The U.S. State Department says Secretary of State Antony Blinken has “strongly condemned” recent attacks against Saudi territory from “Iranian-aligned groups” in the region, and discussed cooperation to end the war in Yemen in a call with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister.

During his March 22 conversation with Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Blinken also “reiterated our commitment to supporting the defense” of U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, the department said in a statement.

It said the two discussed “their close cooperation to support the efforts of UN Special Envoy Griffiths and U.S. Special Envoy Lenderking to end the conflict in Yemen, starting with the need for all parties to commit to a cease-fire and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid."

The phone call came as Saudi Arabia presented a new peace initiative to end the Yemeni conflict, widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, including a nationwide cease-fire under UN supervision and the reopening of air and sea links.

The offer was welcomed by the UN and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government based in the southern port of Aden, but the Iranian-aligned Shi’ite Huthi rebels said the initiative provided "nothing new" as did not appear to go far enough to lift a blockade.

Deputy State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter welcomed the commitment of Riyadh and Yemen's internationally recognised government to a cease-fire and negotiations.

The Saudi initiative would include the reopening of Sanaa airport, and would allow fuel and food imports through Hodeidah port, both of which are controlled by the Huthis.

Saudi Arabia has been under increasing pressure to put an end to the six-year Yemeni conflict since U.S. President Joe Biden signaled Washington would no longer support Riyadh's military intervention in the country.

Yemen was plunged into a civil war in 2015 that has killed some 130,000 people and displaced more than 3 million Yemenis.

The Huthis have launched drone and missile attacks targeting the Saudi kingdom's oil infrastructure and other sites.

Earlier this month, the UN said around 16 million Yemenis, more than half the population, were going hungry. Of those, 5 million are on the brink of famine.

In its statement, the U.S. State Department said Blinken and his Saudi counterpart also discussed “the importance of stabilizing the Yemeni economy.”

The state secretary “underscored the importance of continued progress on human rights and expressed support for Saudi Arabia’s ongoing social and economic reforms,” it said.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

The United States, Britain, and Canada have joined the European Union in announced sanctions against Chinese officials and companies over human rights violations against the mainly Muslim ethnic-Uyghur community in China's Xinjiang Province.

The concerted effort on March 22 were what British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called part of “intensive diplomacy” to pressure Beijing as evidence of rights abuses in the province grows.

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The EU sanctions were imposed on four Chinese officials and a construction company, prompting Beijing to slap retaliatory restrictions on 10 European officials.

Raab said the sanctions by Britain, the United States, and Canada will be imposed immediately and include travel bans and asset freezes against four officials.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that “a united transatlantic response sends a strong signal to those who violate or abuse international human rights, and we will take further actions in coordination with likeminded partners.”

“We will continue to stand with our allies around the world in calling for an immediate end to [China's] crimes and for justice for the many victims," Blinken said.

The EU's Official Journal on March 22 listed travel bans and asset freezes on Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau and deputy chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) People’s Government, former deputy head of the XUAR legislature Zhu Hailun, as well as Wang Mingshan and Wang Junzheng -- two high-level officials in the Chinese administration of XUAR.

Chen was guilty of "arbitrary detentions and degrading treatment inflicted upon Uyghurs and people from other Muslim ethnic minorities, as well as systematic violations of their freedom of religion or belief," the Official Journal said.

Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Public Security Bureau (XPCC) was targeted with sanctions, the EU said. XPCC is in charge of implementing all policies "relating to security matters, including the management of detention centers," the Journal said.

In a tit-for-tat move, Beijing immediately announced sanctions on 10 EU individuals, including German politician Reinhard Buetikofer -- the co-chair of the European Parliament's Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China IPAC -- and four entities that it accused of seriously harming China's sovereignty and interests over Xinjiang.

China's Foreign Ministry also urged the EU in a statement to "correct its mistake" and not to interfere in China's internal affairs.

France's Foreign Ministry denounced the sanctions imposed by China and condemned "unacceptable comments" from the Chinese ambassador in Paris in recent days, including "insults and threats toward lawmakers and a French researcher."

Locked Up In China: The Plight Of Xinjiang's Muslims

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is partnering with its sister organization, Radio Free Asia, to highlight the plight of Muslims living in China's western province of Xinjiang.

It said the ministry would summon Ambassador Lu Shaye to remind him of "the elementary rules as set out by the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations."

China, which denies any human rights violations in Xinjiang, has said internment camps for Uyghurs provide vocational training and education against extremism.

The move by the EU marked the first time that the bloc has sanctioned China since imposing an arms embargo in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy crackdown.

All 27 EU members agreed to the punitive measures. However, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called them "harmful" and "pointless."

Hungary is at odds with Brussels over rule-of-law violations and has sought closer relations with both Russia and China, including the acquisition of anti-COVID-19 vaccines.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

MINSK -- A court has extended the pretrial detention of Ihar Losik, a popular blogger and RFE/RL consultant jailed in Belarus since last June on charges his supporters say are trumped up.

The blogger's wife, Darya Losik, told RFE/RL on March 22 that her husband's pretrial detention had been prolonged until May 25.

"We have just learned about the extension of his time in custody. Unfortunately, I do not know if it’s somehow linked with new charges. But we were told that he will spend at least two more months behind bars," Darya Losik said.

"RFE/RL condemns in the strongest terms the extension by Belarusian authorities, without explanation, of Ihar Losik’s time in pretrial detention for another two months," RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said.

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"Ihar, his wife, his daughter, and his RFE/RL colleagues are waiting impatiently for this injustice to end, and for Ihar to be where he should have been all along -- free, with his family," he added.

On March 11, Losik was informed of additional unspecified charges that have never been made public. After hearing of the charges, he slit his wrists and launched a four-day hunger strike.

Losik's lawyer, Dzmitry Lepretar, has said he cannot talk about the charges due to an agreement with investigators.

Losik, who has already spent 270 days in pretrial detention, had been charged initially with allegedly using his popular Telegram channel to "prepare to disrupt public order" ahead of an August 9 presidential election that incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka subsequently claimed he won by a landslide amid allegations of widespread fraud.

Since then Belarus has witnessed daily protests against the result. More than 30,000 people have been detained, hundreds beaten, several killed, and journalists targeted in a government crackdown on demonstrators.

Lukashenka and top officials have been slapped with sanctions by the West, which refuses to recognize him as the legitimate leader of Belarus.

Hunger Strike

Losik, a consultant for RFE/RL on new-media technologies, ended his hunger strike less than two months after he first went on a six-week hunger strike to protest the original charges that he allegedly used his video blog to help organize riots to protest the election results.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

News of the new charges against the 28-year-old father of a 2-year-old daughter prompted RFE/RL President Jamie Fly to urge Lukashenka to release Losik immediately so he can be reunited with his family.

“Journalism is not a crime and Ihar has been unjustly detained for far too long. Ihar and his family should not be tortured in this way,” Fly wrote, adding that RFE/RL was "deeply distressed" by the new charges and Losik's deteriorating health situation.

Fly repeated that call in remarks delivered remotely on March 22 to the Kalinowski Conference on the political crisis in Belarus, adding that Losik and RFE/RL's Belarus Service, known locally as Svaboda, had been targeted by the Lukashenka government because of their commitment to "the truth."

The oversight agency for RFE/RL and other U.S. international broadcasters has condemned the Belarusian authorities' decision to heap further charges on Losik and has demanded his release.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) statement on March 12 cited "false charges" that have kept Losik in detention.

"It's unacceptable that reporting on the Belarusian election cost a respected journalist his freedom," USAGM acting Chief Executive Officer Kelu Chao said in a statement. "Belarusian authorities should drop all charges against Ihar and immediately release him."

European Council President Charles Michel has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that relations between the European Union and Russia are “at a low point” with disagreements in “many areas,” which the Russian leader blamed on the bloc's "confrontational policies."

Michel and Putin spoke by telephone on March 22 after the EU imposed sanctions on two Chechen officials over rights abuses in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Chechnya and ahead of a video conference of EU leaders on March 25-26 set to address EU-Russia ties.

"President Michel expressed the view that EU-Russia ties are at a low point and confirmed the EU's approach of the five guiding principles, based on the EU's core values," the European Council said in a statement, acknowledging that there is “currently disagreement in many areas.”

It said EU-Russian relations “can only take a different direction if there is sustained progress on issues like the implementation of the Minsk agreements” aimed at putting an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Moscow-backed separatists has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014, as well as “stopping hybrid and cyberattacks” on EU member states, and “respect for human rights.”

Michel reiterated the EU's call on Russia to release opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and “proceed with a transparent investigation into the assassination attempt” on the jailed Kremlin critic.

Russian authorities have refused to launch an investigation into Navalny’s poisoning in Siberia with a nerve agent last August.

According to a Kremlin statement, Putin “gave an appraisal of the unsatisfactory state of Russia-EU ties which has emerged due to unconstructive, often confrontational policies of our partners."

The Russian leader stressed that Russia was ready to "resume normal depoliticized" ties with the EU if there's a will to do so in Brussels.

Speaking after an EU foreign ministers meeting, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that Russia "is drifting towards an authoritarian state and away from Europe, and Europe must draw the consequences of that.”

EU leaders “will continue the discussion on this important but difficult relationship later this week,” Borrell added.

The comments came as the EU imposed sanctions on two Chechen officials accused of involvement in the “torture and repression” of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Chechnya and other individuals suspected of being opponents of the Moscow-backed regional leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Abuzayed Vismuradov and Ayub Katayev were targeted with asset freezes and visa bans, the EU said in its Official Journal on March 22, under the EU's new human rights sanctions regime that came into effect in December.

Rights groups have accused predominantly Muslim Chechnya of targeting sexual minorities, including the use of abductions, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Kadyrov has denied the allegations.

Katayev currently heads the Chechen Interior Ministry’s branch in the city of Argun, while Vismuradov serves as Chechnya’s deputy prime minister, commander of the Terek military unit that allegedly has been linked to the roundup of gay men in the region, and Kadyrov’s “unofficial” bodyguard.

Vismuradov, Katayev, and Kadyrov have already been sanctioned by the United States over their involvement in gross human rights violations in Chechnya. Kadyrov was blacklisted by the EU in 2014 over his support for Russia’s forcible annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.

Apart from the two Chechen officials, the EU also imposed sanctions on individuals and entities from China, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, and South Sudan.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court says it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, agreeing to hear an appeal filed by the administration of former President Donald Trump.

The court said on March 22 that it had "granted permission" for an appeal filed by the Trump administration to be heard, but gave no further details.

Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen who was born in Kyrgyzstan, was convicted in 2015 of killing three people and injuring hundreds of others during the 2013 Boston Marathon.

An appeals court in Boston last July overturned the death sentence that had been handed to the 27-year-old and ordered a new trial to determine what penalty he should receive. The court found that the judge who oversaw the case did not sufficiently vet jurors for biases.

Legal analysts expect the case will be heard in the fall, setting up a test for President Joe Biden, who has expressed his opposition to capital punishment. The Trump administration carried out 13 federal executions in its final six months in office, including three in the last week of the former president's term.

A federal jury found Tsarnaev guilty of all 30 counts he faced and sentenced him to death in just over two years after the attack at the finish line of the marathon.

Tsarnaev's brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died in a gunbattle with police a few days after the bombings.

The defense acknowledged that the brothers carried out the attack but sought to portray Tamerlan as the radicalized mastermind and Dzhokhar as the impressionable younger brother.

Prosecutors said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was just as culpable in the attack, which the perpetrators said was meant to punish the United States for its wars in Muslim countries.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev came to the United States in April 2002 on a tourist visa but never left the country. He and his parents were subsequently granted political asylum.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he will get vaccinated against the coronavirus on March 23.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that Putin, who has been criticized for being slow to get vaccinated in a country where there is widespread hesitancy over the vaccine, will get "one of the three" Russian-made injections, but did not say which one.

Peskov added that Putin's vaccination will not be a public event.

Putin said it was vital to ramp up production of vaccines for domestic use. So far, some 4.3 million people in Russia have received both doses of a two-shot vaccine, which is less than 5 percent of the country's 146 million people, putting Russia behind many other countries in its rollout.

Russia has the world's fourth-highest number of coronavirus infections at 4.4 million, and the seventh-highest death toll from COVID-19 at 94,231.

The country has developed three COVID-19 vaccines: Sputnik V by the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow; EpiVacCorona, produced by the Vector Institute in Novosibirsk; and CoviVac, from the Chumakov Center in St. Petersburg.

SEE ALSO:

Sputnik V: The Story Of Russia's Controversial COVID-19 Vaccine

In August, Russia approved the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, prompting scientists around the world to question its safety and efficacy because it was registered before the results of Phase 3 studies were made available.

However, peer-reviewed, late-stage trial results published in The Lancet medical journal last month showed the two-dose regimen of Sputnik V was 91.6 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19, about the same level as the leading Western-developed vaccines.

Still, a recent survey by the Levada Center, an independent polling agency, showed the number of Russians hesitant to get the Sputnik V shot grew in February to 62 percent from 58 percent in December.

The EpiVacCorona and CoviVac vaccines also received regulatory approval before completing late-stage trials

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

A court in Minsk has upheld an extension of the pretrial detention of Belarusian opposition figure Maryya Kalesnikava, who faces national-security charges after she urged people to protest against a disputed presidential election that left Alyaksandr Lukashenka in power.

"The Minsk City Court rejected Maryya Kalesnikava's appeal. [Kalesnikava's pretrial] term in the detention center was extended until May 8. Support Masha with letters, express solidarity," a would-be Belarusian presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka, who himself is on trial on corruption charges that he denies, said in a statement on Telegram on March 22.

The appeal came after Kalesnikava's pretrial detention was extended in early March.

Kalesnikava is a key member of the Coordination Council, a body set up by the political opposition in Belarus to try to facilitate the transfer of power in the country following a presidential election in August 2020 that the opposition says was rigged and the West has refused to accept.

Kalesnikava was arrested in September 2020 and charged with calling for actions aimed at damaging the country's national security via media and the Internet -- namely calling on people to protest against the election results.

In February, Kalesnikava was additionally charged with conspiracy to seize power and creating and leading an extremist group.

Kalesnikava, who rejects the charges as politically motivated, could be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Babaryka, a former Belarusian banker whose bid to challenge incumbent Lukashenka in the election was halted by his arrest on corruption charges, reiterated his not guilty plea as his trial resumed on March 22 following an almost one-month break.

After he announced his intention to run for president, Babaryka, a former senior manager at the Russian-owned Belgazprombank, was arrested in June 2020 along with his son Eduard on charges of money laundering, bribery, and tax evasion.

Mass demonstrations have swept across Belarus since the disputed August 9 vote that gave Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term.

Lukashenka has directed a brutal postelection crackdown in which almost 30,000 have been detained, hundreds beaten, several killed, and journalists targeted.

Lukashenka, who has run Belarus since 1994, and top officials have been slapped with sanctions by the West, which refuses to recognize him as the legitimate leader of the former Soviet republic.

SOFIA -- Bulgaria’s government has given two Russian diplomats 72 hours to leave the country, after the authorities uncovered the latest in a string of Moscow-linked spy scandals.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry declared the Russian diplomats “personae non gratae” on March 22 because they had carried out activities “incompatible” with their diplomatic status.

The Russian Embassy called the decision “groundless” and said that Moscow “reserves the right to retaliate.”

It expressed "regret that once again this unfounded action by the Bulgarian authorities will not contribute to constructive dialogue between Russia and Bulgaria."

Bulgaria has close cultural, historical, and economic ties with Russia, the country's main energy partner. But relations between Sofia and Moscow have been hit by several spy scandals in recent years.

On March 19, Bulgarian authorities in the NATO member state announced they had busted an espionage group passing military secrets to Russia.

Prosecutors said six people, including former and current military intelligence officers, were detained and charged for passing classified information about Bulgaria, NATO, and the EU to the Russian Embassy in Sofia.

The Sofia Military District Court has ordered five of them remanded in custody, while another suspect was released on bail, according to BTA news agency.

Since October 2019, the EU and NATO member state has expelled five diplomats and employees of the Russian Embassy accused of conducting intelligence work.

MINSK -- Organizers of the annual Freedom Day event in Minsk say city police have officially refused to agree to provide security for the participants on March 25, dealing the group a major blow to holding a rally to mark the 103rd anniversary of the short-lived Belarusian People's Republic, which existed for less than a year in 1918.

Ryhor Kastusyou, chairman of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front (BNF) party, told RFE/RL on March 22 that the police cited pandemic restrictions and "ongoing calls from several extremist channels in Telegram" to hold unsanctioned street protests on the day, March 25, as the reasons for refusing to provide security.

That reference appears to refer to a statement from Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who on Telegram called for Belarusians to continue their nationwide protests with street rallies on March 25 against Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994.

Kastusyou said that there wasn't enough time to appeal the decision in court, and that without police security it was unlikely organizers would receive official permission from the city executive committee to hold their event.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Tsikhanouskaya is currently in Lithuania, where she relocated for security reasons after the presidential election that she and her supporters say she won.

Lukashenka's victory declaration has sparked protests that have seen tens of thousands take to the streets demanding that he leave.

Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands and pushing most top opposition figures out of the country. Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some were handed prison terms. Rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used against some of those detained.

Authorities appear to be continuing their crackdown ahead of Freedom Day with the March 21 arrest in Minsk of Ihar Barysau, chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party and one of the initiators of the March 25 public event, on an unknown charge.

In the eastern city of Mahilyou, activist Raman Davydau, who has applied to the city administration to hold a Freedom Day event in his city, says he was officially warned by local prosecutors of possible criminal repercussions for holding unsanctioned public events.

Kastusyou says he and others who asked Minsk city authorities for the permission to hold an event might be also detained before March 25.

Belarusian KGB Chief Ivan Tertel has said that his team is "aware of plans to destabilize the situation in the country on March 25-27," while Deputy Interior Minister Mikalay Karpyankou has stated that "any unsanctioned rallies will be dispersed in a tough manner" similar to how law enforcement dispersed the mass protests against the official results of the August presidential poll that handed victory to Lukashenka.

Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing and refuses to negotiate stepping down and holding new elections.

The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.

Hungary has become the first EU country to approve for emergency use China's CanSino Biologics coronavirus vaccine.

The move came as new infections are spiking in the Central European country even though vaccine import and usage rates already are among the highest in the European Union.

Hungary's National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition (OGYEI) also gave emergency approval to CoviShield, the Indian version of the AstraZeneca jab, Surgeon General Cecilia Muller told a news briefing on March 22.

"We are in a race against time," Muller said. "We will search the four corners of the world for as many doses of proper, efficient, and safe vaccines as possible."

She said both shots are “viral vector” vaccines, made with a "cold," harmless virus.

If both jabs are also approved for mass use by the National Health Center, Hungary, which has already been using Chinese and Russian vaccines as well as Western ones, will have seven sources to procure vaccines from. No further details about the deal were immediately available.

Hospitalization rates are at record levels in Hungary, prompting some medical facilities to call in untrained volunteers to help them cope with an overwhelming influx of patients.

The surge in infections poses a big challenge for right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who pledged to ease tough lockdown measures once the inoculation rate reached 2.5 million people, or 25 percent of Hungary's population.

Muller said that 16 percent of the population, or 1.59 million people, had already had their first shot of a vaccine, but added that the current surge in infection was in an "extraordinarily dynamic phase."

With reporting by Reuters

KYIV -- Police in Kyiv have launched a probe into protests by supporters of Serhiy Sternenko, the controversial former leader of a far-right Ukrainian paramilitary group who was sentenced to seven years in prison on robbery and illegal weapons charges last month in a high-profile abduction case.

The Kyiv police department said on March 21 that the investigations were being launched into hooliganism and the damage done to the building of the president's office by Sternenko's supporters the previous day.

According to the police statement, one of the protesters, an individual born in 1995 whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested for possessing an illegal weapon.

On March 20, hundreds of Sternenko's supporters rallied in front of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office with torches and fire-crackers demanding the immediate release of Sternenko and several other pro-Ukrainian activists.

During the rallies, the walls of the building were painted with graffiti while firecrackers and flash grenades were thrown into the building’s windows.

The president's office estimated damages caused by the protesters to the late-19th century building at 2 million hryvnyas ($71,500).

A court in Kyiv on February 23 found Sternenko, who once led the Right Sector group in the city of Odesa, guilty of kidnapping, robbery and the possession of an illegal weapon in a case involving the abduction of a local lawmaker in 2015.

The court at the time ruled that, due to the statute of limitations, Sternenko could not be sentenced for kidnapping. It did, however, sentence him to seven years in prison on the other two charges.

Sternenko is also a suspect in another high-profile case that has been challenged by his supporters for years.

He is accused of premeditated murder and of possessing an illegal-bladed weapon in the killing of a man almost three years ago.

Sternenko claims he acted in self-defense while being attacked by two men late in the evening on May 26, 2018.

As he fought off the attackers, suffering numerous head injuries and a cut to his arm in the process, Sternenko injured one of the assailants who later died in hospital.

Investigators say that, after Sternenko defended himself using his knife, the attackers fled the scene. But Sternenko, whose life and health were no longer in danger, then reportedly chased one of them and stabbed him several times, inflicting wounds that led to the man's death, investigators say.

The attack was the third against Sternenko in three months.

Kosovo’s new parliament has elected Albin Kurti as the new prime minister after his leftist-nationalist Vetevendosje (Self-Determination Movement) party won the most votes in snap elections last month.

The newly elected parliament, meeting for the first time on March 22, backed Kurti's nomination and his proposed government 67-30.

Vetevendosje, which has 58 of parliament’s 120 seats following the February 14 elections, needed the support of non-Serb minority parties to form a new government. Kosovo’s Serb minority has 10 seats in parliament and 10 other seats belong to other minorities.

WATCH: Kosovo's New Parliament Convenes For First Time Since February Election

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Kosovo's New Parliament Convenes For First Time Since February 14 Election

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Earlier in the day, Glauk Konjufca of Vetevendosje was elected speaker of the new legislature with 69 votes.

Saranda Bogujevci, Bedri Hamza, Kujtim Shala, Slavko Simic, and Bekim Arifi were elected deputy speakers.

Kurti's cabinet consists of 15 ministers, including five women. Four cabinet members are from parties representing the country's minorities, including one from Srpska Lista (Serb List), the main party representing the ethnic Serb community, which according to the constitution has a guaranteed place in the government.

The new government will have to deal with a troubled economy and frayed relations with Serbia.

Addressing lawmakers ahead of the vote, Kurti cited the coronavirus pandemic as Kosovo's main challenge, and said that his cabinet would implement "a plan to bring COVID-19 under control with measures that reduce the number of new cases and lead to the elimination of deaths."

He also vowed to reform the justice and education systems and said he wanted the country's economy to be more focused on manufacturing and exports, "an economy without monopolies, with public enterprises that function well and operate successfully."

Relations With Serbia

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Kosovo’s economy was struggling with high unemployment. Organized crime and corruption remain major problems as well. The country has reported nearly 64,000 total coronavirus cases, and just over 1,500 deaths.

Kurti also promised to deepen cooperation with the United States and the European Union, saying: "The road to EU integration may be challenging, but it has no alternative for Kosovo."

On Pristina's normalization talks with Belgrade, he warned that Kosovo would not make further "compromises" and that resolving the issue of missing persons would be the priority of the dialogue with Serbia.

Kosovo’s relations with Serbia, from which it declared independence in 2008, remain fraught more than two decades after a war between separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and Serb forces.

The 1998-1999 war ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign drove Serb troops out and a peacekeeping force moved in.

Negotiations on normalizing ties with Serbia brokered by the United States and the European Union -- which stalled again last year -- did not figure high on Vetevendosje’s agenda.

Kurti already served as prime minister from February to June 2020. His term ended when the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) quit his coalition.

Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has expressed gratitude for the international community's support for her country's "peaceful fight for human dignity," but says the West needs to continue to help in the battle to remove the regime of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Luksashenka.

"We are thankful for the help we have already received," she told the Kalinowski Forum, a conference on Belarus organized by the Lithuanian parliament in Vilnius, on March 22.

"Every gesture of solidarity, every sanction toward the dictatorship, every Belarusian refugee saved, every action that makes Belarusians acquire human rights is bringing up a step closer to democracy."

She stressed, however, that Belarus was still in the process of "making a government for the nation" as the opposition continues protests against long-ruling strongman Luksashenka.

"We need your help," she said.

The conference, which featured presentations by the heads of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committees of all three Baltic countries, the European Parliament, Poland, and the Czech Republic, was being held to exchange ideas on what can be done to achieve the goal of "free and democratic elections under the auspices of the" Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Belarus, a Central European country of some 9.4 million people, has been rocked by continual protests since an August 2020 presidential election that was widely seen as having been falsified in favor of Lukashenka, who has ruled the country since 1994.

The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the country's president and have called for an end to the crackdown, the release of detainees, and the holding of a new free and fair election.

Lukashenka's government has responded to the protests with a massive crackdown on dissent that has seen more than 30,000 people detained.

"Over 1,000 cases of torture have been documented by human rights NGOs," Tsikhanouskaya said. "There are 290 political prisoners in Belarus at the moment, and this number is increasing every day. At least eight peaceful protesters were killed."

Tsikhanouskaya stressed that since the election, the Belarusian people had "learned to speak our mind."

"We are better in expressing our opinions and needs, our dreams and worries, our frustrations and fears," she told the forum.

Speaking from Washington later in the day, U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Julie Fisher said the United States supported Tsikhanouskaya's call for new elections this year.

Fisher added that the "last chapter" of Lukashenka's political legacy had "not yet been written" and called on him to open an inclusive dialogue leading to internationally monitored elections before the end of the year.

Many of the speakers at the one-day conference emphasized that Russian President Vladimir Putin's support of Lukashenka was a crucial factor in determining Belarus's future.

Anatol Lyabedzka, the head of the European Dialogue Center who played a leading role in the opposition's Public Constitution Commission in 2020, said the Lukashenka government rested on four pillars: the Kremlin's support, the security forces, the public's fear, and the economic dependence of many Belarusians on the state.

If not for the Kremlin's support for Lukashenka, Lyabedzka said, the Belarusian opposition would not need outside help. He warned Europeans to resist efforts by Lukashenka and Moscow to divide them.

A military court in Moscow has rejected a lawsuit filed by jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny against the Main Military Investigative Directorate (GVSU) over its refusal to launch an investigation into his poisoning in Siberia with a nerve agent last August.

Judge Andrei Tolkachenko of the 235th Garrison Military Court, ruled on March 22 that "the GVSU's decision" not to launch a probe into Navalny’s poisoning was "legal and well-grounded," and that Navalny's lawsuit was "not worth considering."

Navalny's attorney Vyacheslav Gimadi, who is representing him at the hearing, said the ruling will be appealed.

Earlier at the hearing, Judge Tolkachenko revealed that Siberian Transport Police had refused to launch a probe into Navalny’s poisoning due to the "absence of a criminal act," adding that the decision not to start an investigation was made on February 10.

Gimadi stated that neither Navalny nor his lawyers had been informed of that decision.

Navalny's complaint stems from August last year when he fell violently ill on a plane while traveling in Siberia. The aircraft made an emergency landing and Navalny was rushed to hospital where doctors worked to keep the Kremlin critic alive.

After several days in hospital and officials saying they had not found any evidence of poisoning, Navalny, in a critical condition, was flown from Siberia to Germany where he was diagnosed with ingesting what was confirmed by several European labs as a Novichok-type chemical nerve agent.

Navalny's lawyers filed a lawsuit against several officers of the Federal Security Service who were implicated by the Bellingcat investigative group in Navalny's poisoning.

However, the GVSU refused to launch a probe into the attack and Navalny's lawyers filed another lawsuit, this time against the investigative directorate’s inactivity in the case.

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The anti-corruption campaigner has accused President Vladimir Putin of ordering the poison attack, but Russian authorities have denied any involvement.

After receiving treatment in Germany, Navalny returned on January 17 to Moscow, where he was immediately arrested.

On February 2, a court in Moscow ruled that, while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an older embezzlement case that is widely considered politically motivated.

His suspended 3 1/2 year sentence was converted into jail time, though the court reduced that amount to just over 2 1/2 years for time already served in detention.

The court hearing began on March 16, but the judge immediately postponed it until March 22 after Navalny refused to take part in the hearing via a video link from a correctional facility in the Vladimir region where he is being held.

Navalny’s detention set off a wave of national protests and a crackdown against his supporters.

The European Union and the United State have imposed a series of sanctions against Russia over Navalny's poisoning and subsequent detention.

With reporting by TASS, Meduza, and Interfax

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian says that Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian has become Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces "by virtue of law."

Pashinian, who nominated Davtian as the new army chief earlier this month amid a standoff with the armed forces' General Staff and its chief, Onik Gasparian, made the announcement on Facebook on March 22.

President Armen Sarkisian has repeatedly refused to accept Pashinian's proposal to appoint Davtian as the new chief of staff for the armed forces as the country's ongoing political deadlock continues.

"Given that the president has not signed the appointment order drafted by the prime minister and has not appealed to the Constitutional Court, Artak Davtian is deemed to be appointed chief of the Armed Forces General Staff by virtue of law," Pashinian wrote on March 22.

Gasparian was dismissed shortly after he and four dozen other high-ranking officers demanded in a joint statement issued on February 25 that Pashinian and his cabinet step down.

Gasparian and other generals and senior officers had accused Pashinian of pushing Armenia to "the brink of collapse" after last year's war in Nagorno-Karabakh and called for his resignation. This prompted the prime minister to dismiss Gasparian and accuse the officers of a coup attempt.

At the heart of the turmoil is a Russian-brokered deal Pashinian signed in November that brought an end to fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. This came a heavy cost for the Armenian side, which suffered territorial and battlefield losses from Azerbaijan's Turkish-backed military.

The deal saw Armenia cede control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven surrounding districts that had been occupied by Armenian forces since the early 1990s, prompting protests from the opposition and parts of the military.

The Armenian Army's General Staff has said that early elections are the only way out of the ongoing political crisis in the South Caucasus nation.

The move triggered the ongoing stand-off between the government and the opposition, backed by top military officers. Sarkisian has called for talks to ease tensions even though he added to them with his repeated refusal to endorse Gasparian's dismissal.

Both opposition supporters and Pashinian's backers have been holding rallies in the capital since the crisis broke out.

Pashinian has defended the November cease-fire deal saying it was the only way to prevent the Azerbaijani military from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Russia has deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to monitor the peace agreement.

Pashinian, whose My Step faction dominates parliament, has offered to hold snap parliamentary elections later this year but he has refused to resign as prime minister.

Artur Hovannisian, a lawyer for Gasparan, who has challenged the legality of his dismissal in court, said on March 22 that his client would file a complaint against Davtian's appointment.

"Relevant statements on this crime will be sent to authorized bodies," Hovannisian told the Armenian website Aysor.

With reporting by Interfax and TASS

The Russian space agency, Roskosmos, says that a Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 22 carrying 38 foreign satellites after takeoff was twice postponed due to technical issues.

Video posted by Roskosmos showed the Soyuz craft launching early in the morning.

"The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and 38 spacecraft from 18 countries took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome," Roskosmos said on its Twitter account.

The rocket will place in orbit 38 satellites from countries including South Korea, Japan, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, and Brazil.

Among them is the Challenge-1, the first satellite made completely in Tunisia.

The launch had twice been postponed from March 20 after a voltage surge was detected.

Based on reporting by TASS, Interfax, and AFP

Ivan Belozertsev, the governor of Russia's Penza region and a vocal supporter of President Vladimir Putin, has been arrested and sent to pretrial detention for two months on corruption charges.

The Basmanny district court in Moscow ruled on March 22 that Belozertsev must remain in pretrial detention until at least May 20.

The Investigative Committee has accused Belozertsev of accepting a bribe worth of 31 million rubles ($420,000).

A local businessman Boris Shpigel, who heads up the BIOTEK pharmacy group, and several other individuals whose identities were not disclosed, were detained on suspicion of bribing Belozertsev in exchange for getting the inside track on business agreements with the local government.

Belozertsev, a member of the ruling United Russia party, has led the Penza region in the Volga Federal District since 2015.

Media reports said earlier that the bribes were given to Belozertsev in 2020 and included an expensive Mercedes car, a Breguet watch, and cash.

On March 22, Russian news agencies quoted sources close to the investigation as saying that Belozertsev, Shpigel, and other people detained in the case had pleaded not guilty.

A resident of Penza, the region’s largest city and administrative center, told RFE/RL that he and “many other friends” believe Belozertsev is innocent of the charges against him.

“We are unshaken in supporting him. We hope that law-enforcement bodies will examine all of this and that he will continue to work in his position as the governor of Penza,” he added.

Another resident who said he “didn't like him at all as governor,” said Belozertsev “hasn't done absolutely anything [good].”

“Under his rule, prices have gone up, there are no jobs anymore, and the young people who have jobs are like slaves -- they cannot say a word."

In recent years, several regional governors in Russia have been convicted on corruption charges.

The most high-profile case was the arrest of the governor of the Far Eastern Khabarovsk Krai region, Sergei Furgal, in July last year that sparked ongoing protests in the region.

Furgal was charged with being involved in several murders that took place more than 10 years ago. He and his supporters reject the charges, calling the case politically motivated. He was dismissed from the post after his arrest.

Furgal, of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, was elected in 2018 in a runoff that he won handily against the region’s longtime incumbent of the ruling United Russia party.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Brussels on March 22 to meet with NATO and European Union leaders as part of President Joe Biden's efforts to repair transatlantic ties.

Blinken will attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers and consult with allies and the alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on March 23 and March 24, according to the State Department.

The meetings in Brussels are meant to "underscore the Biden administration's determination to strengthen the transatlantic alliance and reinvigorate our ties with allies through NATO," the State Department said.

Among the topics on the agenda are concerns over China and Russia, as well as NATO’s role in Afghanistan, cybersecurity, combating terrorism, climate change, energy security, and other common challenges, according to a State Department statement.

While in Brussels, Blinken will also meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell for talks on the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, climate change, and how to strengthen democracy.

In a briefing ahead of the trip to Brussels, Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, said the United States remains committed to close consultation with NATO allies and other partners on the military mission in Afghanistan.

"We went in together. We will adjust together as we have over the years. And when the time is right, we will leave together," Reeker said.

There are about 10,000 troops in the U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan helping to train and advise Afghan security forces.

Biden has said a May 1 deadline set out in a deal with the Taliban for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops will be "tough" for Washington to meet as peace talks between the militant group and Afghan government struggle to advance.

The relationship with Russia will also be a topic during Blinken's trip to Europe, Reeker said, noting that the Biden administration seeks a relationship that is predictable and stable.

"We will engage with our allies to discuss different views of Russia and how we can engage with Russia in ways that obviously advance our collective interests but remain very clear-eyed about the challenges that Russia poses," he said.

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"Given Russia's conduct in recent months and years, there will also be adversarial elements, as the secretary has underscored, and we're not going to shy away from those," Reeker said.

Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, returned to Moscow on March 21 after being recalled for emergency consultations amid rising tensions with Washington following Biden's comments that he believed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was a killer.

Blinken's trip is another illustration of a foreign policy reset under Biden that stresses diplomacy and backing for long-standing relationships after former President Donald Trump pursued an "America first" policy that tended to treat traditional allies more as rivals than partners.

As the new Biden administration seeks to reassure NATO allies, it also has to coordinate with European partners on a host of issues, including the Iran nuclear deal, policy toward China, climate change, and lingering disputes over trade.

The Belarusian band Galasy ZMesta has prepared two new songs for the Eurovision Song Contest, band leader Dmitry Butakov told Belarusian state television in an interview broadcast on March 21.

One of songs is about bunnies, while the other is more serious, Butakov said, adding that he didn’t know which one would be submitted to replace a song that was rejected by Eurovision organizers.

The European Broadcasting Union on March 11 informed Minsk that Galasy ZMesta’s song I'll Teach You was rejected because it would put the nonpolitical nature of the contest in question.

The song included praise for Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka and used lyrics such as "I'll teach you how to dance to the tune.”

Butakov said in the interview that he believes that the text of the first song was not accepted because "apparently there were some interested people who made it so that they perceived it that way."

Calls to reject Belarus's entrant to the annual Eurovision contest had been growing in the run-up to the event in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on May 18-22.

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Lukashenka has overseen a brutal government crackdown on protests calling for his resignation, fresh elections, and the release of detainees. More than 30,000 people have been arrested, hundreds beaten, and several people killed in the process.

Butakov also said that the band’s stage show will be "old school," noting that the group is not made up of young people.

"Therefore, everything will be somewhere in the old man's way (but) in a good way," he said.

Butakov said Galasy ZMesta songs normally are well received by Western audiences. He said the band's songs are played on the radio in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Canada.

Based on reporting by Belarusian state television and Tut.by

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reiterated Iran's "definite policy" that Washington must lift all sanctions if the United States and its allies want to see Tehran return to its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal.

"Our position is clear and has not changed. All U.S. sanctions have to be lifted in accordance with the...agreement, and then we'll return to the nuclear deal," Khamenei said in a speech broadcast on state TV on March 21.

"The Americans must lift the sanctions, all the sanctions, and then we will verify and if they are truly lifted, then we will return to our JCPOA commitments," he said, using the acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Khamenei also repeated Tehran's position that "maximum pressure has failed" and warned that, if the Biden administration "wants to continue maximum pressure, they will fail as well."

U.S. President Joe Biden has signaled his readiness to revive the accord, but his administration insists Iran must first return to its nuclear commitments, most of which Tehran has suspended in response to US sanctions.

'Difficult, But Not Impossible'

The United States and the three European countries that signed the deal - Britain, France, and Germany - have suggested some changes that would allow Iran to come back, but Tehran has been skeptical.

The deal was meant to provide relief for Iran from international sanctions in exchange for limitations on its nuclear program, which Tehran says is strictly for civilian energy purposes.

The United States pulled out of the deal unilaterally in 2018 under former President Donald Trump, whose administration pursued a policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran over its nuclear and missile programs, as well as its support for regional proxies.

But Biden, who took office in January, has indicated that Washington would be willing to rejoin the JCPOA.

Complicating the matter, however, have been Iran's violations of the deal, including the amount of enriched uranium it can stockpile and the purity to which it can enrich it. Iran also last month began restricting International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of its nuclear facilities.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has been talking to both sides and said earlier this month that he believed a U.S. return to the deal was possible.

"They want to come back," he said on March 16. "But of course...there are a number of issues that still need to be clarified. So it's not impossible. It is difficult, but not impossible."

With reporting by AFP and dpa

Demonstrations took place in Minsk, towns outside the Belarusian capital, and in Warsaw on March 21 as part of ongoing protests sparked by the August presidential election that the Belarusian opposition says was rigged.

Women marched peacefully in the Sukharevo district of Minsk to express solidarity with other women protesters and unprecedented daily demonstrations since the election that have called for the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, a fresh election, and the release of people detained in the government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators.

Small demonstrations were also held in towns near Minsk. Photos on social media showed people holding up the opposition’s red-and-white banner and promoting renewed pro-democracy protests set to kick off on March 25, the anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic, which existed for less than a year in 1918.

In Poland, a small group of demonstrators gathered on the steps of Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science on March 21. They waved Belarusian opposition flags and held banners with slogans indicating their solidarity with demonstrators in Belarus who have been waging the anti-Lukashenka campaign for more than 220 days.

One of the signs had the number 25 in an apparent reference to the upcoming demonstrations, which opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has promoted as a "second wave of protests."

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The March 21 rallies came a day ahead of a forum hosted by the Lithuanian parliament (Seimas) in cooperation with Tsikhanouskaya’s office.

Participants in the forum on March 22 will discuss how to help Belarus emerge from its current political crisis, how to organize negotiations and international mediation, and how to influence authorities in Belarus.

Tsikhanouskaya will participate in the event along with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and David McAllister, chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.

Lukashenka, who is not recognized by many Western governments, has refused to meet with opposition leaders to discuss their demands for his exit and a fresh election.

The authoritarian leader was declared president for a sixth straight term after the August 9 election despite the opposition's belief that Tsikhanouskaya was the rightful winner.

The brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations has included tens of thousands of detentions and thousands of criminal cases.

About 1,000 cases of torture have been documented by human rights NGOs, 290 people are currently being held as political prisoners, and at least eight protesters have been killed, according to Tsikhanouskaya.

One person was killed and three were wounded in a bomb explosion in southeastern Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported, blaming a "terrorist group" linked to Tehran's enemies.

The attack reportedly occurred in the city of Saravan, the site of recent violence, in the restive Sistan-Baluchistan Province.

A group "linked to global arrogance," a phrase that in Iranian media usually describes the United States and its allies, had carried out "the explosion at one of Saravan's squares, leading to one being killed and the injury of three citizens crossing the street," IRNA said.

Sistan-Baluchistan has a border with Pakistan and its population is mainly Sunni ethnic Baluch.

The province has long been a flash point for cross-border attacks by separatists and Sunni militants.

The incident came almost one month after deadly confrontations with fuel smugglers in Sistan-Baluchistan.

Iranian authorities said two people, including a policeman in Saravan, were killed in those clashes.

But the UN Human Rights Office said at least 12 people were reportedly killed, two of them minors, and accused Iranian security forces of using excessive force.

Based on reporting by AFP and IRNA

Russia's ambassador to the United States returned to Moscow on March 21 after being recalled for emergency consultations amid rising tensions with Washington following President Joe Biden's comments that he believed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was a killer.

Biden's remark in a TV interview earlier in the week in turn prompted a terse quip from Vladimir Putin who wished the U.S. president "good health" and said that people tend to refer to others as they really see themselves.

The Biden interview came on the heels of the release of a report by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence that concluded Putin had "authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President [Donald] Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States."

The Kremlin immediately denied the findings of the report, saying they were "absolutely unfounded."

Ambassador Anatoly Antonov landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport early on March 21, Russian news agencies reported, after he was recalled last week over the spat.

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Before takeoff in New York he told news agencies he would stay in Moscow "as long as needed" and that several meetings were scheduled.

"The Russian side has always stressed that we are interested in the development of Russian-American relations to the same extent as our American colleagues are," he was quoted as saying by TASS.

Moscow, which rarely recalls ambassadors, last summoned its envoy in the United States in 1998 over a Western bombing campaign in Iraq.

In 2014, after the U.S. said Russia would face repercussions for the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, Putin held back on recalling Moscow's envoy, describing the measure as a "last resort."

Biden, who has spent more than four decades in politics, said "I do" during an ABC News interview broadcast on March 17 when asked if he believed the Russian president was a killer.

The Kremlin immediately responded that Biden's statement was "very bad" and "unprecedented."

Putin has since proposed a phone call with Biden to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic and regional conflicts, among other topics, and said it should be open to the public.

The Kremlin has suggested the offer was intended to avoid permanent damage in Russian-U.S. relations from Biden's characterization.

Putin's two decades as Russia's leader have included Western accusations of state-sponsored assassination attempts against political opponents at home and abroad, though no U.S. president had previously said in public that they believed the Russian leader was directly responsible for murder.

With reporting by AFP and TASS