RUSSIA: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said today it has end operations in the country after 32 years, citing a Justice Ministry letter that said the medical aid group had been removed from a register of foreign non-governmental organisations.

MSF said it would retain its branch office in Moscow, but operations, run by its Dutch affiliate, have stopped. It was MSF Netherlands whose registration was withdrawn, a group spokesman said.

BANGLADESH: Thousands of activists and leaders of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party rallied in the capital  Dhaka today to demand a democratic transition through an election as the interim government has yet to set a timeframe for new voting.

They gathered in front of the party’s headquarters in Dhaka, chanting slogans demanding a new election.

PORTUGAL: Five thousand firefighters struggled today to contain multiple wildfires raging across the country’s north that are blamed for killing at least six people, including four firefighters, and forcing an unknown number of residents to flee their homes.

Some 100 fires have been reported by national authorities, but they have yet to say how many people have had to evacuate and how many homes have been lost. Over 50 people have been injured.

FRANCE: A man admitted in court today that he had, for nearly a decade, drugged his wife and invited dozens of men to rape her, as well as raping her himself. Dominique Pelicot pleaded with her and their three children for forgiveness.

He said: “Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist. They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”