U.S. sanctions Russia over alleged Navalny poisoning

Yahoo Finance's Akiko Fujita breaks down the top stories around the world.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: In today's World View, the Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Russia over the attempted killing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. White House officials say the sanctions were being imposed in coordination with the European Union, which sanctioned four senior Russian officials on Monday. The US sanctions apply to Russian individuals and entities, but they do not apply directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin or the country's intelligence chiefs.

Navalny was poisoned last August and flown to Germany, where he was placed in an induced coma. He returned to Russia in January, where he was arrested and imprisoned for two years. And the US has called for his immediate release.

Leaders in Southeast Asia held an emergency meeting, calling on Myanmar's military to release ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and restore democracy to the country. ASEAN foreign ministers held a call with the junta, pressing them to end the violent crackdown on protesters. The virtual meeting comes days after the bloodiest weekend since the military came to power in a coup one month ago. At least 21 people have been killed so far. Hundreds of protesters continue to march in the streets, calling for the military coup to be reversed and Suu Kyi restored to power.

And finally, some relief for hundreds of parents in Nigeria after students kidnapped at a boarding school in the northwestern part of the country were released safely. 279 girls were abducted Friday by armed men who stormed the school in Zamfara State. The students say their abductors beat them and threatened to shoot them.

The Nigerian government has denied paying a ransom for the abductions and has not identified the captors yet. This follows a string of recent kidnappings in the country's schools. Back in December, more than 300 boys were taken from a school in northern Nigeria, while 42 people were abducted from another school just last month.