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Russia's Federal Prison Service has told Kremlin critic and anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny to return immediately from Germany - where he is recovering from a near-fatal poisoning by a Soviet-era nerve agent - or face jail in Russia.

The extension of the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty for a maximum possible period serves the interests of both Russia, the United States and the global community, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Sputnik.

Politicians' reflections about a successor for Russian President Vladimir Putin are most often absolutely unsubstantiated, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Russia's prison service has called on opposition figure Alexei Navalny to return from Germany and abide by the terms of a suspended prison sentence he received five years ago or face its transformation to a real jail term.

Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case against Aleksei Navalny, accusing the Kremlin critic of stealing hundreds of millions of rubles donated to his anti-corruption organization.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prime Minister, chaired today the Cabinet's virtual session.

The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb I (SDB I) Munitions and related equipment for an estimated cost of $290 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

A Chinese military Y-8 aircraft entered Taiwan's southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday, marking the 19th day on which such a maneuver has occurred in December, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said that day.

A UN independent human rights expert, on Tuesday, called on the United States to remove unilateral sanctions against Syria that may hamper efforts to rebuild the war-torn country's destroyed civilian infrastructure.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) says it has cut off an international drug-smuggling network through a collaboration with the United States, culminating in the seizure of about 1 billion rubles ($13.6 million) worth of cocaine.

Eight men have been arrested in North Macedonia on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks, police said on December 28.

A cyberattack was detected on networks belonging to the Malaysian military on Monday, Chief of Defence Forces Affendi Buang confirmed on Tuesday, adding that crucial data was protected.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced it had conducted a joint operation with the US Department of Justice to prevent cocaine smuggling from South America to Europe; it had seized 330 kilograms (727 pounds) of cocaine, mostly in the Moscow region.

The officials' entry ban was introduced in relation to Germany's claims of "Russian trace" in the cyberattack on the German federal parliament in 2015.

Russia says it has given a Bulgarian diplomat 72 hours to leave the country following the expulsion of its military attache in Sofia.

Russia has blacklisted Germany's top security and intelligence officials and barred them from entering the country in response to recent restrictive measures imposed by the European Union (EU) over an alleged cyber attack and the purported poisoning of a Russian opposition figure.

Moscow says it has added several senior German security officials to its list of those barred from the country in response to the European Union's decision to place travel bans on Russian officials over a 2015 hacking attack on the German parliament.

The Moscow City Court has found Karina Tsurkan, an executive with energy holding company Inter RAO, guilty on charges of spying for Moldova, which she denies, and sentenced her to 15 years in prison.

A Pakistani court has sentenced two alleged members of banned organizations to long prison terms on terrorism-financing charges.

The Chinese military is poised to adopt more intelligent technologies in its modernization drive, a senior military official said.