Author: BBC News Service
From Helen Sullivan, Tabby Wilson/ BBC News The suspect in a shooting near the White House was killed in an exchange of fire with Secret Service agents on Saturday evening, officials have confirmed. BBC’s US media partner CBS has named the suspect as Nasire Best, a 21-year-old man who was known to the Secret Service and had a documented history of mental health conditions. In a post to Truth Social, Donald Trump thanked the Secret Service for their “swift and professional action” in apprehending the gunman, who he said had a “violent history and possible obsession with our Country’s most…
By Zoya Mateen/BBC News Delhi Indian politics has acquired an unusual mascot: the cockroach. A satirical collective that takes inspiration from the insect – stubborn, reviled and considered indestructible – has attracted millions of online followers and mainstream media attention in less than a week, making even veteran politicians sit up and take notice. The cockroach was thrust into the spotlight last week after controversial comments made by India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant. During a hearing, he allegedly compared unemployed young people drifting towards journalism and activism with cockroaches and parasites. He later clarified that he was referring specifically to…
By Kelly Ng/BBC News A court in Pakistan has sentenced a man to death over the murder of a teen social media influencer that sparked uproar across the country. Umar Hayat broke into the home of 17-year-old TikTok star Sana Yousaf in June last year after she rejected his repeated advances, and shot her dead. Hayat, now 23, admitted his crime in July, saying he had developed a one-sided obsession with Yousaf after some interactions online. Yousaf’s father Syed Yousaf Hassan said the verdict handed down by the Islamabad court was “a lesson for all such criminals in society”, local media reported.…
The virus is believed to have killed 136 people in the DR Congo
By Caroline Hawley and Ghoncheh Habibiazad/BBC News The line is crackly. But the voice of Mehrab Abdollahzadeh is clear and, given the circumstances, surprisingly steady. He’s on death row in western Iran. He speaks quickly – as if time is running out. And his message is desperate. “You are hearing my voice from Oromiyeh Central Prison, and this may be the last time you hear it,” he says in a voice note obtained by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. “From the very first day of my arrest, they forced confessions out of me through torture and threats, confessions that were…
By Thomas Mukhwana/Janes Gallagher, BBC News. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern. The agency said the outbreak in DR Congo’s eastern Ituri province, which has seen around 246 suspected cases and 80 deaths reported, does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency. But it warned it could potentially be “a much larger outbreak” than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant risk of local and regional spread. The current strain of Ebola is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, the health…
US President Donald Trump has warned Iran the “clock is ticking” as talks to bring the war to an end have stalled. “They better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!” The message came as the president spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, the Times of Israel reported, citing Netanyahu’s office. Iranian media meanwhile reported the US had failed to make any concrete concessions in its response to Tehran’s latest proposals to end the conflict. A lack of compromise from Washington…
By Nadine Yousoff/BBC News For decades, Canada was seen as a global laggard in defence funding, and just two years ago, recruitment was so dire that a former defence minister warned the armed forces were in a “death spiral”. Now, the Canadian army is growing at a pace not seen in decades, reaching its highest number of recruits in 30 years and potentially reversing the chronic personnel shortage that has plagued the country’s military. The boost over the last two years comes as the world grapples with major armed conflicts and geopolitical uncertainty, and as Canada commits billions in new…
By Sarah Rainsford/BBC News Southern and Eastern Europe correspondent, Granadilla, Tenerife Almost a month after the first passenger died of the hantavirus on board the MV Hondius cruise ship, it has finally reached Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Intensive preparations have been under way to receive the ship in the port of Granadilla and help more than 100 people onto shore to be repatriated. The Hondius arrived near the port before dawn, but even now it won’t be permitted to reach shore: a security perimeter of one nautical mile will be enforced around the ship as it approaches the island.…
By Bethany Bell/BBC News. A 21-year-old Austrian man has admitted plotting a jihadist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in August 2024. The man, named only as Beran A, also admitted to being part of a terrorist organisation, although he denied other charges including involvement in planning an attack in the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The state prosecutor told the court in Wiener Neustadt near Vienna that police had found an almost completed bomb during a search of the man’s house. Beran A was arrested after a tip-off from the CIA just before Swift’s…
by Simon Atkinson and Kelly Ng/BBC News Plans to erect a statue in New Zealand symbolising the so-called comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War Two have been rejected. The Japanese embassy had warned that the installation of the structure in a public garden in Auckland “could have a significant impact” on the diplomatic relations between the two countries. The bronze statue, which depicts a girl seated next to an empty chair, was given to New Zealand by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance, a non-government group advocating against military sexual slavery. More…
By BBC News/ Colin Ambler cvnznews.com Iran has warned that any further strikes on civilian areas by the United States or Israel will trigger a “much more devastating and widespread” response, escalating fears of a deeper regional conflict as tensions over the Strait of Hormuz reach a critical point. The statement, issued by a spokesman for the Khatam al‑Anbiya Central Headquarters — Iran’s highest operational military command — was broadcast by state media and framed as a direct response to increasingly aggressive rhetoric from Washington. It follows US President Donald Trump’s latest threat to target Iranian power plants and bridges…