(BBC News) Russia is withdrawing 100 of its paramilitary officers from Burkina Faso to help in the war in Ukraine.
They are part of about 300 soldiers from the Bear Brigade — a Russian private military company — who arrived in the West African nation in May to support the country's military junta.
On its Telegram channel, the group said its forces would return home to support Russia’s defence against Ukraine’s offensive in the Kursk region.
There...
(BBC News) The CIA says the suspects in the foiled plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna wanted to kill "a huge number" of people at the event.
The intelligence provided by the agency to Austrian authorities allowed them to disrupt the plot and save "hundreds of lives", CIA's deputy director David Cohen said on Wednesday.
Cohen said that there were "tens of thousands of people at this concert, I am sure many Americans."...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) The Swiss Federal Criminal Court has convicted two executives from an oil exploration company for embezzling more than $1.8 billion from Malaysia’s state investment fund 1MDB.
The verdict on Wednesday was the latest episode in the 1MDB scandal, a complex tale of international corruption that has engulfed a slew of financial institutions and individuals across the globe since allegations of wrongdoing surfaced in 2015.
Prosecutors alleged that Swiss-British national Patrick Mahony and Swiss-Saudi...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has accused United States President Joe Biden’s administration of pressuring his team to censor content on the COVID-19 pandemic in a letter that Republicans have latched on to as alleged evidence of the administration cracking down on free speech.
Zuckerberg said it was “wrong” of the government to pressure social media platforms. He said he regretted buckling to the pressure. The testimony from one of the world’s most...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United Arab Emirates has said it is following closely the case of Telegram messaging app founder and CEO Pavel Durov – who is an Emirati citizen – following his arrest and the extension of his initial detention by authorities in France.
The Russian-born Durov, 39, was detained on Saturday at Paris-Le Bourget Airport in France based on a judicial inquiry opened last month regarding 12 alleged criminal violations involving his popular...
(BBC News) Russia has targeted Ukraine with another wave of strikes, a day after one of its biggest air attacks of the war.
Air raid alerts were issued early on Tuesday, as Ukrainian monitors detected Russian aircraft launching hypersonic missiles. Mass drone attacks have also been reported.
Ukraine's air defence forces say the whole country is under threat of a ballistic weapon attack.
A statement from the Russian defence ministry said long-range air and sea-based precision weaponry...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) For centuries, debate has raged over whether the Shroud of Turin is in fact the original burial shroud of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion about 2,000 years ago. While many believe it to be the real thing, others have dismissed it as a medieval fake.
One of the most researched artefacts in history, the shroud has fascinated historians in part because of the debate about its true age but mostly because of the...
(BBC News) This morning's exchange of strikes between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be a significant escalation.
The Israeli military says around 100 fighter jets carried out what it described as pre-emptive strikes on Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon on Sunday morning. Hezbollah later fired rockets and missiles into northern Israel.
If that 100 figure is correct, it would be the largest Israeli attack on Lebanon since the full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Israel's...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) The Philippines has demanded that China “cease all provocative and dangerous actions” after accusing it of recently firing at aircraft conducting patrols over the South China Sea.
The same aircraft also “faced harassment” from a Chinese jet fighter while on a surveillance flight near Scarborough Shoal on August 19, the Philippines’s South China Sea Task Force said on Saturday in a statement.
The two nations have had heightened maritime confrontations in recent months, causing fears...
(BBC News) Two NASA astronauts who have been stuck in space for over two months are scheduled to return to Earth in February 2025 with SpaceX.
NASA said the Boeing Starliner spacecraft on which astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore had travelled to the International Space Station (ISS) would return to Earth "un-crewed".
The pair took off on what was planned to be an eight-day mission on June 5 but will spend around eight months in...
