Forty years since Hezbollah was founded at the height of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the group has morphed from a ragtag organization to the largest and most heavily armed militant group in the Middle East.

The Iranian-armed and funded Hezbollah, which has marked the anniversary with ceremonies in its strongholds in recent weeks, dominates Lebanon's politics and plays an instrumental role in spreading Tehran's influence throughout the Arab world.

A timeline of major events in the life of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who has died at age 91.

March 2, 1931: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev born in Privolnoye in southern Russia.

Two years before the fall of the Soviet Union, its leader Mikhail Gorbachev would receive an unusual letter from the Islamic republic of Iran's founder, inviting him to embrace Islam.

The last leader of the USSR passed away in Moscow on Tuesday at the age of 91, leaving behind a legacy that polarized observers on either side of the Iron Curtain.

When he raises his index finger and frowns, Iraq holds its breath. The mercurial Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has yet again showed his political prowess, able to mobilize and demobilize loyalists within minutes.

On Monday, in a short message, he announced his "definitive retirement" from politics and the closure of all institutions linked to his movement.

Russia has faced technical problems with Iranian-made drones acquired from Tehran this month for use in its war with Ukraine, according to Biden administration officials.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. intelligence assessment, did not detail the "numerous failures." They added that the U.S. assesses that the delivery of Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles over several days this month is likely part of a Russian plan to acquire hundreds of Iranian UAVs.

Russia has obtained hundreds of Iranian drones capable of being used in its war against Ukraine despite U.S. warnings to Tehran not to ship them, according to Western intelligence officials.

It's unclear whether Russia has begun flying the drones against Ukrainian targets, but the drones appear to be operational and ready to use, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

After Washington's latest attacks, AFP unpacks the deployments in a porous border region where the U.S. and its Iran-backed rivals operate in close proximity.

The Euphrates river bisects the eastern province of Deir Ezzor where a patchwork of rival forces have taken up positions on opposing river banks. 

France has made several attempts over the years to heal the wounds with former colony Algeria, but it refuses to "apologize or repent" for the 132 years of often brutal rule that ended in 1962.

At Moscow's sprawling Izmailovsky outdoor souvenir market, shoppers can find cups and T-shirts commemorating Russia's deployment of troops into Ukraine — but from the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. There's nothing about the "special military operation" that began six months ago.

Throughout the capital, there are few overt sign that Russia is engaged in the worst fighting in Europe since World War II. Displays of the letter "Z" — which initially spread as an icon of the fight, replicating the insignia painted on Russian military vehicles — are hardly seen.

Six months after Russian forces launched what they hoped would be a blitzkrieg invasion of Ukraine, the conflict has turned into a grinding campaign of daily air strikes and battles with no clear endgame in sight.