A United Nations expert says Israel is systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale “that suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent”. 
  
In a report released on Friday, Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said that since October 7, 2023, Palestinians in custody “have been subjected to exceptionally ruthless physical and psychological abuse.” 
 

A strike on a health care facility in Sudan has killed 64 people and wounded 89 more, the World Health Organization reported on Saturday. 
  
The UN’s humanitarian office in Sudan had earlier said it was “appalled by the attack on a hospital in East Darfur yesterday, reportedly killing dozens, including children, and injuring more”. 
  

A French jihadist was sentenced to life in jail on Friday for involvement in Islamic State group atrocities against Iraq's Yazidi minority, the first case in France to tackle the issue. 
  
The Paris Assizes Court found Sabri Essid guilty in absentia of genocide, crimes against humanity, and complicity in the crimes, committed between 2014 and 2016 when the jihadists occupied swathes of northern Syria and Iraq. 
  

Belarus freed 250 political prisoners on Thursday, March 19, following negotiations with the United States, while Washington agreed to remove sanctions on several Belarusian companies in return, a U.S. official said. The prisoner release, the largest in years, came hours after U.S. envoy John Coale met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. 
  
The authoritarian state in Eastern Europe has released dozens of prisoners in recent months, largely due to US efforts. 
  

More than 1,000 people have been killed in intensified Israeli attacks across Lebanon this month, according to local authorities, as the United Nations and other rights groups say Israel’s bombardment of the country may amount to war crimes. 
  
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said on Thursday that Israeli attacks have killed 1,001 people in Lebanon since March 2, including 79 women, 118 children, and 40 health care workers. More than 2,584 people have been wounded. 
 

Congolese and Rwandan officials met in the United States and agreed on coordinated steps to de-escalate tensions in eastern Congo, where government troops are fighting rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda, according to a joint statement. 
  
The statement issued by the Congolese, Rwandan, and U.S. governments said that Congolese and Rwandan officials met on Tuesday and Wednesday to advance progress in eastern Congo as peace efforts led by the U.S. and partners including Qatar have stalled and violence continued. 
  

Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to a temporary “pause” in hostilities during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr this week, officials said, amid weeks of deadly violence between the neighboring countries. 
  
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Wednesday that the pause—set to run from midnight on Thursday until midnight on Tuesday—had been requested by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkiye. 
 

More than half of the Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons at the end of last year were being held without charge or trial, a Palestinian rights group has said, as concerns mount over reported abuses in Israeli detention facilities. 
  
In a statement on Wednesday, Defense for Children International-Palestine said 51 percent of 351 detained Palestinian children were being held in what’s known as “administrative detention” as of December 31, 2025. 
 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has confirmed that Israel killed Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in an overnight attack, marking the third assassination of a high-ranking Iranian official in two days. 
  
The announcement on Wednesday comes hours after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed the Iranian minister had been killed. 
 
Iranian security chief Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force, were also killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday.