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Iran Sentences 2 French Citizens to a Combined 63 Years over Espionage Charges

An Iranian man walks next to Iran's national flags on a street in Tehran, Iran, 13 October 2025. (EPA)
An Iranian man walks next to Iran's national flags on a street in Tehran, Iran, 13 October 2025. (EPA)
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Iran Sentences 2 French Citizens to a Combined 63 Years over Espionage Charges

An Iranian man walks next to Iran's national flags on a street in Tehran, Iran, 13 October 2025. (EPA)
An Iranian man walks next to Iran's national flags on a street in Tehran, Iran, 13 October 2025. (EPA)

An Iranian court sentenced two French citizens to a combined 63 years in prison on espionage and national security charges, the country's judiciary said Tuesday, likely further straining relations between Tehran and Paris.

The semiofficial Fars news agency named the pair as Cecile Kohler and Chuck Paris. The two have been held since 2022 on charges France has denounced as “unjustified and unfounded.” The judiciary’s Mizan news agency also reported Tuesday’s sentencing but without sharing the names of the two French nationals.

Their possible prison sentences, which can be appealed to Iran’s Supreme Court within 20 days, come as Tehran pressures French authorities to release an Iranian national.

Iran's Revolutionary Court in Tehran, which holds closed-door hearings that often see defendants unable to access the evidence allegedly gathered against them, issued the preliminary verdict, Mizan reported. The court accused the two of working for French intelligence and cooperating with Israel.

The court sentenced the two defendants to over 30 years in prison apiece, Mizan reported. Typically, convicts only serve the longest single term among their charges.

Kohler and Paris were arrested after meeting with protesting Iranian teachers and taking part in an anti-government rally, Iranian media reported at the time. France identified the two as a teachers’ union official and her partner on vacation in Iran. Concerns for their safety grew after the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June that saw Israel bomb a notorious prison in Tehran.

In September, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his nation was close to making a prisoner swap deal with France. Mahdieh Esfandiari, a translator living in the French city of Lyon since 2018, was arrested in February on a terror-related charge for alleged posts on Telegram about the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza, according to French media reports.

Last week, Iran released a teenage French-German cyclist who disappeared in June while riding across the country, the French government said. Iran has not acknowledged Lennart Monterlos' release.

Iran is known for holding dual nationals and Westerners and using them as bargaining chips in diplomatic negotiations.

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World

G7 Meets in France to Narrow Transatlantic Iran Split

France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
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G7 Meets in France to Narrow Transatlantic Iran Split

France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP
France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot acknowledges the world is going through a period of 'tension and rivalry'. Thomas SAMSON / AFP

Foreign ministers from the G7 meet outside Paris from Thursday with European nations and allies seeking to narrow differences with the US on the Middle East war while keeping other crises like Ukraine and Gaza high on the agenda.

The two-day meeting of seven leading industrialized democracies at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey in the countryside outside Paris comes as the White House said President Donald Trump is ready to "unleash hell" if Iran does not accept a deal to end the US-Israeli war against the Iranian republic.

Making his first trip abroad since the war started, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join fellow top diplomats from Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the UK, but only on the second day.

One of the objectives of France, which holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, is "to address the major global imbalances which explain in many respects the level of tension and rivalry we are witnessing with very concrete consequences for our fellow citizens," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP on Tuesday.

With Lebanon pulled into the war as Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, Barrot also urged Israel to "refrain" from sending in forces to take control of a zone in south Lebanon.

In a bid to broaden the scope of the elite G7 club -- whose origins go back to the first G6 summit held in the nearby Chateau de Rambouillet in 1975 -- France has also invited foreign ministers from key emerging markets Brazil and India as well as Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

France will also on Monday host a separate G7 meeting bringing together finance ministers, energy ministers and central bank governors, Finance Minister Roland Lescure told RTL radio on Thursday.

The meeting, to be held via video call, will address what Lescure described as a "convergence of energy issues, economic issues and inflation issues".

-'Misguided policies'-

While all G7 nations are close US allies, none have unambiguously offered support for the assault on Iran, angering Trump.

German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil even complained Trump's "misguided policies" in the Middle East were hitting Germany's economy.

Trump has claimed the US is speaking to a "top person" within Iran's clerical system in talks to end the conflict. But Iranian state TV said on Wednesday Tehran had rejected a peace plan conveyed through Pakistan.

Trump's threat to hit Iranian energy facilities -- which he is now holding back on amid the purported talks -- troubled European allies who have all called for de-escalation and not engaged militarily in the conflict.

British foreign minister Yvette Cooper on Tuesday voiced unease that the war had shifted focus away from the Gaza peace plan and violence in the occupied West Bank.

Over four years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Barrot told AFP that support "for the Ukrainian resistance" and pressure on Russia would continue

World

Myanmar's Rebuild Stutters Year after Deadly Quake

Myanmar's ancient capital Mandalay bore the brunt of damage in the 7.7-magnitude quake. Sai Aung MAIN / AFP
Myanmar's ancient capital Mandalay bore the brunt of damage in the 7.7-magnitude quake. Sai Aung MAIN / AFP
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Myanmar's Rebuild Stutters Year after Deadly Quake

Myanmar's ancient capital Mandalay bore the brunt of damage in the 7.7-magnitude quake. Sai Aung MAIN / AFP
Myanmar's ancient capital Mandalay bore the brunt of damage in the 7.7-magnitude quake. Sai Aung MAIN / AFP

The gaping holes torn in a road to Mandalay by last year's devastating earthquake have been filled in, and the route in northern Myanmar partly resurfaced.

But only a few of the broken spans of the historic Ava Bridge have been removed, while the others still droop into the river where hundreds of newly homeless people bathed in the aftermath of the disaster.

More than 3,800 people in Myanmar -- and around 90 more in neighboring Thailand -- were killed when the 7.7-magnitude tremor struck on March 28, 2025.

AFP was the only international news agency on the ground in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw when the quake hit, with its team the first international journalists to reach the city of Mandalay.

A year on, reporters returning to the affected areas found a mixed picture of reconstruction work.

In Naypyidaw, the collapsed concrete awning of the main hospital's emergency department -- which crushed a car when it came down -- has been replaced with a new, lighter structure, with a plastic roof.

A rare unguarded photo of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, looking flustered as he sought to direct rescue efforts at the hospital, was one of many by AFP that captured the destruction after the quake, which came during a years-long civil war.

Mandalay, an ancient royal capital hemmed by jungle-clad mountains and the snaking Irrawaddy river, bore the brunt of the damage.

At a pagoda in the suburb of Amarapura, a statue of a reclining Buddha emerges from a carefully arranged pile of brick rubble, its face respectfully cleaned.

"Some are rebuilding their houses, while others are just now getting the support they need to work and live," said board secretary Hsan Tun, 70.

Four people died at the pagoda, he added, including a girl who was meditating. "It's only by the Buddha's protection that we survived."

Almost all of Mandalay's flattened or toppled residential buildings have been cleared away, some of them already rebuilt and others remaining as fenced-off empty lots dotting the city.

The tilted-over towers overlooking the palace moat have all been brought back upright, and workers are building new brick castellations for their supporting ramparts.

After the quake, thousands of people whose homes had been made uninhabitable or who feared aftershocks slept out for weeks by the moat, but it is once again the preserve of morning joggers and sightseers.

- 'When the sky falls' -

Some of the buildings at the Thahtay Kyaung monastery, where saffron-clad monks cleared rubble from the wreckage by hand in the days after the quake, have been razed.

"People are facing many economic hardships," said the abbot, U Thudassa. "Like the saying, 'When the sky falls, it falls on everyone'."

"We build as much as we can with what we have," added the 70-year-old. "We cannot just stand still; natural disasters will always be a part of life."

At Amarapura's Nagayon Pagoda, a Buddha statue reduced to just two legs and hands on a pedestal has been fully restored, looking out with a serene gaze.

In nearby Bon Oe village, the quake caused a mosque to collapse onto worshippers gathered for the noon prayer on the last Friday of Ramadan, killing many.

A permanent replacement has yet to be erected -- government approval is needed for religious buildings, and it has not yet been granted.

Instead, men gather for evening prayers in a temporary structure covered in green tarpaulins and with palm leaves for a roof.

"Yesterday marked one year" since disaster struck, said mosque leader Khin Maung Naing, counting by the Islamic calendar.

"Everyone still trembles at any loud noise," he added.

"Even after a year, the tremor, the scenes and the feelings from that earthquake feel as if they happened only yesterday or the day before. To this day, it remains in my heart."

World

Transport Minister: Türkiye-operated Oil Tanker Attacked in Black Sea

Altura, a Turkish-owned crude oil tanker, transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
Altura, a Turkish-owned crude oil tanker, transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
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Transport Minister: Türkiye-operated Oil Tanker Attacked in Black Sea

Altura, a Turkish-owned crude oil tanker, transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
Altura, a Turkish-owned crude oil tanker, transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik

A Turkish-operated oil tanker was attacked early Thursday in the Black Sea, possibly by an unmanned surface vehicle, Türkiye's transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said.

"I can say that a foreign-flagged ship operated by a Turkish company, which had loaded crude oil from Russia, reported an explosion in its engine room after midnight to our emergency call center," the minister said in a televised interview.

"We believe that the engine room was specifically targeted. We think the attack was not carried out by a drone, but by an unmanned surface vehicle at water level."

The minister would not specify if the attack on the Sierra Leone-flagged tanker happened in Turkish waters but local media reported that it took place less than 30 kilometers from the Bosphorus strait.

"It appears to be an externally caused explosion, particularly directed at the engine room, with the aim of completely disabling the ship," Uraloglu said.

"We have sent the necessary units to the scene and are monitoring the situation," he added.

In December, Türkiye witnessed a series of security incidents linked to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning against the Black Sea becoming an "area of confrontation" between the warring parties.

Türkiye, whose northern shore faces Ukraine and annexed Crimea, has maintained close ties with both Kyiv and Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.