Dressed in gray coats with white scarves, Russian athletes marched into South Korea’s Pyeongchang Stadium carrying the Olympic flag instead of their own.

Russian athletes enter the stadium at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, 9 February 2018. (Photo (c): Daniel Karmann / Picture-Alliance / DPA / AP Images.)

Three years after I investigated bogus international awards sold for thousands of euros, I got invited to pick up mine -- for a small fee of just €4,750.

A screenshot of the Otherways web site.

For long-serving spy Gjorgi Lazarevski, a 2010 raid on one of Macedonia’s few remaining independent TV stations was the last straw.

Gjorgi Lazarevski, a former Macedonian intelligence officer who helped expose a massive wiretapping scheme that brought down the government. (Credit: Nova TV)

ROME, Italy - On a hot night in early July, the southern Italian region of Calabria woke to the roar of helicopters and the wail of police sirens.

Shrouded in darkness, more than a thousand policemen in full military gear swept the streets of 19 towns on the very toe of Italy’s boot, entering neighborhoods where they seldom go.

(Photo: Eneas De Troya, CC-BY 2.0)

Belgrade's High Court (Photo: Milica Stojanovic)

On the early morning of Dec. 12, 2012, police came to the home of Miroslav Miskovic, one of Serbia’s most prominent businessmen, and escorted him into a car as cameras rolled. In no time, his arrest on allegations of corruption that cost the state €33 million (US$ 34.47 million) was breaking news on every Serbian television station and web portal.