AFRICA
Uganda: Army kills 41 ‘tribal gunmen’ near Democratic Republic of Congo.
Nigeria: Military claims to have killed at least 53 Boko Haram fighters, just hours after a suicide bomber targeted Muslims in a mosque.
Kenya: At least 29 killed in Kenya by Islamist group Boko Haram attack.
ASIA
Australia: Australia’s highest court blocks the government’s attempt to return 153 asylum seekers to Sri Lanka.
North Korea: Two short-range missiles were fired into the sea the day after Seoul rejected proposals to cancel annual military drills with the US.
Myanmar: Wild elephants are being held in horrific conditions as smugglers seek to resume a lucrative trade to Thailand, a report says.
EUROPE
Ukraine: Three bridges on roads leading into Donetsk are destroyed ahead of an expected blockade of the city by government forces against pro-Russian separatists.
The Vatican: Pope Francis has met with victims of paedophile priests for the first time, as a Vatican commission moves to address the problem of clerical sex abuse.
UK: Former ‘News of the World’ editor Andy Coulson has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for conspiring to hack phones.
LATIN AMERICA
Bolivia: In a bid to counter extreme poverty, lawmakers approved child labour for kids as young as 10 years old, under a new law that lays out specific conditions for their employment.
El Salvador: The new president of El Salvador has opened his official residence as an art gallery, welcoming what his office described previously as the “socially excluded.”
Brazil: An overpass collapsed on two vehicles in the Brazilian World Cup host city of Belo Horizonte, killing two people.
MIDDLE-EAST
Bahrain: A senior American diplomat, Tom Malinowski, is ordered to leave the country after meeting with a leading Shia opposition group.
Iraq: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamist militant group ISIS, has called on Muslims to obey him, in his first video sermon.
Egypt: A high court has sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 36 other Islamists to life in prison.
USA & Canada
Canada: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has acknowledged his drug problem for the first time and vowed that his commitment to “living clean is now unwavering’’ as he returned to work after a two-month stay in a rehabilitation clinic.
USA: More than 80 people with mental health problems have died as a result of abuse or neglect in US jails since 2003, a report finds.
USA: The city of Chicago’s police chief has blamed weak gun laws after a string of shootings over Independence Day holiday weekend that killed at least nine and injured dozens.
