Category: Світ

Russian anti-corruption campaigner and Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny has been found guilty in a politically-charged embezzlement case. A judge in the city of Kirov read out the verdict against him on February 8, in a conviction which would make him ineligible to run for president. (Reuters) …

Turkey’s military said Wednesday that Syrian rebel forces with Turkish support have taken control of strategic hills surrounding the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria, said Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels launched an operation late Tuesday and seized territory on the western …

Six Afghan employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been killed in an attack in the northern Afghan province of Jowzjan, officials say. …

Authorities in northern Afghanistan say Islamic State terrorists have killed at least six local employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Jowzjan province government spokesman Reza Ghafoori told VOA Wednesday’s attack occurred in the Qushtipa district and the assailants also took away two ICRC workers.  He said the ICRC staff were bringing animal …

Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces have seized control of strategically important hills around the Islamic State (IS)-controlled town of Al-Bab, Turkey’s military says. …

The next time someone throws shade at you for ghosting them so you can binge-watch a TV show or retreat to your safe space, you can let them know your behavior has been recognized by the United States’ leading dictionary publisher. Merriam-Webster on Tuesday added more than 1,000 new words and definitions, ranging from conversational …

Filmmakers in Russia say a State Duma deputy and Russian Orthodox activists are trying to prevent a romantic film about Tsar Nicholas II from being screened in Russia. …

Some people may be surprised to learn that in addition to its 50 states and Washington, DC, the United States includes more than a dozen territories located in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. They include Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. National parks traveler Mikah Meyer, who’s on a mission to visit all …

Russia will host a regional conference on Afghanistan later this month to discuss efforts aimed at settling the protracted Afghan conflict and containing “spillover effects” of Islamic State terrorists trying to get a foothold in the war-ravaged nation. Moscow organized a tripartite meeting on the subject late December where it only invited Pakistan and China.  …

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 …