National-World

By Mostafa Salem, CNN (CNN) — When Syria’s rebel-appointed prime minister sat down with officials from the ousted Assad regime for the first time on Tuesday, the backdrop included the flag of the Syrian revolution alongside another bearing the Islamic declaration of faith that is often displayed by jihadists. The choice of optics for the

By Rob Picheta and Chris Liakos, CNN Paris (CNN) — France’s embattled President Emmanuel Macron has appointed centrist ally Francois Bayrou as prime minister, he announced on Friday, as he seeks to calm a political crisis that has left his authority dwindling by the day. Macron’s office made the announcement a week after the former

By Yumi Asada and Karina Tsui, CNN (CNN) — A US serviceman was sentenced to five years in prison for kidnapping and raping an underage girl last year, an official from Naha District Court on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa told CNN. The sentence was made on the grounds that the crime was a

By Daria Tarasova Markina, Lauren Kent and Kosta Gak, CNN Kyiv, Ukraine (CNN) — Russia launched a widespread attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, forcing the country to implement emergency power outages, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday. “The enemy continues its terror. Once again, the energy sector across Ukraine is under massive attack,” Ukrainian energy

By Nectar Gan and Fred He, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — A former Chinese soccer star and coach of the country’s national men’s team has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption, state media reported on Friday. Li Tie, 47, who played for the English Premier League Everton alongside Wayne Rooney in the

By Salma Abdelaziz, CNN (CNN) — In the days following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, Syrians have crowded his regime’s notorious detention facilities in a desperate search for loved ones who were jailed or forcibly disappeared. Thousands of prisoners have now been freed, many after decades of incarceration in brutal conditions. Yet many more

By Jeremy Diamond and Zeena Saifi, CNN Haifa, Israel (CNN) — In the months before Iranian ballistic missiles struck the Nevatim Airbase in October, Iran dispatched spies to film and photograph the site in southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities. The alleged operatives were neither highly trained nor seemed especially suspicious to the people who

By Clarissa Ward, CNN, Brent Swails and Scott McWhinnie, with Lauren Kent and Rachel Clarke Damascus, Syria (CNN) — The bruised and battered bodies inside the morgue of Mujtahid Hospital are hard to look at — tangible evidence of the brutal regime of toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. But crowds of desperate people wait to

By Josh Campbell and Abel Alvarado, CNN (CNN) — A California couple visiting Mexico for the holidays was shot and killed on Wednesday when armed gunmen fired on their vehicle, according to authorities. Rafael and Gloria Cardona were visiting family in Angamacutiro, Michoacan state at the time of the attack, a US official told CNN.

CNN By Clarissa Ward, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Catherine Nicholls, CNN (CNN) — A missing US man has been found in Syria, where he says he was kept in prison for months after entering the country as a pilgrim. Travis Timmerman spoke to several outlets Thursday, after locals saw him walking barefoot in the streets of

By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN Rome (CNN) — An 11-year-old girl has been found clinging to tire tubes off the Italian coast after the migrant boat she was on sank three days earlier. The girl is from Sierra Leone and has been named as “Yasmine” in Italian media. She was found with a life jacket

By Ana DeOliva, CNN Doha, Qatar (CNN) — Nine years ago, the UN established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which included ending poverty and hunger. Yet last year, nearly 750 million people faced hunger — an increase of around 152 million compared to 2019. The G20 Leaders’ Summit in November marked the launch of the