World News

Hamas has released a video of a 19-year-old Israeli hostage amid a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza. In an undated recording, Liri Albag - one of five female soldiers kidnapped in Hamas's October 7 attack - speaks under duress and shares her anguish at having been held for 450 days. Speaking in Hebrew, she calls for the Israeli government to secure her release and says: "Today is the […]

A young boy has been found alive five days after going missing in a "lion-infested" game park in Zimbabwe, officials have said.Tinotenda Pudu, seven, went missing from his home in a rural community on 27 December and "unknowingly headed into the perilous Matusadona game park," a Zimbabwean MP stated. A search operation was launched and footprints were discovered in a valley on 30 December - with the boy miraculously being […]

Every nation has its heroes, history and myths.In Sudan, the points of pride are literal. Our desert is home to more pyramids than any other country in the world. These pyramids were built by the rulers of the Nubian civilisation, ancient Egypt's rival, in the Upper Nile Valley. For decades, the racism of early archaeologists diminished the glory of ancient Nubia. Upon discovering the pyramid of Nubian Pharoah Taharqa, the […]

Six days of funeral events are under way for the former US president Jimmy Carter.The 100-year-old Democrat, who served one term in office from 1977 to 1981, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family on 29 December. He was the oldest living former US president.A motorcade with his flag-draped coffin set off from the Phoebe Sumter Medical Centre in Americus, where ex-Secret Service agents who protected […]

More than 6,000 prisoners have been released in Myanmar as part of an amnesty to mark the 77th anniversary of the country's independence from Britain.The head of Myanmar's military government has granted amnesties for 5,864 prisoners from the Southeast Asian country, as well as 180 foreigners who will now be deported, state-run media said. The freed inmates included just a small proportion of hundreds of political detainees locked up for […]

A waiter accused of supplying drugs to Liam Payne prior to his death has been arrested, according to Argentinian media.Braian Paiz, 24, was one of five people charged over the pop star's death on Monday, and was ordered to appear in court. The 31-year-old pop star died after he fell from a third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires on 16 October last year. Image: Payne fell […]

Drive an hour outside China's commercial capital Shanghai, and you'll reach Elon Musk's Tesla gigafactory.It manufactures almost one million Tesla cars a year and produces more than half of all its cars worldwide. But with US president-elect Donald Trump preparing to move into the White House, the relationship between his best buddy Elon Musk and the leadership of China's Communist Party is in sharp focus. Image: Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory. Pic: […]

Israel has confirmed it is holding the director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza following reports of his arrest last week.Dr Hussam Abu Safiya was held along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre during a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital on 27 December.The Israeli military said they targeted the hospital as it was being used a command centre by Hamas […]

Did the authorities fail the victims of the New Orleans terror attack? It's barely in question, surely.And yet, consider the response of Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick of New Orleans police when I asked if she'd let them down by not having an appropriate security plan. "That's not correct, we would disagree with that.""It has to be a security failure?" I suggested. Image: Pic: Reuters "We do know that people have lost […]