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Pakistani Security Forces Kill 9 Militants in a Raid near the Afghan Border

Pakistani security officials control the entrance to the capital of Balochistan province, as the opposition party Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) holds a march in Quetta, Pakistan, 06 April 2025. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMED
Pakistani security officials control the entrance to the capital of Balochistan province, as the opposition party Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) holds a march in Quetta, Pakistan, 06 April 2025. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMED
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Pakistani Security Forces Kill 9 Militants in a Raid near the Afghan Border

Pakistani security officials control the entrance to the capital of Balochistan province, as the opposition party Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) holds a march in Quetta, Pakistan, 06 April 2025. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMED
Pakistani security officials control the entrance to the capital of Balochistan province, as the opposition party Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) holds a march in Quetta, Pakistan, 06 April 2025. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMED

Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the restive northwest near the Afghan border, killing nine militants, the military said Monday.

The military said in a statement that a high-value militant Shireen was among those insurgents killed in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

All the militants who were killed were the "Khwarij,” a phrase the government uses for Pakistani Taliban, and Shireen was behind last month's killing of an army Capt. Hasnain Akhtar in a shootout in the region, the military said.

The Pakistani Taliban are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is an ally of the Taliban in Afghanistan and has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power there in 2021.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, most claimed by TTP.

Though Pakistan often conducts operations against the militants, the latest raid in Dera Ismail Khan came a day after troops killed eight militants in the northwestern North Waziristan district as they tried to cross the border with Afghanistan.

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World

Iran Hangs Man Accused of Spying for Israel

Motorbikes cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Iran Hangs Man Accused of Spying for Israel

Motorbikes cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran on Wednesday hanged a man found guilty of selling information to Israeli intelligence, the judiciary said, the latest in a wave of executions during the war with the country.

Since the start of the conflict with Israel and the United States in February, Iran has ramped up executions, particularly in cases involving alleged espionage or security-related charges
"Ehsan Afreshteh, a spy trained by Mossad in Nepal who sold sensitive information to Israel, has been executed," said the Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website.

"Arrested and tried for espionage and collaboration with the Zionist regime, he was hanged this morning after... the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court," it added, according to AFP.

On Monday, the country hanged an aerospace engineering student who had also been convicted of spying for Israel and the United States.

World

Cypriot President: UN May Put Cyprus Peace Plan Forward this Year

Election campaign billboards of candidates for Cyprus parliamentary election, to be held on May 24, are placed on a street in Nicosia, Cyprus May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou
Election campaign billboards of candidates for Cyprus parliamentary election, to be held on May 24, are placed on a street in Nicosia, Cyprus May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou
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Cypriot President: UN May Put Cyprus Peace Plan Forward this Year

Election campaign billboards of candidates for Cyprus parliamentary election, to be held on May 24, are placed on a street in Nicosia, Cyprus May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou
Election campaign billboards of candidates for Cyprus parliamentary election, to be held on May 24, are placed on a street in Nicosia, Cyprus May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou

The United Nations is likely to launch a fresh push to resolve the decades-old split of Cyprus before the term of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expires at the end of the year, Cyprus's President Nikos Christodoulides said.

Christodoulides, who represents the Greek Cypriots in talks with Turkish Cypriots, made the comments in an interview on Tuesday night with Cyprus's Alpha TV.

These are the details:

Christodoulides told the channel he had been informed that Guterres ⁠was encouraged by ⁠discussions he had had with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in March.

"We might be close to developments, which may lead to a peace plan," Christodoulides said.

Cyprus was divided in 1974 after Türkiye invaded parts of the island's ⁠north following a Greek-backed coup.

Seeds of division were sown shortly after independence from Britain in 1960, when a power-sharing administration of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots collapsed amid violence.

Greek Cypriots run Cyprus's internationally recognized government in the south with Turkish Cypriots administering the north and a UN-patrolled buffer zone between them.

The last meaningful negotiations on Cyprus collapsed in 2017 amid ⁠disagreements ⁠on whether Türkiye should have a role in a future federated Cyprus with two self-governing regions linked by a strong central government.

In 2004, Greek Cypriots rejected a United Nations peace plan, saying it did not address security concerns and the long-term viability of the proposed reunified state, or the property rights of tens of thousands of internally displaced people.

Turkish Cypriots, whose breakaway state is recognized only by Ankara, accepted the proposal.

World

Trump Posts Graphic of Venezuela as 51st US State

President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, May 12, 2026, for a trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, May 12, 2026, for a trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
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Trump Posts Graphic of Venezuela as 51st US State

President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, May 12, 2026, for a trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, May 12, 2026, for a trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday posted a map graphic on his Truth Social platform depicting Venezuela with an inset American flag and the label "51st State."

The provocative post -- published while Trump was en route to China for a high-stakes summit -- comes a day after Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, said her country had "never" considered becoming the 51st state, even after US forces captured deposed leader Nicolas Maduro in January.

Earlier on Monday, Trump told Fox News that he was considering making the South American country a new state, after months of boasting that he controlled the oil-rich nation, AFP reported.

Rodriguez, for her part, has overseen a thawing of relations with the United States since taking over the country, passing reforms that reopened Venezuela's mining and oil sectors to foreign companies -- especially from the US.

The Venezuelan opposition has demanded elections, while Rodriguez -- when asked on May 1 about the prospects of a new vote -- said she "didn't know" and that it would happen "sometime."