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Pakistan Officially Charges Ex-President Zardari for Graft

In this June 10, 2019 file photo, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, a Pakistani court charged Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
In this June 10, 2019 file photo, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, a Pakistani court charged Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
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Pakistan Officially Charges Ex-President Zardari for Graft

In this June 10, 2019 file photo, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, a Pakistani court charged Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)
In this June 10, 2019 file photo, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari leaves the High Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, a Pakistani court charged Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)

A Pakistani court on Monday officially charged the country's former President Asif Ali Zardari in two corruption cases, escalating the legal challenges facing the now leading opposition lawmaker and widower of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The development came as Zardari's party and a key anti-government ally were preparing for a massive rally against Prime Minister Imran Khan later this month. Zardari was released on bail on medical grounds last December, six months after his arrest.

Zardari became president in 2008, after Pakistan´s former military dictator Pervez Musharraf was forced to resign. Bhutto served twice as a prime minister before she was killed by the Taliban in a bomb and gun attack in 2007. Zardari served as Pakistan´s president until 2013.

During Monday's court appearance in the capital, Islamabad, Zardari pleaded not guilty to money laundering and corruption charges. He later told reporters he was not surprised by the indictment and that charges are something he routinely faces whenever he is in the opposition.

A member of parliament, Zardari is accused of having dozens of bogus bank accounts, a charge he denies, saying he has been politically victimized by Khan's government. Since coming to power, Khan has vowed to make good on his election campaign promise to eliminate corruption.

The government says the corruption cases against Zadari began during ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's tenure.

Zardari's Pakistan People's Parry and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party have called for a rally in the southwestern city of Quetta on Oct. 18. During his rule, Sharif was targeted by similar mass protests by Khan.

Last week, Sharif - speaking from his exile in London - accused Pakistan's powerful military of rigging the 2018 election that brought Khan to power. Khan has dismissed the allegations as baseless.

The 70-year-old Sharif, who served three times as prime minister, was ousted in 2017 over corruption allegations. Khan, a world-famous former cricket player, came to power in 2018.

Sharif was released on bail last year for four weeks, to seek medical treatment abroad, and has been in London since November. Last month, a court issued arrest warrants for Sharif, who was previously sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption and money laundering charges stemming from disclosures in the Panama Papers.

Pakistani police on Monday initiated another legal case against Sharif over his latest remarks about the military.

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World

Rubio Plans Travel to France to Sell Iran War to Skeptical G7 Allies

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens to US President Donald Trump (not pictured) speaking to the media, as Trump departs the White House for Florida, in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2026. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens to US President Donald Trump (not pictured) speaking to the media, as Trump departs the White House for Florida, in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2026. (Reuters)
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Rubio Plans Travel to France to Sell Iran War to Skeptical G7 Allies

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens to US President Donald Trump (not pictured) speaking to the media, as Trump departs the White House for Florida, in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2026. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens to US President Donald Trump (not pictured) speaking to the media, as Trump departs the White House for Florida, in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2026. (Reuters)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to France this week to try to sell America’s skeptical Group of Seven allies on the strategy of the Iran war that has sent global fuel prices soaring, the State Department said Tuesday.

Rubio will attend a G7 foreign ministers meeting near Versailles outside of Paris on Friday “to advance key US interests” and “discuss shared security concerns and opportunities for cooperation,” the department said.

“Areas of focus will include the Russia-Ukraine war, the situation in the Middle East, and threats across the world to peace and stability,” the department said in a statement released amid conflicting accounts over whether the US and Iran are talking about a resolution to the conflict.

President Donald Trump said Monday that the US and Iran have had discussions, although Iran has denied it. And numerous other countries are involved in nascent efforts to find an off-ramp to the crisis, which has caused the price of oil to skyrocket with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most shipping, including tankers.

Nearly all of the other G7 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — have reacted coolly at best to the US-Israeli military operation against Iran and have declined to participate, drawing Trump's ire even as he maintains the US doesn't need their help.

Trump has lashed out a number of G7 members and NATO allies for not responding to his calls for help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, although in recent days several of them had indicated a willingness to back appropriate action to restore the key waterway to normal traffic.

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German President Calls Iran War a Disastrous Mistake, in Rare Rebuke of Trump

FILE PHOTO: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech at his Bellevue Palace residency in Berlin, Germany, November 9, 2025. Maryam Majd/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech at his Bellevue Palace residency in Berlin, Germany, November 9, 2025. Maryam Majd/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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German President Calls Iran War a Disastrous Mistake, in Rare Rebuke of Trump

FILE PHOTO: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech at his Bellevue Palace residency in Berlin, Germany, November 9, 2025. Maryam Majd/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech at his Bellevue Palace residency in Berlin, Germany, November 9, 2025. Maryam Majd/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

The Iran war is a "disastrous mistake" that breaches international law, Germany's president said on Tuesday in an unusually blunt rebuke of US President Donald Trump's foreign policy, which he said marked a rupture for German ties with its biggest post-war ally.

In a scathing verbal attack, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose largely ceremonial role allows him to speak more freely than politicians, took a far more critical line than Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has skirted questions on the war's legality.

"Our foreign policy does not become more ⁠convincing just because we ⁠do not call a breach of international law a breach of international law," Steinmeier, a former foreign minister from the center-left Social Democratic Party, said in a speech at the foreign ministry.

"We must address this with regard to the war in Iran. For, in my view, this war is contrary to international law," he said, adding he had little doubt that the ⁠justification of the imminent nature of an attack on US targets did not hold water.

Calling the war unnecessary and a "politically disastrous mistake", Reuters quoted Steinmeier as saying that Trump's second term marked a rupture in German foreign relations as profound as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Just as I believe there will be no going back in relations with Russia to before February 24, 2022, so too do I believe there will be no going back in transatlantic relations to before January 20, 2025," said Steinmeier.

Germany had to apply lessons it learned in extricating itself from "excessive dependencies" on Russia and apply them to the US, ⁠particularly in ⁠defense and technology, which translate to power, he said.

Germany has stressed the importance of creating alternatives to US-dominated technology as concerns grow over US access.

China returned to being Germany's top trading partner in the first eight months of 2025, overtaking the US as higher tariffs weighed on German exports. Trade between the US and Germany amounted to more than 163 billion euros ($190 billion) over that period.

The recent spat between the Pentagon and Anthropic over safety guardrails surrounding the latter's artificial intelligence could be a wake-up call, or even an opportunity, for Europe, said Steinmeier.

"Europe as a technology hub has talent, markets, opportunities and, importantly, ethical standards. We should build on these," he said.

World

Iran Arrests 466 People Accused of Online Activity Undermining National Security

A resident looks at the damage to a destroyed apartment block in northern Tehran as he stands next to a dust-covered car with the words "Down with the USA" written on its rear window on March 23, 2026. (AFP)
A resident looks at the damage to a destroyed apartment block in northern Tehran as he stands next to a dust-covered car with the words "Down with the USA" written on its rear window on March 23, 2026. (AFP)
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Iran Arrests 466 People Accused of Online Activity Undermining National Security

A resident looks at the damage to a destroyed apartment block in northern Tehran as he stands next to a dust-covered car with the words "Down with the USA" written on its rear window on March 23, 2026. (AFP)
A resident looks at the damage to a destroyed apartment block in northern Tehran as he stands next to a dust-covered car with the words "Down with the USA" written on its rear window on March 23, 2026. (AFP)

Iranian police arrested 466 people accused of online activities aimed at undermining national security, state media reported on Tuesday, in one ‌of the biggest ‌security sweeps ‌since ⁠the start of ⁠the war with Israel and the United States.

Iranian media have reported more ⁠than 1,000 ‌arrests ‌over the course of ‌the month, pertaining ‌to individuals accused of filming sensitive locations, sharing anti-government content online, ‌or "cooperating with the enemy".

A police statement ⁠said ⁠the arrests followed intelligence and technical monitoring in recent days, alleging the individuals were connected to “enemy” networks seeking to create internal instability.