Leaders from within the Muslim world and from the wider international community were swift to criticise the move, and warned of the potential for violence and bloodshed as a result. Mr Trump also approved moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, making America the first country in the world to officially recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The status ...

Nine people have been killed and dozens injured after Taliban militants wearing burqas stormed a college in Peshawar as Pakistan marked the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, officials said. Police said at least three militants opened fire at security guards near the gates of the Agriculture Training Institute, injuring one person before making their way inside and targeting student accommodation. Authorities said ...

A Christmas market was evacuated in the German city of Potsdam on Friday after a nail-packed device was found nearby. According to Brandenburg’s interior minister Karl-Heinz Schröter, the package left behind at the pharmacy contained nails and a powder, which was being analysed to determine whether it was an explosive. Germany is on high alert for potential terrorist attacks nearly a ...

Opposition activists in Zimbabwe have said they will launch a fresh campaign to bring democratic reforms to the impoverished southern African country after the new president announced a fresh cabinet with key roles for veterans of the ruling Zanu-PF party and senior soldiers but no posts for the opposition. Emmerson Mnangagwa took power after a military takeover and popular protests ousted Robert ...

Ms Ardern tweeted to confirm she is among almost 4,000 people across New Zealand who have signed up to take part in a nationwide Secret Santa. For the uninitiated, Secret Santa sees participants draw names at random and buy (usually small) gifts for each other without revealing who they are from. Those taking part in New Zealand’s Secret Santa are set ...

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s Front National, has claimed that she and her party are victims of a “banking fatwa” after HSBC closed a bank account she had had for 25 years. The move by Britain’s biggest bank comes amid heightened scrutiny of political accounts and the day after Société Générale, France’s second-largest bank, asked the far-right party to ...

A Pakistani court has ordered the release of Hafiz Saeed, an alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in a move likely to worsen the country’s tattered relationship with the US. The Islamist cleric, who heads Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) – listed by the UN as a terrorist group – and has a $10m(£7.5m) US bounty on his head, is expected to ...

Zimbabwean police have charged an American citizen with a new offence of plotting to overthrow a constitutionally elected government, her lawyer has said. Martha O’Donovan had earlier been charged over a tweet that appeared to insult Robert Mugabe, weeks after the president appointed a cybersecurity minister to police social media. O’Donovan was detained on Friday morning, a US embassy spokesman told ...

Trump leaves on Friday for Hawaii, the first stop en route to Asia where he will visit Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. It will be the longest Asia tour by an American president in more than 25 years. His goal will be to increase international support for an effort to deprive North Korea of resources as leverage ...

Pence discussed his plans at a religious dinner in Washington, where he stressed the Trump administration’s commitment to helping Christian minority groups across the Middle East. “President Trump has directed me to go to the Middle East in late December,” Pence said in a keynote speech delivered at In Defense of Christians’ annual solidarity dinner for Christians in the Middle ...