UNITED STATES: Texas Governor Rick Perry vowed yesterday to fight a “political” indictment against him that could come with a five to 99-year prison term.

The 2016 Republican presidential hopeful was charged with coercion for vetoing state funds to a Democratic district attorney who had refused to resign after a drink-driving arrest.

Mr Perry was indicted on Friday by a grand jury in Austin, a Democratic enclave in the largely Republican-dominated state.

AFRICA: Passengers travelling from three countries hit by the Ebola outbreak will be barred from entering Kenya from midnight tomorrow.

People travelling from or through Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia are affected, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

The ban does not apply to Nigeria, nor health professionals or Kenyans returning from those countries.

NIGERIA: Chadian troops intercepted a convoy containing dozens of people kidnapped by Islamist group Boko Haram on Saturday, freeing most of the hostages.

More than 100 people were grabbed by boat from fishing village Doron Bag last weekend. Twenty-six people were killed in the raid.

The six gunmen and hostages were stopped for routine checks. Other militants appeared to escape by boat with 30 remaining hostages.

BULGARIA: The world’s transport workers threw their weight behind Colombia’s SNTT union and its leader Jose Ignacio Garzon on Saturday in their battle with logistics giant DHL.

International Transport Workers Federation president Paddy Crumlin accused the firm of victimising the union leader at the ITF congress in Sofia.

The congress pledged to begin a campaign of solidarity with Mr Garzon and the union.

HONG KONG: Tens of thousands staged a pro-government rally yesterday to oppose a planned civil disobedience campaign by the Occupy Central with Love and Peace pro-democracy movement.

Pro-Beijing group Alliance for Peace and Democracy organised the protest, with many wearing red and waving Chinese flags to show their loyalty to the mainland.

Occupy Central argues that plans to hold chief executive elections using only candidates screened by an official committee are not democratic.

PAKISTAN: Ex-cricketer Imran Khan repeated calls for mass civil disobedience against the government yesterday as his twin-march movement reached Islamabad.

He called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down over alleged vote rigging, pledging to take over parliament if Mr Sharif is not gone in two days.

Mr Khan urged supporters of his centrist PTI Party to stop paying bills and taxes until the conservative Pakistan Muslim League leader resigns.

LIBERIA: Health officials warned yesterday that Ebola could tear through the huge West Point slum after residents looted a quarantine centre.

Locals, apparently angry that suspected patients were being brought from other parts of capital Monrovia, took items including blood-stained sheets and mattresses from the centre.

Police said the items were probably infected. The Ebola outbreak has killed 413 so far in Liberia.

SOUTH KOREA: Pope Francis reached out to China yesterday, insisting Catholics weren’t coming as “conquerors” but wanted a “fraternal dialogue” during a meeting with bishops in Haemi.

The Holy See doesn’t currently have diplomatic relations with Asian countries China, North Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Bhutan or Brunei.

China cut its ties with the Vatican in 1951.