CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Sana Noor Haq, Gul Tuysuz and Uliana Pavlova, CNN Thirty percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in just over a week, leading to “massive blackouts” across the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as the Kremlin steps up attacks on critical energy infrastructure. “Another kind of Russian terrorist attacks: targeting energy &

By Tara Subramaniam, Mike Hayes, Elise Hammond and Maureen Chowdhury, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Tamara Qiblawi, Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis, Alex Platt, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Celine Alkhaldi and Muhammad Jambaz, CNN A teenage dissident trailed behind a group of smugglers in the borderlands of western Iran. For three days, Rezan trekked a rocky mountain range and walked through minefields along a winding path forged by seasoned smugglers to circumnavigate

By Katharina Krebs, CNN At least 14 people have died after a Russian SU-34 fighter jet crashed into a residential building in the western city of Yeysk during a training flight Monday, according to Russian officials and state media. The incident was due to one of the engines catching fire, reported state-run news agency RIA

By Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN Earlier this year, Iran flaunted a new patriotic song targeting school children around the country. Titled “Salute, Commander,” the song was a tribute to Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Imam Mahdi, a descendant of Prophet Mohammed who Shiite Muslims believe went into hiding in the 10th century and

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN Russia has launched a series of “kamikaze” drone attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks, striking civilian infrastructure and sowing terror in Ukrainian cities far from the frontlines of the war. The Ukrainian government says Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and other cities have suffered a barrage of drone attacks, and pleaded with

By Victoria Butenko, Olga Voitovych and Yulia Kesaieva, CNN Ukrainian officials said at least four people were killed when Russia launched a barrage of Iranian-made “kamikaze” drone attacks in Kyiv on Monday, setting off warning sirens across the capital. Four people were injured in the attacks and 19 people trapped under the destruction have been

By Sahar Akbarzai, Karen Smith and Mitchell McCluskey, CNN The death toll from the worst flooding Nigeria has seen in a decade has passed 600 people, the country’s humanitarian affairs ministry tweeted on Sunday. According to the ministry, more than 2 million people have been affected by flooding that has spread across parts of the

By Tara Subramaniam, Aditi Sangal, Sana Noor Haq and Mike Hayes, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Artemis Moshtaghian and Hira Humayun, CNN Details of a chaotic night marked by tear gas and explosions have emerged from an Iranian prison following a deadly fire at the facility on Saturday. The death toll from the blaze at Tehran’s Evin prison has risen to eight, state-aligned news agency Tasnim posted on Twitter Monday.

By Allegra Goodwin and Chris Liakos, CNN The United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) has said it is “deeply distressed” by reports of nearly 100 naked migrants at the border between Greece and Turkey. “UNHCR is deeply distressed by the shocking reports and images of 92 people, who were reported to have been found at the

By Mariya Knight, Josh Pennington and Chandler Thornton, CNN Two gunmen opened fire on Russian military recruits at a training ground in Russia’s Belgorod region, killing at least 11 people and wounding another 15, Russia’s state news agency TASS reports. The attack took place Saturday during a training session at the Western Military District, according

By Teele Rebane and Olga Voitovych, CNN Mykhailo Yatsentiuk left the basement to make tea for his granddaughter just as the bomb struck. When he came to his senses a half hour later the entire middle section of his apartment block had been destroyed; the basement where he had been sheltering with his family and

By Niamh Kennedy, Negar Mahmoodi, Ivana Kottasová and Andrew Raine, CNN Iran has denied supplying Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine, saying it “has not and will not” do so. The denial, reportedly made in a phone call between Iran’s Foreign Minister and his Portuguese counterpart on Friday, follows claims by Kyiv and US

By Celine Alkhaldi and Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN Video from Tehran has shown a large group of male security forces surrounding and grabbing a female in the street. They eventually let her go and she hurries away quickly. The clip has been shared widely on Persian language news channels outside Iran. Iran’s Vice President for Women

By Philip Wang, Tim Lister, Josh Pennington and Heather Chen, CNN Russia is using rape and sexual violence as part of its “military strategy” in Ukraine, a UN envoy said this week. The claim follows data released by a panel of UN experts recently that verified “more than a hundred cases” of rape or sexual

By Sarah Dean, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin’s devastating war on Ukraine is faltering. Now, there’s a new general in charge — with a reputation for brutality. After Ukraine recently recaptured more territory than Russia’s army took in the last six months, Russia’s Ministry of Defense last Saturday named Sergey Surovikin as its new overall

By Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, Michael Schwartz and Hadas Gold, CNN Clashes erupted in the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and in the West Bank for a sixth consecutive night overnight Thursday into Friday, leaving at least two Palestinians dead. They were killed in the restive West Bank city and refugee camp of

By Mohammed Tawfeeq, Jomana Karadsheh and Tara Subramaniam, CNN Nearly two dozen children were killed last month during protests in Iran, according to a new report by a human rights watchdog that accuses the country’s security forces of targeting young people “with absolute impunity.” The 19-page report released by Amnesty International on Thursday said at

By Tara Subramaniam, Aditi Sangal, Matt Mayer, Sana Noor Haq and Hannah Strange, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Mostafa Salem and Celine Alkhaldi, CNN Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday to “defuse tensions” between Moscow and Doha, a source familiar with the talks, but not authorized to speak about them publicly, told CNN. The United States

By Tim Lister, Olga Voitovych and Katharina Krebs, CNN Russia said Thursday its forces would help evacuate residents of occupied Kherson to other areas, as Kyiv continued to make gains in its offensive to retake the southern Ukrainian region. The announcement by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin came shortly after the head of the

By Nimi Princewill and Aliza Kassim, CNN More than 1.4 million people have been displaced and about 500 people have died in some of the worst flooding Nigeria has seen in a decade, the country’s humanitarian ministry said Wednesday. As of Tuesday, “over 1.4 million persons were displaced, about 500 persons have been reported dead,

By Tara Subramaniam, Aditi Sangal and Jack Guy, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Jomana Karadsheh, Tamara Qiblawi and Adam Pourahmadi, CNN Nearly a month after the start of nationwide protests, parts of Iran now bear the hallmarks of battle zones, with flares lighting up skies, gunfire ringing out and bloody scenes recorded in video footage. “I am recording this video about the situation in Sanandaj,” said one

By CNN staff As women burn headscarves and cut off their hair in nationwide protests, an Iranian official on Tuesday said that school students participating in street protests are being detained and taken to mental health institutions. In an interview with an independent reformist Iranian newspaper, Iran‘s Education Minister Yousef Nouri confirmed that some school

By Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN Amid decades of hostility, Lebanon and Israel on Tuesday reached a historic maritime border deal, finally demarcating a disputed area in the Mediterranean Sea that is believed to be rich in oil and gas. The deal opens doors to exploration and drilling when gas prices are skyrocketing amid a global supply

By Kathleen Magramo, Aditi Sangal and Jack Guy, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Adam Pourahmadi, CNN The mother of Nika Shahkarami, a 16-year-old protester who was found dead in Tehran last month, says her daughter was killed by Iranian security forces at a protest. In interviews with Iranian newspaper Etemad and BBC Persian and a video message published by US-funded Radio Farda, Shahkarami’s mother, Nasrin Shahkarami, rejected

By Mia Alberti, Hadas Gold, Lianne Kolirin and Mostafa Salem, CNN Israel and Lebanon have reached a historic agreement, leaders on each side said separately on Tuesday, settling a years-long maritime border dispute involving major oil and gas fields in the Mediterranean. The United States has been trying to broker a deal between the neighboring

By Kathleen Magramo, Sana Noor Haq, Ed Upright, Adrienne Vogt and Aditi Sangal, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN Editorial Research Iran is a republic in Asia, sharing a border with seven countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey and Turkmenistan. It has been officially known as the Islamic Republic of Iran since the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. About Iran (from the CIA World Factbook)Area: 1,648,195 sq km, slightly smaller than

By Rob Picheta, CNN Multiple explosions rocked Kyiv and several other Ukrainian cities reported blasts and power outages on Monday morning, as Russia lashed out with a massive wave of violent airstrikes that carried echoes of the initial days of its invasion. At least 11 people were killed in the strikes, while 64 were wounded,

David McKenzie and Ghazi Balkiz, CNN Asmani Dadi had heard rumors about the insurgents. Then, one day, they came true. It was July 2020 and Dadi was a student in the town of Mocímboa da Praia, northern Mozambique. “They came … from the forest and began to kill people. When they found children, … they

By Tara Subramaniam, Sana Noor Haq, Ed Upright and Aditi Sangal, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Darya Tarasova and Amy Woodyatt, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold an operational meeting of his Security Council on Monday, just two days after a massive explosion on a key strategic bridge linking Crimea and Russia. The meeting itself isn’t out of the ordinary — Putin regularly holds operational meetings with the Security

By Ivan Watson, Rebecca Wright, Tom Booth and Dinara Salieva, CNN Vadim says he plunged into depression last month after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military draft to send hundreds of thousands of conscripts to fight in Ukraine. “I was silent,” the 28-year-old engineer says, explaining that he simply stopped talking while at work.

By Artemis Moshtaghian, Raja Razek and Jennifer Deaton, CNN An Iranian state broadcaster was allegedly hacked during its nightly news program Saturday, according to the pro-reform IranWire outlet, which shared a clip of the incident. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported that the 9 p.m. newscast by the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN)

By Rhea Mogul, Amy Woodyatt, Matt Meyer, Mike Hayes and Maureen Chowdhury, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Adam Pourahmadi, Idris Muktar Ibrahim, Jomana Karadsheh and Pierre Meilhan, CNN Iran’s security forces shot at protesters and used tear gas in the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Saqez in fresh protests on Saturday afternoon, as weeks of nationwide demonstrations gathered momentum. In Sanandaj, security forces shot and killed a driver in his car,

By Jill Dougherty, Tim Lister and Amy Woodyatt, CNN A huge blast Saturday damaged the only bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland, causing parts of it to collapse. The attack, which disrupted major transport links between mainland Russia and the annexed peninsula, not only struck a blow against Russia’s military effort in Ukraine

By Zayn Nabbi, CNN Ten people, including two teenagers and a young child, were killed in Friday’s explosion at a gas filling station in the northwest of Ireland, local authorities said. Irish police said that among the 10 dead in the blast in Donegal ere four men, three women, a teenage boy, a teenage girl,

By Hannah Ritchie, Tim Lister and Josh Pennington, CNN In a major blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a huge explosion early Saturday severely damaged the only bridge connecting the annexed Crimean Peninsula with the Russian mainland, crimping a key supply route for Moscow’s faltering war in Ukraine. The blast collapsed part of the roadway

CNN’s Aliza Kassim and Niamh Kennedy France has urged all French nationals to leave Iran “as soon as possible,” warning that they risk “arrest, arbitrary detentions and unfair trial.” The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an update on its website Friday warned that “all French visitors, including dual nationals, are exposed to a high

By Jo Shelley, Olga Voitovych and Tim Lister, CNN The bodies of more than 500 civilians have been discovered in territory in northeast Ukraine recently retaken from Russian forces, Ukrainian police say. And as Ukrainian forces liberate more land in the northeast, new burial sites are being discovered in Donetsk. Many appear to contain the

By Tara Subramaniam The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Niamh Kennedy, CNN The world’s oldest and largest competitive Irish dancing organization has launched an investigation after being hit by allegations of competition fixing, warning “unethical behavior cannot and will not be tolerated.” In a statement posted on its website on Thursday, the Irish Dancing Commission said its ethics committee had received “allegations, with

By Olga Voitovych and Joshua Berlinger, CNN Russia carried out a deadly salvo of missile attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia early Thursday, just hours after the Kremlin said it was formally seizing a massive nuclear power plant nearby. The barrage began with pre-dawn strikes, the first of which hit high-rise residential buildings

By Rob Picheta, CNN A Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in Norway on Friday, as Europe’s biggest war for seven decades rages on the continent. Russia’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine means that this year’s announcement will rank among the most closely watched — and complicated — decisions made by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in

By Kathleen Magramo and Sana Noor Haq, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

By Hira Humayun, Mostafa Salem and Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN Iranian security forces have arrested eight people over the death of a 16-year-old teenager, Nika Shahkarami, in Tehran last month, Iranian media said on Tuesday. Family members told BBC Persian that her whereabouts was unknown for 10 days before they found her body in a morgue