- 20:00 16/03/2009
European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to extend the suspension of a travel ban on the president of Belarus as part of moves to encourage progress in democracy and human rights. 
- 19:17 16/03/2009
- 18:48 16/03/2009
Monday's launch of a Russian 'Rockot' carrier rocket carrying Europe's first GOCE satellite has been postponed for at least one day, an official from the European Space Agency said, without giving a reason for the postponement.
- 18:32 16/03/2009
Russia will provide 2.36 billion rubles ($70 million) in financial assistance to Abkhazia and 2.8 billion rubles ($80 million) to South Ossetia from the federal budget, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.
- 17:26 16/03/2009
South Korean opposition parties called on Monday for fundamental changes to the government's confrontational policy towards the North, a South Korean newspaper reported.
- 16:55 16/03/2009
Former Waffen SS veterans and their supporters held a demonstration in the Latvian capital on Monday despite a ban by the Riga Duma, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.
- 16:39 16/03/2009
The Russian state-controlled banks Sberbank, VTB and Vnesheconombank (VEB) have granted over 2 trillion rubles ($57 billion) in loans to core enterprises, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Monday.
- 15:35 16/03/2009
Moscow has no intention of sending a military contingent to Afghanistan, the Russian foreign minister said on Monday.
- 15:26 16/03/2009
Russia's largest diamond company Alrosa could become the world's top diamond mining company, and is considering buying foreign assets, the company CEO said on Monday.
- 14:34 16/03/2009
Lebanon officially opened its embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday for the first time since the countries gained independence in the 1940s, a RIA Novosti correspondent said.
- 14:16 16/03/2009
Researchers at Bonn University's Egyptian Museum aim to recreate a perfume used by Egypt's best-known female pharaoh, by analyzing residue from a well-preserved flacon, the museum said in a statement.
- 14:08 16/03/2009
The trial of Josef Fritzl, accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children, began in the Austrian town of St. Poelten on Monday.
- 13:46 16/03/2009
Mohammad Khatami, the Iranian reformist leader and former president of the Islamic Republic, has officially withdrawn from June's presidential elections, Iranian media reported on Monday.
- 13:35 16/03/2009
Russia has proposed that compulsory international standards for macroeconomic and budget policy be adopted in a new document to the G20 addressing the global financial crisis, the Kremlin website said on Monday.
- 13:17 16/03/2009
Russia has paid at least $10 million since 2006 to U.S. public relations agencies hired to improve its image on the global stage, a Russian magazine said on Monday.
- 11:53 16/03/2009
Israel's prime minister has postponed until Tuesday a cabinet session to debate a Hamas prisoner swap aimed at securing the release of a soldier seized by militants almost 3 years ago, his press service said on Monday.
- 11:32 16/03/2009
Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz has over $4 billion in debts, with two-thirds of this sum due to be repaid by the end of 2009, a Ukrainian business paper reported on Monday.
- 10:46 16/03/2009
Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe will arrive in Moscow on Monday on a three-day visit to discuss bilateral energy and metals projects with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
- 10:10 16/03/2009
Russia will launch on Monday a Rockot carrier rocket bearing Europe's first GOCE satellite, an official from the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
