AFP news

Ruben da Silva Villar, also known as "Colombia," was released last Friday, according to local press reports, after a ruling made three days earlier and which AFP gained access to on Monday.

Meloni will present "a programmatic manifesto", according to government sources, aiming to implement "the commitments undertaken with Italian citizens in the election campaign".

Many women do not consider the 45-year-old an ally, pointing to her advocacy of traditional family values, including her opposition to abortion, and what they see as her failure to challenge the social status quo.

The former Portuguese colony has been limping for nearly three years as coronavirus restrictions have kept away mainland Chinese tourists, depriving the gaming sector of its chief revenue source and tanking the wider economy.

The Casablanca-born rapper, who is a massive star in the Arabic-speaking music world, had in late September told reporters who gathered after one of his concerts, "I smoke hash -- so what?... It does not mean I set a bad example."

A mostly Congolese Tutsi group, the M23 resumed fighting in late 2021 after lying dormant for years. It has since captured swathes of territory in the Central African country's North Kivu province, including the strategic town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border in June.

Lead inspector Aisha Muhammad, a Supreme Court judge in the Maldives, said Australia was in "clear breach" of its international obligations.

Two bodies, of a minor and an adult, were recovered on Saturday, though they have not yet been identified.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke with his British, French and Turkish counterparts to convey "concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a 'dirty bomb'," Moscow said, referring to a weapon that uses traditional explosives to scatter radioactive material.

The attack took place on a remote road in the so-called "three borders" region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso plagued by jihadist insurgents linked with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

Rushdie was then air-lifted to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery but his condition had improved in the weeks after.

The port city is the latest to be hit following a recent resurgence of attacks by the Al-Qaeda-linked group, which has mainly targeted the capital Mogadishu and central Somalia.

Pyongyang has conducted a blitz of weapons tests, including what it claimed were tactical nuclear drills, in recent weeks, with Seoul and Washington ramping up joint military exercises in response.

The yen fluctuated against the dollar as speculation swirled that Japanese authorities had stepped into forex markets again to support their currency for a second time in as many sessions.

Inflation in the 19-nation eurozone climbed to an all-time high of nearly 10 percent in September, five times the ECB's target of two percent.

The contest, triggered by outgoing leader Liz Truss's resignation on Thursday, requires candidates to secure the support of at least 100 Conservative MPs by 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Monday.

He was reacting to allegations earlier this year that Ramaphosa concealed a multi-million-dollar cash heist at his luxury farmhouse.

The claim came as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops were preparing to destroy a hydroelectric dam in the southern Kherson region in what would amount to a "catastrophe on a grand scale".

Retail sales volumes tumbled 1.4 percent as sky-high prices curbed consumer purchasing. The figure was better, however, than the 1.7-percent slide in August.

"Our hearts go out to the Ukrainian people who are defending their sovereignty," Reza Pahlavi told reporters after delivering an address from his home in exile in Washington on protests that have swept Iran.

The 2008 action blockbuster, parts of which were filmed in Hong Kong, was scheduled to be shown at an outdoor cinema on October 27 but has since been replaced by "Iron Man", according to the organisers' website.

The decision is another twist in political wrangling that began even before Khan's April ouster, and is one of several legal battles being fought by the former international cricket star and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

China's foreign policy is devised by elite groups within the Communist Party -- groups that "unlike his predecessors, Xi directly controls", said Jennifer Hsu from the Australian think tank Lowy Institute.

China is the last major country committed to a zero-tolerance Covid strategy, responding to dozens of outbreaks with lockdowns and sending entire neighbourhoods out to makeshift quarantine facilities.

Pakistan's courts are often used to tie up lawmakers in lengthy proceedings that rights monitors criticise for stifling political opposition.

North of the Ibar River where the city's 20,000 Serbs live, a smattering of pro-Russian murals have appeared in recent months, trumpeting the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

The Justice Department said the defendants were engaged in Beijing's Operation Fox Hunt, which US authorities have said involves extra-judicial "repatriation squads" that clandestinely attempt to force expatriates to return to China.

Shocking images emerged on Thursday of the arrest of freedom of expression activist Hossein Ronaghi who was put into a chokehold and hauled away when he presented himself at a prosecutors' office.

The crisis-hit PM, elected Conservative leader just six weeks ago on a tax-slashing platform, announced her resignation Thursday.