European culture

Despite harsh criticism from rights groups, international organisations and the media, the assembly of Republika Srpska, one of two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Thursday adopted draft amendments to the criminal code, making defamation a crime. 

With 48 votes in favour and 21 against, the law will go to a 60-day public consultation period before its final adoption. 

The picture of Jackson Pollock, which was discovered in Bulgaria by the Main Directorate "Fighting Organized Crime", was part of the personal collection of the Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu, reported the Bulgarian National Television from sources familiar with the investigation.

This is evident from a stamp in Romanian on the back of the picture.

The Croatian writer, essayist and translator Dubravka Ugresic died on Friday in Amsterdam, the Zagreb Multimedia Institute announced.

"We successfully occupied a hill, an elevation that was strategically important for that area. From that place, you can see the surroundings and all the access roads north of Bakhmut. We can see that those access roads can no longer be passed as the enemy would like," a member of "Wagner" group that performs a series of tasks in that direction told Sputnik.

The aspiration for Slovenia to take on a more prominent role on the global stage, also in view of its bid for the UN Security Council, and a shift of focus back to the core Europe headlined discussions at the annual meeting of Slovenian diplomats at Brdo pri Kranju.

Archaeologists in Norway said on Jan. 17 that have found a runestone which they claim is the world's oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

Maria Sakkari took umbrage with opponent Diana Shnaider's vocal celebrations after winning points at the Australian Open on Wednesday but silenced the teenage qualifier with a finger-wagging rant on the way to a comeback 3-6 7-5 6-3 win.

He warned that it could happen on the anniversary of the conflict, on February 24 or in March.
"We have to prepare for such events every day. So, we are getting ready... The first and last question is always about weapons, aid that will help us defeat this aggressor who attacked our country," said Danilov.

With Asian visitors still largely absent, major Paris museums struggled to regain pre-pandemic numbers in 2022, despite a huge recovery from the previous year, official figures showed on Jan. 5.

The Louvre, the world's most visited museum, welcomed 7.8 million people last year, a 170-percent increase on 2021, but still down 19 percent on 2019.

More than 21,000 international students from 92 countries are receiving education in the southern province of Antalya, a tourism hotspot that is becoming a preferred choice for foreigners looking to move out.