KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s king named on Thursday opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as the country’s prime minister, ending days of uncertainty after a divisive general election produced a hung Parliament.

Mr Anwar’s Alliance of Hope led Saturday’s election with 82 seats, short of the 112 needed for a majority. 

It is not immediately clear which party Mr Anwar will enter into coalition with to form a government.

AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban lashed three women and nine men in front of hundreds of spectators in a provincial sports stadium on Wednesday.

This signalled the religious extremist group’s resumption of a brutal form of punishment that was a hallmark of their rule in the 1990s.

Officials reported that those being punished received between 21 and 39 lashes each, after being convicted in a local court of theft and adultery. 

CONGO: Democratic Republic of Congo leader Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta went into talks on Wednesday in Angola amid heightened tensions in eastern DRC.

The two politicians met at a hotel in the capital, Luanda, alongside Angolan President Joao Lourenco, who is acting as a mediator between the two neighbours.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was not in attendance and the reason for his absence was not immediately clear.
 

BOLIVIA: Jorge Medina, Bolivia’s first-ever black congressman, has passed away.

He was elected in 2009 for the Movement Towards Socialism in the Yungas region of La Paz.