem afraid to imprison him; they’ve been unable to co-opt him; and no matter how much they harasses him, they just can’t seem to neutralize him. …

Peruvian prosecutors opened a formal investigation Monday into suspicions that former President Alejandro Toledo took bribes from a Brazilian construction firm at the heart of a major corruption scandal shaking politicians across Latin America.   The move came after police searched Toledo’s home in Lima on Saturday.   Authorities in Peru and throughout Latin America …

The United States granted El Salvador $98 million on Monday, as part of a plan to combat lawlessness and corruption and diminish the flow of migrants heading north. The funds, which were approved by the U.S. Congress in 2015, will be used to prioritize security and development strategies in 50 impoverished areas of the Central …

Israel’s parliament has passed a new law on settlements which is sure to be challenged in court and bring global wrath against Israel. The Knesset voted 60-52 Monday night to retroactively legalize 4,000 Jewish settlements on private Palestinian land in the West Bank — land Palestinians want for a future state. Israeli lawmakers on the …

Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL’s broadcast region and beyond for the sixth week of 2017. …

World athletics’ governing body says Russia will remain suspended from international competition and will likely be ruled out of the world championships slated for August in London. …

U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States “strongly” backs NATO but that members of the military alliance must earmark more money for defense spending. …

Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry says Russia, Turkey, and Iran have begun meeting to discuss mechanisms to monitor the cease-fire they brokered in Syria. …

Asia faces a growing burden in treatment costs due to rising numbers of patients diagnosed with cancer, as well as those suffering from stroke and dementia over the next decade. While Asia’s economic progress has led to sharply lower levels of poverty, it has resulted in social and lifestyles changes ranging from diets to increasing …

The United Nations recorded an alarming 24 percent spike in conflict-related child casualties in Afghanistan and a three percent rise in total civilian casualties in 2016 compared to the year before.  The violence caused more than 11,400 civilian casualties, including around 3,500 deaths last year, according to the annual report by the U.N. Assistance Mission …

Ethnic Serbs in the northern Kosovo city of Mitrovica have used bulldozers to knock down a wall that divided the city and raised tensions between Kosovo and Serbia in recent days. …

The White House says President Donald Trump has discussed the conflict in eastern Ukraine during a call with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and agreed to attend a meeting of alliance leaders later this year. …

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. …

The Trump administration has for now backed off a draft executive order that would have called for a review of whether the United States should reopen overseas “black site” prisons, where interrogation techniques often condemned as torture were used, U.S. officials have told Reuters. The New York Times, citing unidentified officials, on Saturday said the …

Fighting has appeared to subside in the Ukrainian town of Avdiyivka after a weeklong surge, as U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko the United States will work to end the deadly conflict near the Russian border in eastern Ukraine. …

Turkey’s state-run agency says anti-terrorism police have detained over 420 people over alleged links to the Islamic State group.   The Anadolu Agency says Sunday that 60 IS suspects, the vast majority of them foreigners, were taken into custody in the capital, Ankara. It says a total of 423 people were detained in simultaneous police …

A “Welcome new neighbors” card sits on a kitchen table covered with a red, white and blue flowered tablecloth in a three-story townhouse in Columbia, Maryland. The living room is fully furnished, including a rocking chair. It is waiting for its family to come home. The calendar in one room shows February 8 … “because …

A U.S. federal appeals court in San Francisco has denied an emergency motion filed by the Justice Department to immediately reinstate President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily barring citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries, as well as all refugees, from entering the United States. …

Iran will issue visas for a U.S. wrestling team to attend the February 16-17 Freestyle World Cup competition, the Islamic Republic News Agency reports, reversing a decision announced on February 3 that banned visas for the team in response to an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump banning visas for Iranians. …

Two weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump has thrown Washington into a state of anxious uncertainty. Policy pronouncements sprout up from the White House in rapid succession.   Some have far-reaching implications, most notably Trump’s temporary refugee and immigration ban, but others disappear without explanation, including planned executive actions on cybersecurity and the president’s demand …

Donald Trump is expected to speak by phone Saturday with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the second consecutive weekend the U.S. president will converse with world leaders. The conversation with Italy’s prime minister comes one day after a European Union summit in Malta where leaders discussed the future of the …

A top Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander says Tehran is conducting missile and radar tests Saturday. The drill comes a day after the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran for a ballistic missile test it conducted last week.   Iranian state TV reported that the country’s Revolutionary Guard air force was conducting air defense exercises …

A group of professors has urged Iranian President Hassan Rohani to respond to a recent order by U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily barring travel by Iranians to the United States by easing travel restrictions for U.S. citizens visiting their country. …

U.S. President Donald Trump is due to hold his first talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as an upsurge in fighting has killed dozens in eastern Ukraine over the past week. …

They are some of the most exquisite objects ever created and, a century after the last Faberge Egg was created, in 1917, the tiny treasures continue to fascinate for both their beauty and the tragic story that entangled them. …