Pakistan gets a new army chief, but will he play the old game?

Hundreds of police were attending afternoon prayers inside what should have been a tightly controlled police headquarters in the northwest city of Peshawar on Monday when the blast erupted, causing a wall to collapse and crush officers. "Those on duty didn't check him because he was in a police uniform......

Some social media users and media publications are using photos from a 2022 blast that claim to show the aftermath of the suicide bombing that killed at least 100 people in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan on Monday. We tell you where these photos are really from in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been released on bail after starting a hunger strike to protest against his almost seven-month detention, supporters said on Friday. The director had been arrested months before the current anti-regime protests erupted, but his imprisonment became a symbol of the plight of artists speaking...

Pope Francis on Saturday urged South Sudan's leaders to restore "dignity" to the millions of their countrymen affected by conflict, renewing a forceful appeal for peace in the strife-torn nation. On the second day of his visit to South Sudan, a nation that has been at war for around half...

An operation by Western allies reportedly led by France seized a boatload of weapons and ammunition allegedly being sent to Yemen from Iran last month, the US military said. More than 3,000 assault rifles, 578,000 rounds of ammunition and 23 anti-tank guided missiles were recovered in the January 15 operation in the Gulf of Oman, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Wednesday.

The Pentagon said Thursday it was tracking a Chinese spy balloon flying high over the United States, just days ahead of a rare visit to Beijing by the top US diplomat. After President Joe Biden requested military options, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and top military officials considered shooting the balloon down, a senior defense official told reporters Thursday.

A Pakistani who was tortured by the CIA and held in the Guantanamo Bay prison for 16 years after admitting to helping Al Qaeda was released to Belize, the US military announced Thursday. Majid Khan, captured by US authorities in 2003 and interrogated by US intelligence for three years before...

The United States on Saturday downed a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast on orders from President Joe Biden after it hovered over sensitive military sites across North America, becoming the latest flashpoint in tensions between Washington and Beijing. The balloon was spotted in the morning over the...

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced on Thursday the "headlong rush" of Iran's nuclear programme after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Paris to seek a stronger European stance against Tehran. In a statement released after a dinner meeting in the Elysee Palace, Macron warned that Tehran...

Pope Francis on Friday urged the leaders of South Sudan to make "a new start" for peace, warning that history would remember them for their actions, as he began a three-day visit to the violence-wracked country. "The process of peace and reconciliation requires a new start," the 86-year-old pontiff said...

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 ahead of an EU summit in Kyiv, EU Council President Charles Michel said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a decisive moment for the European bloc. “We understood right away that we were faced with violent aggression by Russia, and it was a turning point in Europe’s history,” he said.

The United States and the Philippines on Thursday announced plans to expand America's military presence in the Southeast Asian nation, with access to four more bases as they seek to deter China’s increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea. The agreement was reached as...

Israel expects to fully normalise ties with Sudan sometime later this year, Israel's foreign minister said Thursday, after returning from a lightning diplomatic mission to the Sudanese capital. Eli Cohen spoke to reporters after a one-day trip to Khartoum that included high-level meetings with military leaders, including Sudan's ruling general,...

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who has been jailed for the past six months, said he has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention, according to a statement published by his wife Thursday. Panahi, whose films have won prizes at all of Europe's main film festivals, was arrested in...

In Kinshasa on Wednesday, the pope called for mutual forgiveness as he met with survivors of the brutal three-decade old war in eastern DR Congo. It was just one of the highlights of a three-day visit that comes at a crucial juncture for the nation that is home to Africa's largest Catholic population, one where the Church often fills the role of the state in providing basic social services and where the clergy's mediation matters in what's an election year for DR Congo.

A video posted in early January 2023 showed the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner with a mercenary who was described as Ivorian. By analysing posts shared on social networks and talking to people who knew him at different times in his life, the FRANCE 24 Observers team managed to discover the mercenary's identity and retrace his journey. It all began as an Ivorian bus driver who came to Russia "to find a better life" and was sentenced to prison for drug trafficking, from where he was allegedly recruited by the Wagner Group.

A Chinese spy balloon has been spotted over Latin America, the Pentagon said Friday, a day after a similar craft was seen in US skies, prompting the scrapping of a rare trip to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The Pentagon said the first balloon was now heading...

The US Congress cannot support the $20 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until Ankara ratifies the NATO memberships of Sweden and Finland, a bipartisan group of senators said on Thursday. Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the trans-Atlantic defense pact after Russia invaded Ukraine, but...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday his war-torn country deserved to start EU accession talks already "this year". Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.. All times are in Paris time (GMT+1). This live blog is no longer being updated. For more of our coverage on...

The Israeli military said it struck in Gaza overnight on Thursday, hours after it intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza and following appeals from the United States for all sides to calm escalating violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank. There were no immediate reports of serious casualties. The...