CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Amy Cassidy, CNN Irish police have launched a murder investigation after a 23-year-old school teacher was killed while running along a canal path Wednesday. Ashling Murphy, 23, from Tullamore, central Ireland, was found beaten to death at around 4 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET) on the Grand Canal Way at Cappincur in Tullamore,

By Tamara Qiblawi, Jomana Karadsheh and Christian Streib, CNN A German court has sentenced a former Syrian army colonel to life in prison, in the first-ever torture trial against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Anwar Raslan, a senior regime official, headed the investigation unit at a notorious Damascus detention center known as Branch 251. On Thursday,

By Jeremy Herb, Ivana Kottasová, Jennifer Hansler and Natasha Bertrand, CNN Russia has not committed to de-escalate on the Ukrainian border after two rounds of diplomatic talks this week, Deputy US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Wednesday, as the US acknowledged it’s still unclear whether Moscow intends to use the talks this week as

By Katie Hunt, CNN A knight in shining armor straddling a towering horse is a deeply ingrained part of how popular culture portrays the Middle Ages — the mounted battle-winning warrior. But it appears the horses of that era were in fact pony-size — much smaller than their modern descendents, according to the largest-ever study

By Allegra Goodwin and Tara John, CNN The Omicron variant is forecasted to infect more than half of all Europeans in the next six to eight weeks, a World Health Organization official said Tuesday as he urged nations to strengthen mask rules and warned that the window to act was closing. Record Covid-19 cases have

By Catherine Shoichet, CNN The Bronx apartment building that was devastated by a deadly fire Sunday had been a beloved home for many immigrants from The Gambia for years, the West African country’s ambassador to the US told CNN. Around 19 people were killed in the fatal blaze that occurred in a residential apartment building

By Samantha Beech, CNN European Parliament President David Sassoli has died in Italy, according to a Tweet from his spokesman early Tuesday local time. “The @EP_President David Sassoli passed away at 1.15 a.m. on 11 January at the CRO in Aviano (PN), Italy, where he was hospitalized. The date and place of the funeral will

By Sana Noor Haq, CNN From appearing in the Asterix comic book series, to inspiring an avatar on “The Masked Singer,” Vikings have revealed themselves across pop culture sporting horned helmets to symbolize their ferocity and power. However, two horned helmets first discovered in Viksø, Denmark have been traced back to Sardinia in the Bronze

By Laura Smith-Spark, Niamh Kennedy and Joseph Ataman, CNN On January 1, three women were killed in France, each allegedly by a partner or ex-partner, in what feminist campaigners described as an “unbearable” start to another year’s tally of violence. France is just one of many countries grappling with what the United Nations has called

By Joshua Berlinger, CNN Pope Francis has criticized couples who choose to have pets instead of children as selfish, arguing that their decision to forgo parenthood leads to a loss of “humanity” and is a detriment to civilization. The Pope made the comments Wednesday while speaking to a general audience about Saint Joseph, Jesus’ earthly

By Joseph Ataman, Dalal Mawad and Rob Picheta, CNN French President Emmanuel Macron has said he “really wants to piss off” unvaccinated people, intensifying a heated political debate over strict new rules for those who have refused the shot. In an interview with Le Parisien newspaper on Tuesday, Macron said: “I’m not for pissing off

By Joseph Ataman and Tara John, CNN Armed with homemade explosives, fueled by conspiracy theories and fermented during the pandemic, ​French authorities say “The Overthrow” was a potentially dangerous creation. According to documents seen by CNN from the DGSI, France’s internal intelligence agency, the group was a far-right network with diverse ideological roots but a

By Ally Barnard, Alex Stambaugh and David McKenzie, CNN A 49-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged in connection to a large fire that “gutted” South Africa’s Parliament complex in Cape Town on Sunday, according to police. The blaze tore through Parliament on Sunday, causing the roof of one building to collapse and gutting the

By Ghazi Balkiz and Jennifer Hauser, CNN Family members gathered to say their goodbyes to anti-apartheid hero Desmond Tutu at a private service at St. George’s Cathedral on Sunday, where his ashes were interred in Cape Town and laid to rest. At his request, the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s body underwent aquamation — considered to

By Tara John and Sandrine Amiel, CNN The Omicron variant’s rapid spread across France has prompted the government to slash Covid-19 isolation times for vaccinated people and move to further isolate the unvaccinated from public venues in a bid to ease the financial and social burdens of the outbreak. Self-isolation times for fully vaccinated people

By Ally Barnard and Jennifer Hauser, CNN A large fire tore through South Africa’s parliament in Cape Town on Sunday, causing the roof of one building to collapse and gutting the chamber of the National Assembly. Images from the scene showed flames shooting out of the top of one building, sending plumes of thick black

By Sandrine Amiel, CNN A total of 874 vehicles were set ablaze across France on New Year’s Eve as part of a decades-old tradition. But with coronavirus-related restrictions in place, that figure is lower than in previous years, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. A total of 1,316 cars were set on fire in 2019,

By Joshua Berlinger and Tara John, CNN Family, friends and dignitaries gathered for Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s official state funeral on New Year’s Day in Cape Town, capping a week of events honoring a man long considered to be the moral compass of South Africa. Tutu died last Sunday at the age of 90, sparking a

By Laura Smith-Spark and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN Prince Andrew was barely mentioned in the course of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell‘s sex trafficking trial in New York. But the fact jurors found her guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls can hardly be good news

By Kareem Khadder and Celine Alkhaldi, CNN At least four people were shot dead by Sudanese security forces during anti-coup demonstrations near the capital Khartoum on Thursday, the civilian-allied Sudanese Central Doctors Committee (SCDC) said. Authorities fired live bullets and tear gas at crowds in Omdurman, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) northwest of the capital,

By Amy Cassidy and Ghazi Balkiz, CNN Mourners flocked to St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on Thursday to pay their respects to anti-apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu as he lay in state in a simple pine coffin. The coffin was the “cheapest available” at the request of the Nobel Peace Prize winner and human

Opinion by Arwa Damon, Senior International Correspondent I’m crouched down in front of a 10-year-old boy sitting hunched over himself in the Beirut office of my charity INARA, the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance. His dark brown eyes, fringed with impossibly long eyelashes, peer over his facemask. He shakes his head. He doesn’t

By Celine Alkhaldi, CNN Chaos erupted in Jordan’s Parliament on Tuesday, with lawmakers throwing punches at each other after a discussion on a constitutional amendment that would afford greater rights to women got heated. Video of the event shows a handful of lawmakers in a physical altercation, fighting and hurling threats and insults at each

By Anna Chernova, Jack Guy and Niamh Kennedy, CNN A court in Moscow ordered the closure of the Memorial Human Rights Center on Wednesday, in the latest blow to Russian civil society groups. The center was charged with multiple violations of Russia’s “foreign agent” law and “justifying terrorism and extremism” in its publications, a lawyer

By Joshua Berlinger and Stephanie Halasz, CNN Protesters tossed bottles and fireworks at police in eastern Germany on Monday night in some of the most violent demonstrations against public health measures in Europe since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Hundreds of people gathered in various cities and towns on Sunday and Monday to voice their opposition

Story by Reuters An outbreak of avian flu has killed more than 5,000 migratory cranes in Israel, prompting authorities to declare a popular nature reserve off-limits to visitors and warn of a possible egg shortage as poultry birds are culled as a precaution. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met his national security adviser and other experts

By Anna Chernova and Joshua Berlinger, CNN Russia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the closure of Memorial International, one of the country’s most respected human rights organizations, wiping out three decades of work to expose the abuses and atrocities of the Stalinist era. The court ruled that Memorial International had fallen afoul of Russia’s “foreign

By Jeevan Ravindran, CNN The southern French port city of Marseille has made headlines in recent months over the deaths of several young people in drug-related shootouts, in what is often referred to as a “settling of scores.” A spate of killings this summer, including that of a 14-year-old boy named Rayanne in mid-August, prompted

By Nada Bashir, Hamdi Alkhshali and Jennifer Deaton, CNN Israel said on Sunday that it intends to double the population of the contested area of the Golan Heights in the coming years, drawing the ire of the Syrian government. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made the announcement at a special Cabinet meeting held in the

By Joshua Berlinger, CNN On Monday, cathedral bells tolled at midday in Cape Town as South Africa began a week of mourning for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday. As his country marks Tutu’s life and death, people around the world are doing the same, including many from groups

Story by Reuters and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN A suicide bomber struck a restaurant in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern city of Beni on Saturday, killing at least eight people as well as himself, officials said. The explosion took place at INBOX bar where people were celebrating Christmas, according to a security official in Beni.

By Todd Leopold, Larry Madowo and Jessie Yeung, CNN Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Anglican cleric whose good humor, inspiring message and conscientious work for civil and human rights made him a revered leader during the struggle to end apartheid in his native South Africa, has died. He was 90. In a statement

By Tim Lister and Sebastian Shukla, CNN Sixteen European governments have issued a statement to “firmly condemn the deployment of mercenary troops” in the west African state of Mali. The 16 governments, including France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, said they were aware of “the involvement of the Russian Federation government in providing material

By Nima Elbagir and Arnaud Siad, CNN The White House will eject Ethiopia from a trade program between sub-Saharan African countries and the United States over human rights violations, according to a statement Thursday. Ethiopia was found to be in violation of section 506a of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the statement added.

By Katie Hunt, CNN Thousands of years before Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, tiny beads helped humans make social connections. A decade-long study of more than 1,500 beads made from ostrich eggshells and found across Africa has revealed a 50,000-year-old social network, archaeologists say. The donut-shaped beads are among the earliest kinds of personal adornment found

By Angela Dewan, International Climate Editor, CNN Imagine a world entirely free of fossil fuels. That’s no longer such an abstract concept, as most of the everyday things we do can be powered by electricity — driving a car, heating a home, charging a phone or computer — and all that energy could come from

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the life of the former King of Spain. Personal Birth date: January 5, 1938 Birth place: Rome, Italy Birth name: Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor Maria de Borbon y Borbon Father: Don Juan de Borbon y Battenburg, Count of Barcelona, third son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain Mother:

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country has “every right” to “react harshly to unfriendly steps” as the US and NATO continue to pressure Moscow over its aggression towards Ukraine. The US and its allies have warned Russia about the consequences of further hostilities amid its continued military buildup near

CNN Editorial Research Here is a look at the January 2015 terror attacks in Paris. From January 7 to January 9, a total of 17 people were killed in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery store and the Paris suburb of Montrouge. Three suspects in the attacks were killed by police

By Saskya Vandoorne, Adama Koné, Nick Paton Walsh, Dalal Mawad and Jo Shelley, CNN The men were shot as they slept outside, having spent their days underground, choking in the Sahel dust, digging and panning for gold. They were killed by children — some apparently as young as 12 — and men who had arrived

By Katie Hunt, CNN A fossil of a giant millipede found on a beach in northern England has revealed the “biggest bug that ever lived,” paleontologists say. The fossil was discovered in January 2018 in a chunk of sandstone that had fallen from a cliff onto the beach at Howick Bay in Northumberland. The rock

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN The bruises on Maria Árnadóttir’s body were numerous, ranging in color from pale yellow to deep purple. According to court documents, the injuries were caused by Árnadóttir’s boyfriend throwing her around the room while trying to wrestle her phone away from her after she threatened to call the police. For days

By Sheena McKenzie, CNN The Netherlands entered a strict new lockdown Sunday due to fears over the Omicron coronavirus variant, and the UK’s health minister wouldn’t rule out further restrictions, as Europe braces for a surge in Covid-19 infections over the usually busy festive period. Indoor gatherings in the Netherlands will now be limited to

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the life of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, former prime minister of Iraq. Personal Birth date: 1947 Birth place: Karbala, Iraq Marriage: Married, name unavailable publicly Children: Five Education: Mosul University, M.D., 1974 Religion: Shiite Muslim Timeline 1968 – Joins the Islamic Dawa Party. Al Dawa (formally the Hizb al-Dawa al-Islamiyya

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the life of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Personal Birth date: 1935 Birth place: Safed, Palestine Marriage: Amina Abbas Children: Three sons Mazen (died in 2002), Yasser and Tareq Education: Damascus University, B.A.; Oriental College (in Moscow), Ph.D. Other Facts His family left the British Mandate area Safed, Palestine,

By Muwafaq Mohammed and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN At least 12 people have died in flash floods caused by heavy rains overnight in northern and northeastern Iraq, Erbil mayor Nabz Abdulhamid told CNN Friday. Videos posted to social media show muddy waters flooding streets and homes in the city of Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous

Story by Reuters Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s new center-right government took office on Friday facing soaring inflation and energy costs, record budget deficits and the dragging Covid-19 pandemic. The 57-year-old former university professor leads a coalition of five parties spanning his fiscally conservative Civic Democrats to the more liberal Pirates party which is entering

By Andrew Carey, CNN An Israeli man has died in a shooting in the West Bank, according to the Israeli army and emergency responders. An unknown assailant, or assailants, opened fire on a car near the settler outpost of Homesh, about 20 kilometers (approximately 12 miles) to the northwest of Nablus, an army spokesman said.

CNN Editorial Research Here is a look at the life of Pakistan‘s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Personal Birth date: December 25, 1949 Birth place: Lahore, Pakistan Birth name: Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Father: Muhammad Sharif Mother: Shamim Akhtar Marriage: Kulsoom Sharif (until September 11, 2018, her death) Children: two sons and two daughters Education:

CNN Editorial Research Here is a look at the life of Khaled Meshaal, former political leader of Hamas. Personal Birth date: 1956 Birth place: Silwad, West Bank Birth name: Khaled Meshaal Father: Imam, name unknown publicly Mother: Name unknown publicly Marriage: Name unknown publicly, (1981-present) Children: Seven Education: Kuwait University, Bachelor of Science in Physics,

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the life of Sudan’s former leader, Omar al-Bashir. Personal Birth date: January 1, 1944 Birth place: Hosh Bannaga, Sudan Birth name: Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir Father: Name unavailable publicly Mother: Name unavailable publicly Marriages: Fatima Khalid; Widad Babiker Omer Education: Sudan Military Academy, 1966 Military service: Sudanese Armed

CNN Editorial Research Here is a look at the life of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who succeeded his half brother King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz on January 22, 2015. Personal Birth date: December 31, 1935 Birth place: Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Father: King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman al Saud Mother: Hassa bint Ahmed al-Sudairi

CNN Editorial Research Here is a look at the life of France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Personal Birth date: December 21, 1977 Birth place: Amiens, France Birth name: Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron Father: Jean-Michel Macron, professor of neurology Mother: Françoise Noguès-Macron, physician Marriage: Brigitte (Trogneux) Macron (2007-present) Education: Université Paris Nanterre; Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris

By Allegra Goodwin and Joshua Berlinger, CNN Sergey Tikhanovsky, the husband of Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison at a high-security penal colony, Belarusian state media BelTA reported on Tuesday. After a trial that took place largely behind closed doors, Tikhanovsky was convicted on charges including “organizing mass

By Hannah Ritchie, Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou and Lauren Kent, CNN The Swedish Coast Guard is investigating whether alcohol contributed to an early Monday morning cargo ship crash in the Baltic Sea. A British citizen and a Croatian citizen have been detained as suspects in Sweden’s preliminary probe into the collision, according to a Swedish Public