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Iran Jails French National for 5 Years

Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant, was detained in Iran in September last year and has been held in Tehran's Evin prison. (AFP)
Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant, was detained in Iran in September last year and has been held in Tehran's Evin prison. (AFP)
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Iran Jails French National for 5 Years

Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant, was detained in Iran in September last year and has been held in Tehran's Evin prison. (AFP)
Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant, was detained in Iran in September last year and has been held in Tehran's Evin prison. (AFP)

An Iranian court has ordered a five-year jail sentence against a French national tried on national security charges, his family announced on Wednesday.

Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant, was detained in Iran in September last year and has been held in Tehran's Evin prison.

Arnaud was handed the sentence by a Revolutionary Court on charges of making propaganda against and seeking to harm the security of the country, the family said in a statement.

The family said Arnaud was innocent of all charges and denounced the verdict as "an attack on human rights and individual freedoms".

The statement described Arnaud as a "passionate traveler" who had long wanted to visit Iran.

"Unfortunately, his dream turned into a nightmare when he was unjustly targeted, imprisoned, and now convicted on baseless charges, stripping him of his freedom and rights."

It insisted he had "kept a distance from the social movements that were starting" while in Iran, in reference to the protest movement that erupted in September 2022.

"At no time did he act with political intentions or carelessness."

Arnaud has lodged an appeal against the verdict, the family added.

The verdict has so far not been reported by Iranian media or publicly confirmed by the Iranian judiciary.

Arnaud is one of at least a dozen foreign nationals held by Tehran in what activists and Western governments have described as a deliberate hostage-taking strategy aimed at extracting concessions from the West.

Several foreign prisoners have been released in recent months, including five Americans freed in a complex exchange for billions of dollars in Iranian funds that had been frozen in a South Korean account.

In May, Iran freed French prisoners Benjamin Briere and Bernard Phelan, the latter also an Irish national, after their health deteriorated during hunger strikes. French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah finally returned to France in October after being held for four-and-a-half years.

But aside from Arnaud, three other French citizens are held by Iran: teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris and a man identified only by his first name, Olivier.

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World

5.9 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Pakistan and Afghanistan, No Damage Reported

People stand in the street following an earthquake in Peshawar, Pakistan June 27, 2026. (Reuters)
People stand in the street following an earthquake in Peshawar, Pakistan June 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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5.9 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Pakistan and Afghanistan, No Damage Reported

People stand in the street following an earthquake in Peshawar, Pakistan June 27, 2026. (Reuters)
People stand in the street following an earthquake in Peshawar, Pakistan June 27, 2026. (Reuters)

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck parts of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan on Saturday, sending panicked residents across Pakistan rushing out of their homes, authorities said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The epicenter was in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 6.1.

Tremors were felt in Islamabad, as well as in the eastern province of Punjab and the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan. It was also felt in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Emergency services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said district administrations were placed on alert.

Anwar Shahzad, a spokesperson for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said that initial assessments had found no reports of casualties or damage.

Pakistan lies along an active seismic zone and is frequently affected by earthquakes.

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 2005 killed tens of thousands of people in Pakistan and Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region divided between Pakistan and India and claimed by both countries.

There was no immediate statement from Afghan officials regarding the earthquake.

Afghanistan has also suffered repeated quakes in recent years that have claimed thousands of lives.

World

Ukraine Strikes Industrial Facility in Russia’s Volgograd as Russian Drone Attack Kills 1

Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released June 27, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via Reuters)
Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released June 27, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via Reuters)
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Ukraine Strikes Industrial Facility in Russia’s Volgograd as Russian Drone Attack Kills 1

Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released June 27, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via Reuters)
Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released June 27, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via Reuters)

Ukraine struck a major industrial facility in the Russian city of Volgograd, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, while a Russian drone attack killed a man in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region overnight.

Ukraine has stepped up its long-range aerial attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion, now in its fifth year.

The campaign, which Zelenskyy has said aims to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, stalling Moscow’s efforts on the battlefield and heaping pressure on Putin, Western officials and analysts say.

Writing on X, Zelenskyy said that FP-5 Flamingo missiles hit the Titan-Barrikady facility in Volgograd in southwestern Russia, describing it as a “major industrial complex” where Russia “produces artillery systems and specialized military equipment, including components for missile launch systems.”

According to Ukraine’s General Staff, the facility manufactures equipment for missile systems, including self-propelled launchers and transport-loading vehicles for the Iskander-M missile system, which it said is “the same system Russia regularly uses to strike Ukrainian cities.”

Volgograd Gov. Andrei Bocharov confirmed an attack on a business in the region’s Krasnooktyabrsky district, saying 10 people had been wounded and taken to a hospital. He said production facilities at the site were damaged but did not identify the company.

Ukraine's state security service said Saturday morning that Ukrainian forces also struck an oil pumping facility in Russia’s Vladimir region that supplies fuel to Moscow, for the second time this month.

The attacks came a day after Ukraine launched what appeared to be one of Kyiv's biggest drone assaults since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion more than four years ago. The major nighttime attack targeted a dozen Russian regions, Russian-held Crimea and the surrounding seas, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Friday, noting that Russian air defenses intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones.

Zelenskyy said Thursday he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after US peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s Sumy region, a 66-year-old man was killed in a Russian drone strike on a private residence in the region, regional head Oleh Hryhorov said Saturday.

World

Burkina Faso Cuts Diplomatic Relations with France, Once a Key Ally

FILE - In this photo provided by RIA Novosti, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/RIA Novosti via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo provided by RIA Novosti, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/RIA Novosti via AP, File)
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Burkina Faso Cuts Diplomatic Relations with France, Once a Key Ally

FILE - In this photo provided by RIA Novosti, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/RIA Novosti via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo provided by RIA Novosti, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/RIA Novosti via AP, File)

Burkina Faso’s military government severed diplomatic ties with France, its former colonial ruler that had been a key security partner for the West African nation before relations fractured.

The junta said in a statement Friday it broke off relations with France effective immediately, accusing it of "blatant neo-colonial ambitions and active support for subversive networks and terrorists,” without providing evidence.

France’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said in a statement that the country regrets the “hostile and unfounded decision, which illustrates the worrying drift of the Burkinabè authorities.”

“Necessary reciprocal measures are currently under review,” he said. Confavreux added that France is monitoring the safety of French government personnel and citizens in Burkina Faso and urged them to exercise heightened vigilance.

The West African country of 23 million people has been battered by yearslong violence perpetrated by extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the ISIS group, as well as government forces often accused of extrajudicial killings.

It was unclear what would follow the end of diplomatic relations or how the French embassy in Burkina Faso would be affected.

“The conditions essential for fostering relations based on mutual respect, reciprocal trust, and respect for the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and national sovereignty are no longer met,” Burkina Faso’s Communications Minister Pingdwende Gilbert Ouedraogo said in a statement.

The two sides suffered broken relations for years.

Burkina Faso's military government has in the past targeted foreign diplomats, including the French, whom it has often accused of working against its interests. In 2023, the junta asked France to recall its ambassador and declared the United Nations’ resident and humanitarian coordinator in the country persona non grata, while in 2024, it expelled three French diplomats for alleged subversive activities.

France was Burkina Faso's major security partner until a 2022 coup. The junta then sacked hundreds of French forces sent to fight extremist groups.

The violence has worsened under the military government that had promised to curb it, analysts say.

In the two years following the coup, Burkina Faso forces allegedly killed twice as many civilians as extremists, according to a recent report by the Human Rights Watch, which blamed government forces for at least 1,200 of the 1,837 civilians killed in the country between January 2023 and August 2025.