Drugs, arms, and terror: A high-profile defector on Kim's North Korea

The Norwegian Refugee Council, which is providing aid in Afghanistan, is in talks with the Taliban in an effort to secure free movement for its aid workers, and to be able to work without interference. The council’s Secretary General Jan Egeland told BBC World News that the Taliban was responding positively. “We as humanitarians will…

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working relentlessly with the health ministry and other countries to tackle oxygen shortages, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson Shaina Nana Chudasama has said. “It is most unfortunate that we have lost lives and nobody expected this double mutant [coronavirus] to shape up in this particular way,” she…

Female education – or the lack of it – has been seen as one of the biggest obstacles to the Taliban being officially recognised as Afghanistan’s new government. The Taliban have told secondary schools to open only for boys, but say their restrictions on girls studying are “temporary” in order to ensure learning environments are…

A leading campaigner for women’s rights in Afghanistan was evacuated from Kabul last week, after going into hiding.

Many countries have started to roll out fresh restrictions to limit the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant and BBC World News viewers have been sending in questions about the new variant and the Covid pandemic in general. How much more do we know about Omicron? If Omicron is less fatal, but more transmissible than…

Ahead of COP26, Ros Atkins looks at what the world’s biggest emitters are doing to tackle climate change.