A Pakistani court sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 14 years imprisonment on Friday in a land corruption case, local broadcaster ARY News reported.

The verdict in the case, the largest in terms of financial wrongdoing faced by Khan, was delivered by an anti-graft court in a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Khan has been jailed since August 2023, Reuters reported.

The former cricket star, 72, had been indicted on charges that he and his wife were gifted land by a real estate developer during his premiership from 2018 to 2022 in exchange for illegal favours.

Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, had pleaded not guilty. The announcement of the verdict was delayed three times, most recently on Monday, amid talks between the government and Khan's party.

Bushra Bibi, who is in her late 40s and was out on bail, was taken into custody after she was also convicted in the case, Geo News reported.

"Whilst we wait for detailed decision, it's important to note that, the Al Qadir Trust case against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi lacks any solid foundation and is bound to collapse," Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party's foreign media wing said in a statement.

The verdict is the biggest setback for Khan and his party since a surprisingly good showing in the 2024 general election when its candidates - who were forced to contest as independents - won the most seats, but fell short of the majority needed to form a government.

Jailed since August 2023, Khan has been facing dozens of cases ranging from charges of graft and misuse of power, to inciting violence against the state after being removed from office in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022.

He has either been acquitted or his sentences suspended in most cases, except for one on charges of inciting supporters to rampage through military facilities to protest against his arrest on May 9, 2023.

His supporters have led several violent protest rallies since the May 9 incidents.

He has been tried inside a jail on security grounds.

Iraq is trying to convince powerful armed factions in the country that have fought U.S. forces and fired rockets and drones at Israel to lay down their weapons or join official security forces, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said.

The push comes with a backdrop of seismic shifts in the Middle East that have seen Iran's armed allies in Gaza and Lebanon heavily degraded and Syria's government overthrown by rebels, Reuters reported.

Iraq is trying to convince powerful armed factions in the country that have fought U.S. forces and fired rockets and drones at Israel to lay down their weapons or join official security forces, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said.

The push comes with a backdrop of seismic shifts in the Middle East that have seen Iran's armed allies in Gaza and Lebanon heavily degraded and Syria's government overthrown by rebels.

The incoming U.S. Trump administration promises to pile more pressure on Tehran, which has long backed a number of political parties and an array of armed factions in Iraq.

Some Baghdad officials are concerned the status quo there may be upended next, but Hussein played this down in an interview with Reuters during an official visit to London.

"We don't think that Iraq is the next," Hussein said.

The government was in talks to rein in the groups while continuing to walk the tightrope between its ties to both Washington and Tehran, he said.

Iraq's balancing act has been tested by Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups' attacks on Israel and on U.S. troops in the country they say are in solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war.

A promised Gaza ceasefire has the government breathing a sight of relief, though uncertainty prevails over how the country may fare after Donald Trump becomes U.S. president.

During the last Trump presidency, relations grew tense as he ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020, leading to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on an Iraqi base housing U.S. forces.

"We hope that we can continue this good relationship with Washington," Hussein said. "It is too early now to talk about which policy President Trump is going to follow for Iraq or Iran."

With Iraq trying to chart a diplomatic third-way, Hussein said Baghdad was ready to help diffuse tensions between Washington and Tehran if asked and noted previous mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran that paved the way for their normalization of relations in 2023.

SYRIA

Armed revolution in neighbouring Syria has been viewed with concern.

The Islamist rebels now in power in Damascus were among the Sunni Muslim militants that entered Shia-majority Iraq from Syria after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, fuelling years of sectarian war.

Islamic State crossed the same way a decade later and undertook bloody massacres before being beaten back by a U.S.-led international military coalition and Iraqi security forces and Iran-aligned factions.

Iraq will only be reassured about Syria when it sees an inclusive political process, Hussein said, adding Baghdad would supply the country with grain and oil once it could be assured it would go to all Syrians.

Baghdad was in talks with Syria's foreign minister over a visit to Iraq, he said.

"We are worried about the ISIS, so we are in contact with the Syrian side to talk about these things, but at the end to have a stable Syria means to have the representative of all components in the political process."

Baghdad and Washington last year agreed to end the U.S-led coalition's work by September 2026 and transition to bilateral military ties, but Hussein said that the developments in Syria would have to be watched.

"In the first place, we are thinking about security of Iraq and stability in Iraq. If there will be a threat to our country, of course it will be a different story," he said.

"But until this moment we don't see a threat."

Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan was out of danger, police said on Thursday, following stab injuries received in a scuffle with an intruder at his home in India's financial capital of Mumbai for which he was undergoing surgery.

Among the country's most bankable stars, Khan, 54, is the son of former India cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore, Reuters reported.

"He (Khan) is being treated ... and is out of danger," senior police officer Gedam Dixit told Reuters.

Earlier, news agency ANI quoted hospital official Niraj Uttamani as saying, "He is currently undergoing surgery," and adding, "The extent of the damage will be understood once the surgery is complete."

A small piece of a foreign body had been identified close to the spine, added Uttamani, the chief operating officer of the hospital where Khan was taken at around 3:30 a.m.

Khan, who has featured in more than 70 films and television series, in some also as producer, lives in an apartment in the western suburb of Bandra, along with his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan, who is also an actor, and their two children.

Representatives of his wife confirmed Khan was undergoing a procedure after the burglary attempt, adding, "The rest of the family is doing fine."

A female employee at their home was also attacked and was being treated, added police, who have launched an investigation and a search for the perpetrator.

Film stars and opposition leaders called for police to beef up security measures in the city.

"If such high-profile people with ... security can be attacked in their homes, what could happen to common citizens?" Clyde Crasto, spokesperson of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, asked on X.

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies won November elections in the western state of Maharashtra, the capital of which is Mumbai.

Actor and filmmaker Pooja Bhatt also called for a greater police presence in the suburb home to many in the film industry.

"The city, and especially the queen of the suburbs, have never felt so unsafe before," she said on X, using a popular description for the trendy area.