Inmates in six Ecuadorian prisons have released 50 guards and seven police officers they had taken hostage, the prison service (SNAI) has said. The 57 freed hostages are "undergoing medical evaluation" but appear to be in good health, according to SNAI. Officials say the

Donald Trump's longtime confidante Rudy Giuliani and six other alleged co-conspirators have pleaded not guilty to state charges in Georgia. Mr Giuliani is charged with 13 crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. They join Mr Trump and

Singaporeans have chosen Tharman Shanmugaratnam as their next president - but many would have let out a small sigh of disappointment as they did so. On Friday, the former top minister won a record 70.4% of the votes, comfortably beating two other candidates in the country's first

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office announced that Wallace had formally stepped down as the country’s defense secretary, more than a month after he said that he would resign in the next UK government cabinet reshuffle. Wallace, who has been in the UK parliament for

Nine soldiers were killed in a restive western region of Pakistan on Thursday after a suicide bomber rammed his motorbike into their military convoy and detonated, the army and officials said. Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in militancy since the Taliban returned to power in

A judge in the United States has ruled that an 84-year-old white homeowner who shot and seriously injured a Black teenager after he mistakenly went to the man’s house must stand trial. Missouri’s Clay County Judge Louis Angles issued the ruling on Thursday after hearing

China likely shipped genuine firearms to the Solomon Islands when its donation of “replica” weapons to police last year sparked a political firestorm in the tiny Pacific Island country, a previously unseen diplomatic cable claimed. Police in the Solomon Islands said they

The Algerian coastguard have reportedly shot dead two tourists holidaying in Morocco who strayed into Algerian waters on their jet skis. They were among four French-Moroccan dual nationals who had set off by jet ski from the Moroccan resort of Saidia. A third member of the group was

A leader of the far-right Proud Boys has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, one of the longest sentences yet handed out over the US Capitol riot. Prosecutors said US Army veteran Joe Biggs, 38, was an "instigator" of the storming of Congress on 6 January 2021. The

Singaporeans have headed to the polls to vote in their first contested presidential election in over a decade. The president has a mainly ceremonial role in the city-state with few powers and little say in public affairs. However, the result on Friday could be a marker of public

As many as 63 people died in a massive fire in a multi-story residential building in South Africa’s Johannesburg. Emergency Management Services said another 43 people were injured in the blaze, which that broke out in the predawn hours on Thursday, news agency Associated Press

At least six protesters and one policeman were killed in the eastern Congolese city of Goma on Wednesday when a demonstration against the U.N. peacekeeping mission and other foreign organisations turned violent, the Congolese army said. Since 2022, the United Nations MONUSCO mission

India recently began a push to renew bilateral ties with Syria after the civil war-battered country returned to the Arab League in May during a summit in Saudi Arabia. In July, India's Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan, embarked on the first ministerial-level

Minutes after Gabon’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday that President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term in office, senior military officers announced a coup and annulled the election results. According to local media reports, Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, the

The White House has warned North Korea against selling munitions to Russia for its war in Ukraine as tensions between Pyongyang and Washington continue to mount. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday that the United States is concerned about potential

North Korea says it has fired two short-range tactical ballistic missiles to simulate nuclear strikes on military targets in South Korea. State media said the tests had been conducted as a warning against the US deployment of strategic bombers to the region. South Korea reported two

Announcing the result in the early hours, CGE head Michel Stephane Bonda said Bongo's main challenger, Albert Ondo Ossa, had come in second place with 30.77%.  Bongo's team have rejected Ondo Ossa's allegations of electoral irregularities. Tensions are running high

A plane carrying Israelis home from the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles made an emergency stop in Saudi Arabia before flying back to Tel Aviv, in what Israel praised as a sign of goodwill as the United States works to establish formal relations between the two countries. On

India has lodged a strong protest with China over a new map that lays claim to territory New Delhi says is Indian, the latest tension between the two Asian neighbours over their mutual border. The protest lodged by New Delhi on Tuesday followed reports in the Indian media that Beijing

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is visiting Beijing amid criticism from some MPs over the government's approach to China. Mr Cleverly, the first senior UK minister to travel to China since 2018, said the country's global significance meant it could not be ignored. But MPs