CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Delia Gallagher and Rob Picheta, CNN Pope Francis has said that his predecessor Pope Benedict, the 95-year-old former pontiff who resigned from the post nine years ago, is “very sick” after a deterioration in his health on Wednesday. “I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict who sustains

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN For Andrei Soldatov and his friends, February 24 marked the end of Russia as they knew it. In the early hours of that day, President Vladimir Putin announced that he had ordered Russian troops into Ukraine. “And all of a sudden, everything we still believed in got completely compromised,” Soldatov, a

By Rob Picheta, CNN As a year dominated by Russia’s war on Ukraine draws to a close, Vladimir Putin has made a point of suggesting he is open to peace talks despite evidence to the contrary, with comments that have been roundly dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a ruse at a time when

By Gul Tuysuz, Pierre Bairin, Svitlana Vlasova and Will Ripley, CNN For Olena Isayenko, the beeping sound her oxygen machine makes when disconnected from power is far scarier than the screeching of the air raid sirens now commonly heard throughout Kyiv. She suffers from respiratory failure, meaning she can’t breathe adequately on her own and

By Josh Pennington, Olga Voitovych and Jessie Yeung, CNN Three Russian servicemen were killed Monday after a Ukrainian drone was shot down by air defenses as it approached a military airfield in Saratov Oblast, deep inside Russian territory, according to Russian state news agencies, citing the defense ministry. The incident took place in the western

By Mariya Knight and Josh Pennington, CNN Russia is prepared to resume gas supplies to Europe via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which was previously stopped for political reasons, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Russian state news agency TASS on Sunday. “The European market remains relevant, as the gas shortage persists, and we have

By Sahar Akbarzai and AnneClaire Stapleton, CNN All of the people feared missing after an avalanche Sunday near the mountainous villages of Lech and Zurs in Austria have been found alive, according to the Austrian Press Agency (APA). Four have been injured, including one seriously, it reported. A final sweep of the area will be done on

By Sophie Tanno, Svitlana Vlasova and Dennis Lapin, CNN President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukrainians to have “patience and faith” in a defiant Christmas address after a deadly wave of Russian strikes pounded the southern city of Kherson. Ten months into Russia’s war on Ukraine, Zelensky spoke of endurance and pushing through to the end,

By Sahar Akbarzai and Shafi Kakar, CNN A group of women took to the streets in the city of Herat in Afghanistan on Saturday, protesting against a Taliban order this week suspending all female students from attending university in the country. Video footage circulating on social media showed Taliban officials using a water cannon to

By Delia Gallagher Pope Francis asked people this Christmas to “do something good,” during his homily at Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Saturday. “God does not want appearances, but concreteness,” the Pope said. “May we not let this Christmas pass without doing something good.” Earlier this month, Francis had asked

By Xiaofei Xu, CNN Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in central Paris on Saturday, as members of the local Kurdish community took to the streets to call for justice following Friday’s deadly shooting at a Kurdish cultural center. Live images from CNN’s affiliate BFMTV, as well as news agencies Reuters and AFP