WORLD

Afghanistan’s defence minister and army chief of staff have resigned in the wake of Friday’s Taliban attack that left scores of soldiers dead, the presidential palace says. The attack happened at an army base near the northern Mazar-e Sharif city. Insurgents targeted troops leaving Friday prayers at the base’s mosque and in a canteen, the army said. It was the ...

President François Hollande has called on French voters to reject far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and back Emmanuel Macron to succeed him. The pair will face each other in a run-off vote on 7 May after taking the top places in Sunday’s first round, with Mr Macron the current favourite to win. Mr Hollande said a far-right victory would endanger ...

A new conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has seen hundreds killed, a million displaced and the reported recruitment of thousands of child soldiers. The BBC’s Catherine Byaruhanga has gained rare access to central Kasai region to report on the crisis, sparked by the killing of a rebel leader last year. Paul’s lips tremble, his voice breaks and he ...

Space: the final frontier, the gateway to other worlds and civilizations, a constant source of wonder and speculation. By the way, on that note, what’s it like to poop and have sex up there, anyway? (If you’re wondering what your poop says about your health, though, we have the answer.) These queries, paramount in their importance to the scientific pursuits of ...

Twenty children have been killed in a minibus crash near the South African capital Pretoria, emergency services have said. The children died after the vehicle burst into flames following a collision with a truck just north of the capital. There were understood to be both primary and secondary school-aged children on board. Panyaza Lesufi, the official responsible for education in ...

Russia’s Supreme Court has accepted the government’s request to designate Jehovah’s Witnesses as an outlawed religious group, deeming it to be an extremist organisation. The justice ministry argued that the group had distributed pamphlets which incited hatred against other groups. Lawyers representing the group reject the claims and say they will appeal. The denomination says it has 175,000 members in ...

The Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, turns 91 today, Friday 21 April.She has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February, 1952.She is Head of the Commonwealth and Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her accession: Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, ...

DNA tests on the carcass of a crocodile shot in Zimbabwe have confirmed that it contains the remains of a missing South African hunter, an investigator has told the BBC. Scott Van Zyl was killed last week on the banks of the Limpopo river, said Sakkie Louwrens, director of a South-African crime-fighting NGO. He said Mr Van Zyl disappeared during ...

Nigeria’s foreign spy chief Ayo Oke has been suspended after anti-corruption officers found more than $43m (£34m) in a flat in the main city, Lagos, the president’s office has said. Muhammadu Buhari has ordered an investigation into how the spy agency headed by Mr Oke came into possession of the money, his office added. Mr Oke has not yet commented. ...

The evacuation and transfer of thousands of Syrians from four besieged areas resumed on Wednesday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The reciprocal evacuations from two pro-government villages and two opposition-held towns was disrupted by a bombing on Saturday that killed more than 120 people. A large convoy of buses from the government-held towns of Foua ...