Is the Pakistan-Iran-Turkey rail link economically viable?

The far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik party has called off a march on the capital, and the government has said allowing the party back into the political mainstream is in the "national interest."

Greek officials claim Turkey is acting like a "pirate state in the Aegean Sea" in regards to migrants. Athens has called on the EU to put pressure on Ankara to meet its international obligations.

Turkey has banned nationals from Iraq, Syria and Yemen from traveling to Belarus. It comes amid EU pressure over migrants stranded at Belarus' border with Poland.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said talks with Iran would continue and that an additional round of negotiations between the regional rivals was expected soon.

Pakistan is witnessing an unprecedented economic turmoil, with the inflation rate rising exponentially. DW spoke to some locals who say it has become impossible for them to make ends meet.

At least one person was killed and six people including children injured in an explosion in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday, according to an official statement. Local media says the gas cylinder blast happened in a multi-story building in Lyari area the city. The police said the building was partially damaged.

The Pakistani parliament has approved the law against sexual assault to allow courts to order chemical castrations — a punishment rights groups and lawyers called cruel.

Religious parties argue the gender change law is promoting homosexuality, dubbing it "un-Islamic." A bill in the Muslim-majority country's Senate seeks to make the sex change procedure more difficult for citizens.

The Turkish lira hit new lows against the US dollar and euro. Analysts place the blame on the low interest rates and the cheap money policies preferred by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Are those protesting against Covid-19 restrictions just an angry few, or do they represent a much deeper malaise?As the Northern Hemisphere hunkers down for a new winter wave of Covid restrictions, backlash over these curbs is rearing up in Central Europe, the Netherlands and the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Some of the pushback is coming from fringe conspiracy theorists or muscle men, but many others have also lost trust in authorities and in what they see as heavy-handed measures and mixed messages. Is the unfiltered "anything goes" rhetoric that wins elections finally coming home to roost?

The latest round of talks over international monitoring of Iran's nuclear program did not lead to any breakthroughs, said the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said a preliminary agreement remains "possible" as international negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme have just resumed in Vienna in an attempt to salvage the 2015 agreement. But there is "little time left" according to Grossi, and Tehran must guarantee more transparency to the IAEA, in Iran's own interest.