A French murderer who admitted to killing several western tourists is due to be set free from prison in Nepal after the country’s supreme court ordered his release.
Charles Sobhraj, also known by the nickname The Serpent owing to his reputation as a disguise and escape artist, was serving two life sentences in Nepal for the murders of an American backpacker and a Canadian tourist.
Life sentences in Nepal are 20 years. Court documents said he had already served more than 75% of his sentence, making him eligible for release.
The order for the 78-year-old’s release was also made on the grounds of good behaviour and poor health, as he is suffering from heart disease.
The Frenchman has in the past admitted killing several western tourists and he is believed to have killed at least 20 people in Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong during the 1970s.
He is thought to have mostly targeted young backpackers on the hippie trail and also became known as the Bikini Killer as the bodies of several female victims were found in swimwear.
Thailand issued a warrant for the arrest of Sobhraj in the 1970s on charges of drugging and killing six women, all wearing bikinis, on a beach at Pattaya. However, he was jailed in India before he could stand trial on those charges.
Sobhraj was held for two decades in New Delhi’s maximum-security Tihar prison for drugging a group of French tourists.
He escaped from India’s Tihar jail in 1986 after drugging prison guards with cookies and cakes laced with sleeping pills, but was recaptured and detained until 1997, when he returned to France following his release in India.
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He resurfaced in September 2003 in Kathmandu where he was arrested and convicted in 2004 of the 1975 murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich.
Image: Central Jail in Kathmandu, where Sobhraj was locked up for two counts of murder
Several years later he was also found guilty of killing Bronzich’s Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere.
Sobhraj’s life and crimes were dramatised in joint BBC and Netflix drama The Serpent, released in 2021.
The supreme court’s ruling on Wednesday also said he had to leave the country within the next 15 days but did not specify to where.
Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, known for ready-to-wear fashion and staple suits, has died.
The 91-year-old started the fashion house in 1975 with his partner Sergio Galeotti, but it is the 1980 classic film American Gigolo that is credited with launching Armani’s career.
He designed the wardrobe for the film’s star, Richard Gere, who was launched into the spotlight as America’s new favourite heart throb, and Armani as one of the most popular designers. Over his career, he earned over 200 wardrobe credits.
As well as dressing actors on screen, red carpets were filled with Armani’s tailored black tie outfits and evening gowns, with everyone from Jodie Foster, Beyonce and Diane Keaton wearing his designs.
Here, we look at some of Armani’s iconic looks created for both the big screen and the red carpet.
Image: Diane Keaton (centre) wearing an Armani men’s suit jacket at the 1978 Academy Awards. Pic: AP
Diane Keaton wore a custom double-breasted jacket to the 1978 Academy Awards, where she won Best Actress for her performance in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy Annie Hall.
Image: Richard Gere in American Gigolo. Pic THA/Shutterstock
Richard Gere stars in American Gigolo. The suits made by Armani were originally for John Travolta, who later dropped out of the film and was replaced by Gere.
Image: Grace Jones wears an Armani blazer on the cover of the album Nightclubbing. Pic: AP
Grace Jones wore a man’s wide-shouldered Armani blazer on the cover of the 1981 album Nightclubbing.
Image: Julia Roberts wearing an Armani men’s suit at the 1990 Golden Globes. Pic: AP
Julia Roberts wore an oversized men’s Armani suit at the 1990 Golden Globes. The look has become iconic in fashion history as the actress stepped away from wearing the conventional ballgown.
Image: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci in Goodfellas in 1990. Pic: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock
Armani collaborated with Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese to create suits for Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci in the 1990 classic film.
Image: Actress Jodie Foster at the 1992 Oscars. Pic: AP
Jodie Foster wore an Armani suit at the 1992 Academy Awards, where she won Best Actress for The Silence Of The Lambs.
Image: Armani designed Katie Holmes’ wedding dress when she married Tom Cruise in 2006. Pic: Reuters
When Tom Cruise tied the knot with actress Katie Holmes in 2006, it was Armani who was tasked with creating her wedding dress.
Image: Beyonce at the American Music Awards in 2008 wearing custom Armani. Pic: AP
Performing her hit song All The Single Ladies at the 2008 American Music Awards, Beyonce wore a custom Armani bodysuit.
Image: David and Victoria Beckham wearing Giorgio Armani at the 2008 Met Gala. Pic: AP
David and Victoria Beckham wore Armani at the 2008 Met Gala in New York. The theme was superheroes: fashion and fantasy and Armani co-chaired the gala that year.
Image: Lady Gaga at the Grammys in 2010. Pic: AP
Lady Gaga wore a galactic-inspired dress at the 2010 Grammy Awards, which was part of Giorgio Armani Prive – the designer’s haute couture collection. The outfit turned heads as it was unlike Armani’s typical styles.
Image: Demi Moore at the 2025 Golden Globes. Pic: Reuters
Demi Moore wore a sculpted gold gown at this year’s Golden Globes, where she won Best Performance by a Female Actor for her role in The Substance.
The number of people killed following a deadly earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has risen sharply to 2,205, according to the Taliban government.
The increase, from more than 1,400 deaths reported on Tuesday, coincides with rescuers being hampered by harsh weather and rugged terrain, while aid agencies warned of dwindling resources.
Afghanistan’s deadliest earthquake in years levelled villages, destroying thousands of homes, and trapping people under rubble. At least 3,640 people have been injured.
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Afghans search for survivors after earthquake
The majority of casualties have been in Kunar, where many live in steep river valleys separated by high mountains.
Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said rescue and search efforts were continuing: “Tents have been set up for people, and the delivery of first aid and emergency supplies is ongoing.”
More than 6,700 homes have been destroyed, authorities have said.
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But while officials have deployed helicopters and airdropped army commandos to help survivors, the rough terrain is hindering relief efforts.
Image: Tough terrain is hindering relief efforts. Pic: Reuters
Aid workers have reported walking for hours to reach villages cut off by landslides and rockfall.
Afghanistan was already struggling with the impact of climate change, particularly drought, a weak economy and the return of some two million Afghans from neighbouring countries.
Sunday’s earthquake is the third to devastate the country since the Taliban seized power in 2021.
Image: Livestock are left to shelter inside a damaged house. Pic: Reuters
On Wednesday, the defence ministry said the Afghan air force moved more than 1,900 people in 155 flights over two days, and delivered 10,000kg of supplies across the region.
The UK has pledged £1m in emergency funding to be split between humanitarian agencies instead of the Taliban government, which the UK does not recognise.
Image: Injured Afghans have been evacuated to a hospital in Jalalabad. Pic: AP
Humanitarian needs are “vast and growing rapidly”, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
“Up to 84,000 people are directly and indirectly affected, with thousands displaced,” it added.
In some of the worst-affected villages in Kunar province, two in three people had been killed or injured, while 98% of buildings were either destroyed or damaged by the tremors, according to an assessment by British-based charity Islamic Relief Worldwide.
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The Norwegian Refugee Council said it had fewer than 450 staff in Afghanistan, no emergency stock and an urgent need for funds.
“We have only $100,000 (£74,500) available to support emergency response efforts. This leaves an immediate funding gap of $1.9 million (£1.42m),” said Maisam Shafiey, from the humanitarian organisation.
China put on a show of military strength and diplomatic pulling power in Beijing this week that should worry us all.
At the heart of it was one all-powerful man.
Xi Jinping is emerging as the emperor of a rising China bent on reshaping the world in its image.
He wears the garb of his communist forebears, but he is much more than just another heir to Chairman Mao.
Xi increasingly has more in common with China’s imperial past.
He has disposed of rivals and term-limit rules, making him potentially ruler for life.
Xi believes it is China’s destiny to return to its rightful place as the centre of the world. A new world order dominated by China is approaching he believes, hastened by the Trump administration’s willingness to dismantle the current Pax Americana and western disarray over Ukraine.
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The Chinese weapons that will worry America
China has a right to assert itself more robustly on the world stage, of course, but it’s the manner of that assertion and the risks of collision with the West that should give cause for concern.
Xi has ruthlessly crushed dissent at home with quasi genocidal repression in Xinjiang, a cultural holocaust in Tibet and brutal suppression of human rights in Hong Kong.
Next in his sights is Taiwan. It is claimed by the Chinese communists as part of their One China project.
That opens up one fault line between Xi’s rising China and Western nations.
China’s more and more open support of Putin’s war in Ukraine is of course another.
Western impotence and failure to bring enough pressure on Russia to end the conflict has allowed it to metastasize into a much bigger one.
Image: The three autocrat amigos in Beijing on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
On one side in the East, authoritarian governments lining up to support Russia. And on the other, democratic countries supporting Ukraine.
This week’s jamboree of autocrats in Beijing seems to have tipped things more in their favour. Good news for regimes using Orwellian surveillance, censorship, and repression to control their people and keep a grip on power.
Bad news for the rest of us who prefer a future organised around democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.