CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Rob Picheta and Henrik Pettersson, CNN The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine has placed heightened importance on the United States’ and NATO’s defenses across eastern Europe, which for decades have acted as a buffer between Russia and the West. NATO has four multinational battalion-size battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which

By Mostafa Salem and Ramin Mostaghim, CNN The beheading of a 17-year-old girl​,​ allegedly by her husband​, in ​western Iran’s Khuzestan province last week has once again raised concern over ​the country’s laws around murder and gender-based violence. Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) referred to the alleged murder as an “honor killing.” ​A

By Katie Hunt, CNN A child’s tooth unearthed from a French cave has revealed the earliest evidence of humans — Homo sapiens — living in western Europe. The discovery of the molar from Grotte Mandrin, near Malataverne in the Rhône Valley in southern France, along with hundreds of stone tools dating back about 54,000 years

By Hada Messia, Sharon Braithwaite and Hannah Ryan, CNN The body of a 70-year-old woman has been found in her house in northern Italy, two years after her death. Marinella Beretta lived alone near Lake Como in Lombardy. Her decomposed body was discovered on Friday by the Como fire brigade following complaints that a tree

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN The German government has appointed Jennifer Morgan, the long-time boss of Greenpeace International, as its new special envoy for climate, the country’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock announced on Wednesday, giving a boost to the green credentials of the country’s coalition government. The new appointment comes as the German government faces intense

By Tim Lister, CNN As world leaders scramble to find a diplomatic solution over the ongoing Russia-Ukraine tensions, talk has turned to the 2015 Minsk Agreement as a possible way out of the crisis. The agreement, the second of its kind (and the one that matters), was hammered out in the Belarusian capital in a

By Andrew Carey, Abeer Salman and Amir Tal, CNN Large crowds turned out in the West Bank city of Nablus Tuesday for the funerals of three men shot dead by Israeli forces. The three belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah organization, according to the militant group, which named

By Richard Allen Greene and Hada Messia, CNN Pope Benedict XVI has pushed back against accusations that he knew in 1980 that a priest under his control was an abuser, while denying he had intentionally concealed his presence at a meeting about the priest that year. Benedict, now 94, became the first Pope in centuries

By Eliza Mackintosh and Nathan Hodge, CNN As French President Emmanuel Macron visited his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Tuesday for diplomatic talks on the country’s crisis with Russia, Moscow indicated there were “points of convergence” laid out by Macron during his five-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier. But

By Abbas Al Lawati and Eoin McSweeney, CNN Iran and the United States return to Vienna on Tuesday for another round of talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement abandoned by the Trump administration. There have been enough indications of progress from both sides to suggest that negotiations have entered a critical phase, but

By Eliza Mackintosh, Nathan Hodge, Uliana Pavolva Dalal Mawad and Nada Bashir, CNN In the tense standoff between Russia and Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has emerged as a central figure in Europe’s diplomatic efforts to diffuse potential conflict. As the United States moves forces to Eastern Europe to support its NATO allies and Russia

By Celine Alkhaldi and Nimi Princewill, CNN Crowds gathered in Morocco’s northern Chefchaouen province on Monday to attend the funeral of five-year-old Rayan Aourram, who died after being trapped in a well for four days. Hundreds of mourners carried Rayan’s coffin, and laid him to rest two days after he passed away. Rayan was confirmed

By Andrew Carey and Amir Tal, CNN Israel’s government is set to consider opening a commission of inquiry into the police amid growing anger over the alleged police use of Pegasus hacking software against a wide array of senior public figures. The development comes after a new report by the business news website Calcalist alleging