World News Roundup: East Germany's last Communist premier dies aged 95; Nicaraguan Catholic bishop sentenced to decades in prison, citizenship stripped and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Wagner boss Prigozhin says Russia could take two years to capture east Ukraine regions

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group has said in a rare interview that it could take two years for Moscow to control the whole of two eastern Ukrainian regions whose capture it has stated as a key goal of the war. Yevgeny Prigozhin said his understanding of Russia's plan was that it needed to fully control the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that Moscow last year claimed as "republics" of Russia, in a move condemned by most countries of the United Nations as illegal.

Five killed in gun attack on Cameroon farm workers

At least five banana plantation workers were killed and several wounded on Friday in Cameroon's Southwest region that is riven by separatist violence, a union leader said. The unidentified assailants shot at a truck carrying employees of Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) - the country's largest state-owned agro-industrial firm whose workers have previously been targeted by Anglophone armed separatists fighting for an independent state.

East Germany's last Communist premier dies aged 95

Hans Modrow, who as the last Communist prime minister of East Germany oversaw democratic reforms that opened the way to German reunification, has died at age 95, Germany's hard-left Die Linke party said on Saturday. "Last night Hans Modrow left us at the age of 95. With this, our party loses an important personality," the party, successor to the East German Communist Party, said in a statement.

Nicaraguan Catholic bishop sentenced to decades in prison, citizenship stripped

A Nicaraguan court sentenced Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez to more than 26 years in prison on Friday, a day after the cleric and critic of President Daniel Ortega declined to be expelled to the United States as part of a prisoner release. Alvarez, bishop of the Matagalpa diocese, was convicted of treason, undermining national integrity and spreading false news, among other charges.

Somaliland agrees to ceasefire after five days of fighting in disputed territory

The administration of Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland said late on Friday it had agreed to an unconditional ceasefire, following five days of clashes in the east of the territory that health workers say have killed dozens of people. Heavy fighting broke out between Somaliland forces and militiamen in and around the town of Las Anod, the administrative centre of the Sool region, on Monday after local leaders said they wanted to rejoin federal Somalia.

Iran marks 44th anniversary of revolution as online hackers interrupt state TV coverage

The Islamic Republic marked the 44th anniversary of the Iranian revolution on Saturday with state-organised rallies, as anti-government hackers briefly interrupted a televised speech by President Ebrahim Raisi. Raisi, whose hardline government faces one of the boldest challenges from young protesters calling for its ouster, appealed to the "deceived youth" to repent so they can be pardoned by Iran's supreme leader.

Quake survivors wait on for news of missing in Turkey and Syria, but hopes fade

Rescuers in Turkey pulled more people from the rubble early on Saturday, five days after the country's most devastating earthquake since 1939, but hopes were fading in Turkey and Syria that many more survivors would be found. In Kahramanmaras, close to the quake's epicentre in southern Turkey, there were fewer visible rescue operations amid the smashed concrete mounds of fallen houses and apartment blocks, while ever more trucks rumbled through the streets shipping out debris.

Protests across France to test government resolve over pension reform

Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to take part in demonstrations across France on Saturday as protesters seek to keep up the pressure on the government over its plans to make people work longer before retiring. After three days of nationwide strikes since the start of the year, unions are hoping to match a mass turnout from Jan. 19 when more than a million people marched in opposition to pushing the age to take a full state pension to 64 from 62.

Russia hits Ukraine power grid and gains ground in east; Biden to visit Poland

Russian missiles hit power facilities on Friday across Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenskiy returned from a tour of Western capitals and Ukrainian officials said a long-awaited Russian offensive was underway in the east. Ukraine's armed forces said in an evening update that Russian forces fired more than 100 missiles throughout the country and staged 12 air and 20 shelling attacks. The Facebook post said 61 cruise missiles were destroyed.

Mob storms Pakistani police station, lynches man accused of blasphemy

A mob in eastern Pakistan stormed a police station on Saturday and lynched a man under custody and accused of blasphemy, police said, in the latest incident of religion-linked violence in the Islamic republic. The country has seen numerous cases of vigilante action by mobs against people accused of blasphemy, one of the highest profiled ones being the lynching of a Sri Lankan national, a garment factory manager, in 2021.

(With inputs from agencies.)