Western officials want to steer clear of Russian representative at a key meeting in Washington Some Western nations are set to boycott parts of a summit of G20 finance ministers scheduled for Wednesday due to the planned participation of the Russian minister. The US called for Russia’s expulsion from the club of the world’s most…

Afghanistan’s poppy supply on the global market has plummeted 95% since last year’s cultivation ban, data shows Opium poppy production in Afghanistan, once the world’s top supplier, has plummeted since the Taliban outlawed cultivation of the crop last year, a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report has shown.

Heavy snowfall that started in the Russian capital overnight is expected to continue into Tuesday Moscow is already going through its first major snowfall. Meteorologists have described the weather pattern over the Russian capital as a “black blizzard” – a phenomenon usually encountered in the Far North, when snowflakes fly almost parallel to the surface,…