A Georgian court sentenced former president Mikheil Saakashvili in absentia to three years in prison for abusing his pardon powers in a high-profile murder case, The New York Times reported Friday.

The Hanoi People’s Court began proceedings in a massive and politically-charged anti-corruption trial on Monday, making Dinh La Thang the first politburo official to face Vietnamese prosecutors in decades.

A Lithuanian business partly owned by U2’s lead singer Paul David Hewson – or Bono – agreed with the local tax office to pay €53,000 (US$63,743) in additional tax and fine after an audit based on Paradise Papers leaks found the business had not paid all of its taxes.

More than a month into the controversial trial of journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijan court denied his request to attend the funeral of his sister and her two children and be released to house arrest so he could better deal with his loss.

A large wave of protests against the stagnating economy and persistent corruption in Iran prompted clashes between citizens and security forces that have taken 21 lives over the past week.

A federal jury in Manhattan convicted a Turkish banker Wednesday of helping Iran violate US sanctions by making its international transactions look as if they would be payments for food, the Department of Justice said.

A veteran figure of Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was arrested in December for diverting public funds to his party’s gubernatorial election campaigns in a failed effort to boost the PRI’s faltering popularity.

Lawyers for Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijan journalist who disappeared from Tbilisi and was next seen two days later in a Baku prison, asked a judge on Thursday to further question a witness of what Mukhtarli claims was his abduction.

The US Treasury added on Wednesday five more names to the list of Russian individuals sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act, including the leader of the Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kardyrov.

Bitcoin’s 80 percent climb in December made headlines last week and for the lucky investors who can now reap the benefits of its heightened value, the cryptocurreny may seem like a hallmark of the future. But as warnings grow over the risk of a speculative bubble and volatile price fluctuations, another concern has emerged— bitcoin’s anonymity and its potential use in money laundering schemes.