PAKISTAN: A Pakistani court today charged imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife in one of several corruption cases they face, officials and his party said.

Mr Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi pleaded not guilty when a judge in the garrison city of Rawalpindi read them the charges.

They stand accused of keeping and selling state gifts including  jewellery received when Mr Khan was in office, at a value less than their market price.

RUSSIA:  Mali’s armed forces, supported by Russian mercenaries, committed abuses against civilians after the withdrawal of a United Nations peacekeeping mission last year, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today.

Malian forces and the Russian-backed Wagner group are accused of deliberately killing at least 32 civilians, kidnapping four others and burning at least 100 homes in towns and villages in central and northern Mali since May, the rights group said.

AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of people attended the funeral today of a Taliban minister killed in a Kabul suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group.

The funeral for Khalil Haqqani, the minister for refugees and repatriation, was held in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province. 

The minister died in a blast on Wednesday at his ministry in the Afghan capital, along with five others.

MEXICO: A judge was shot outside a court house in the city of Acapulco, it was reported today.

Judge Edmundo Roman Pinzon was reportedly killed as he was driving out of the court house car park on Wednesday afternoon.

Judge Pinzon was a senior judge who had been president of Guerrero state’s highest court.