Central Asia

21 March is celebrated as International Nowruz Day. Nowruz marks the first day of spring and is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on 21 March. It is celebrated as the beginning of the new year by more than 300 million people all around the world and has been marked for over 3,000 years in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and other regions.

In Jalalabad, three women who worked for Enikas TV aged between 18 and 20 had died, and a fourth was critically injured, after being shot on their way home from work, Afghan officials have said. The three women dubbed dramas from Turkey and India into Afghanistan’s local languages of Dari and Pashtu.