(BBC News) An American fighter jet has been shot down over the Red Sea in an apparent "friendly fire" incident, the US military has said.
Both crew from the US Navy F/A-18 Hornet ejected safely, with one suffering minor injuries, according to Central Command.
The incident came after the US carried out a series of air strikes against a missile storage site and command facilities in the Yemeni capital Sanaa operated by Iran-backed Houthi militants.
US Central...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) United States President Joe Biden has signed into law a bipartisan funding bill that averts a government shutdown, days after Congress was thrown into turmoil after President-elect Donald Trump rejected an initial deal.
The White House announced on Saturday that Biden had signed the legislation, which funds the government through mid-March.
“This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted. But it rejects the accelerated pathway to a tax cut...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) More than 700 people have been killed in el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state since May, the United Nations human rights chief has said, imploring the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to halt a siege of the city.
The siege and “the relentless fighting are devastating lives every day on a massive scale,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement on Friday.
“This alarming situation cannot continue....
(BBC News) Russia says six people have been killed, including a child, in a Ukrainian strike in the Kursk region.
This comes after Ukrainian officials said Moscow had launched a fresh missile attack on Kyiv, damaging a building hosting several embassies.
In Russia, the acting governor of the Kursk region said in addition to those killed, several were taken to hospital following the attack on the town of Rylsk.
Alexander Khinshtein said a cultural centre, a fitness...
(BBC News) French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot's ex-husband has been jailed for 20 years after drugging and raping her, and inviting dozens of strangers to abuse her over nearly a decade.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, was found guilty of all charges by a judge in Avignon, southern France. He cried in court as he was sentenced to the maximum term.
He was on trial with 50 other men, all of whom were found guilty of at least...
(BBC News) A US government shutdown could be two days away after President-elect Donald Trump called on Republican lawmakers to reject a cross-party funding bill.
Trump urged Congress to scrap the deal and pass a streamlined bill. His intervention followed heavy criticism of the bill by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Congressman Steve Scalise, the Republican House Majority Leader, indicated on Wednesday night that the bill was dead after Trump denounced it.
The short-term funding bill will need...
(BBC News) A high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces and his assistant have been killed in Moscow by Ukraine's security service, a Ukrainian source has told the BBC.
Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC), was outside a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely, Russia's Investigative Committee (SK) said.
A source in Ukraine's SBU security service claimed Kirillov was "a legitimate...
(BBC News) Iran's National Security Council has paused the implementation of the controversial "hijab and chastity law", which had been due to come into force on Friday.
President Massoud Pezeshkian called the legislation "ambiguous and in need of reform," signalling his intention to reassess its measures.
The proposed new law – which would introduce harsher punishments for women and girls for exposing their hair, forearms or lower legs – had been heavily criticized by rights activists.
The strict...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has lost a confidence vote in parliament, triggering snap elections seven months ahead of schedule.
The vote on Monday came after Scholz’s fragile coalition collapsed, sparking a political crisis in the European Union’s largest economy.
Scholz won the support of 207 lawmakers in the 733-seat lower house, or Bundestag, while 394 members voted against him and 116 abstained. That left him far short of the majority of 367...
(BBC News) The search for survivors in Mayotte, a French island territory in the Indian Ocean, continued on Sunday after it was hit by a powerful cyclone.
Entire settlements were flattened when Cyclone Chido brought wind speeds of more than 225 km/h, with the poorest living in makeshift shelters particularly hard hit.
Some of Mayotte's population of 320,000 have said they are struggling with severe shortages of food, water and shelter.
Mayotte's impoverished communities, including undocumented migrants...
