An Iranian court has cleared two-time Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi of plagiarism charges over his film A Hero, which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021.
The U.S. Treasury Department on March 13 unveiled sanctions against three individuals in Republika Srpska for undermining the peace and stability of Bosnia-Herzegovina by helping to organize an "unconstitutional" celebration of Bosnian Serb identity.
Iranians, already hit hard by declining living standards, are seeing steep price increases for essential goods as the Persian New Year, Norouz, approaches.
A Russian court on March 13 approved early release for notorious criminal kingpin Zakhary Kalashov, who is widely known by the nickname Shakro Molodoi.
Throughout Iran, protesters called for change and chanted "Freedom" on March 12 during traditional bonfires for Chaharshanbe Suri. The annual fire festival, held ahead of Persian New Year, or Norouz, has become an outlet for protest.
Eleven jailed Kyrgyz activists who are on trial along with 16 others who are under house arrest for their 2022 protest against a Kyrgyz-Uzbek border delimitation deal accused Judge Marat Sydykov on March 13 of violating their rights by repeatedly postponing hearings.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said Russia was preparing for a "long conflict with the West" and he asked for more spending and coordination on European defense.
This year features a merry-go-round of high-level positions in the upper echelons of the European Union, as well as NATO, and Brussels is awash with rumors as to who will taking up the posts.
On March 16, 2014, an illegal referendum was held in Crimea as unmarked Russian soldiers, supported by some of the peninsula’s ethnic Russian population, seized public buildings and military facilities as part of Russia's occupation of the peninsula.
Police in Lithuania are hunting for a suspect who attacked Leonid Volkov, an aide to late Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, with tear gas and a hammer near his home in Vilnius on March 12. Volkov said his arm was broken and that he sustained several injuries to his leg.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cited sources on March 13 as saying a probe was launched against the self-exiled writer and former chief editor of Dozhd television, Mikhail Zygar, for spreading false information about Russia's military.
Revelers take part in the traditional fire feast known as Chaharshanbe Suri on March 12. The ancient Persian festival of Zoroastrian origin marks the eve of the last Wednesday before the Persian New Year that begins on March 20.
President Vladimir Putin, speaking two days before the start of an election he is expected to easily win, has issued his latest of many warnings that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons if it's sovereignty is threatened, saying he hopes Washington will not do anything to trigger such a conflict.
An RFE/RL investigation found that surveillance equipment made by Hikvision and Dahua -- two partially state-owned Chinese companies -- is used by at least 28 military facilities in Romania, including at a NATO missile defense base.
Igor Krasnov, the head of the team of would-be anti-war presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok, said on March 13 he was sentenced to six days in jail for "propagating extremist LGBT."
A court in the Russian city of Krasnodar fined two women aged 19 and 24 after a video in which the two were kissing in a cafe was posted on the Internet.
