ITALY: Dozens of people performed fascist chants and salutes during ceremonies today to mark the 79th anniversary of the execution of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Neonazis marched through northern Italian towns where Mr Mussolini was arrested and executed at the end of World War II, as well as through his birth and burial place at Predappio.

PAKISTAN: Armed men ambushed and kidnapped a senior judge in the restive north-west, a police official said today.

Around 15 men on motorbikes intercepted Judge Shakirullah Marwat’s vehicle as he was travelling toward Dera Ismail Khan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said police official Faheem Khan. 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

CAMBODIA: Security was tight around a military base in the Chbar Mon district of Kompong Speu province in south-western Cambodia today, a day after a huge explosion killed 20 soldiers, wounded others and damaged nearby houses.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said in a social media post on Saturday that he was deeply shocked when he received the news of the blast, the cause of which was not immediately clear.

IRAQ: A new law passed by the Iraqi parliament on Saturday imposes heavy prison sentences on gay and transgender people.

The new law, passed as an amendment to the country's existing anti-prostitution law, imposes a sentence of 10 to 15 years for same-sex relations and a prison term of one to three years for people who undergo or perform gender-transition surgeries and for “intentional practice of effeminacy.”