BBC News

Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, is under lockdown for a second day as thousands of protesters demanding the release of former prime minister Imran Khan from jail converge on the city.

His supporters are also calling for the overturning of election results they say were rigged - a claim disputed by the Pakistan government.

The former PM has been detained for more than a year on various charges, but remains hugely popular despite his legal troubles and his supporters have been protesting for months.

His wife, Bushra Bibi, told supporters on Monday that the march would continue until her husband was free.

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Nigeria has one of the highest birth rates in the world, with women often facing social pressure to conceive and even ostracisation or abuse if they cannot.

Under this pressure, some women go to extremes to realise their dream of motherhood.

For over a year, BBC Africa Eye has been investigating the “cryptic pregnancy” scam.

Scammers posing as doctors or nurses convince women that they have a “miracle fertility treatment” guaranteed to get them pregnant. The initial “treatment” usually costs hundreds of dollars and consists of an injection, a drink, or a substance inserted into the vagina.

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Egyptian authorities say 17 people are missing, including foreigners, and 28 have been rescued after a tourist boat sank in the Red Sea.

Two of those missing are British, the BBC understands. Finland has also confirmed one of their nationals is also unaccounted for, as rescuers continue to search the area.

The boat with 31 tourists and 14 crew - who were all Egyptians - sent a distress signal at 05:30 (03:30 GMT), according to the governor of Red Sea province.

Authorities have not indicated the possible cause of the incident.

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Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told the BBC the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow.

She also insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.

Angela Merkel led Germany for 16 years. She was in office during the financial crisis, the 2015 migrant crisis and, significantly, Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

She says she believes the war in Ukraine would have started sooner and would likely have been worse, if Kyiv had begun the path to Nato membership in 2008.

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A British businessman caught on camera confessing he was illegally selling luxury perfume to Russia is not facing criminal charges, the BBC has learned.

David Crisp admitted to an undercover investigator that he had “ignored government edicts” on sanctions by selling £1,000-a-bottle “Boadicea the Victorious” perfume in Russia.

The BBC can now exclusively show the undercover video, which has previously only been shared in court.

Mr Crisp was arrested in 2023 by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - the UK government agency responsible for sanctions enforcement - but the investigation was dropped earlier this year. This is despite the discovery of evidence that he tried to conceal more than £1.7m of illegal sales.

Mr Crisp, from Surrey, denies knowingly breaching sanctions or concealing trades with Russia.

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A far-right, pro-Russia candidate has taken a surprise lead in the first round of Romania's presidential election

With more than 99% of votes counted, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu was on 23%, followed by centre-right candidate Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union and populist social democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the pre-election favourite.

The strong showing of Georgescu, who has no party of his own and campaigned largely on the social media platform TikTok, came as the biggest surprise of the election.

The latest count suggests Lasconi is narrowly ahead of Ciolacu by around 2,000 votes and will face Georgescu in a final run-off for the presidency on 8 December.

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Defence ministers from the UK and key EU countries are meeting in Berlin, days after President Vladimir Putin said Russia had the right to target the military facilities of countries supplying weapons to Ukraine.

Poland has always insisted Ukraine has every right to use Western-sent missiles against Russia in self-defence.

But the country hosts several US military facilities – including one that Russian officials have identified as a possible target, if the war escalates.

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Suspected methanol poisoning from tainted drinks has reportedly killed six tourists in a Laos holiday town in the past fortnight.

A British woman, two Australian women, a US man and two Danish nationals have died.

The deaths remain under police investigation, but reports have suggested they may have consumed drinks tainted with methanol, a deadly substance often found in bootleg alcohol.

Methanol poisoning has long been a well-known issue across South East Asia, particularly in the poorer countries along the Mekong river.

But despite foreign governments posting warnings about alcohol consumption in these places, there is still little awareness among the backpacker party scene.

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In the heart of The Natural History Museum in London, UK, the exhibits are coming to life.

Visions of Nature takes visitors to the year 2125, to see how the natural world is adapting to climate change and human behaviour.

It's called a mixed reality experience; some of the exhibition is physically present, but much of it uses virtual reality headsets.

There are eight different ecosystems to explore, from the Scottish Highlands to the deepest oceans.

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Israel says a rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been murdered, and have vowed to track down his killers.

“The murder of Zvi Kogan is a criminal antisemitic terrorist incident," PM Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Rabbi Kogan, an envoy of the orthodox Jewish organisation Chabad, had been missing in Dubai since Thursday.

His body was recovered after his abandoned car was found an hour's drive away from his home.

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