DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Major flooding in the capital Kinshasa has killed at least eight people and cut off access to over half of the city and the country’s main airport, authorities said today.

Most of the fatalities in Friday’s deluge were caused by collapsing walls, said provincial Health Minister Patricien Ngongo.

The flooding had damaged the main road leading to the airport, but Kinshasa Governor Daniel Bumba said it had been reopened to light traffic and within 72 hours would be open to all traffic.

INDIA: The Communist Party of India-Marxist concluded its 24th Congress in Madurai today with the election of a new 85-member central committee and an 18-member political committee. 

Mariam Alexander Baby was elected as the party’s new general secretary to replace legendary communist leader Sitaram Yechury, who passed away last September.

FRANCE: Supporters of far-right leader Marine Le Pen gathered in Paris today to protest at her conviction for embezzlement and a five-year ban on standing in elections.

Ms Le Pen, who is appealing against the verdict, has vowed “not to let the presidency be stolen.”

A rival left-wing demonstration also took place in the French capital.

GERMANY: The country marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis’ Buchenwald concentration camp today with warnings against global “radicalisation and a worldwide shift to the right.”

Thuringia state Governor Mario Voigt and former president Christian Wulff spoke at a ceremony in the city of Weimar that was attended by scores of people, including several Holocaust survivors from across Europe.