UNITED NATIONS: Africa “cannot wait any longer” to gain seats on the world body’s security council, Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has said.

Chairing a meeting of the council on Monday, Mr Bio pressed a long-standing demand for African countries to receive more seats, including two permanent places with veto powers.

“The time for half-measures and incremental progress is over. Africa must be heard and its demands for justice and equity must be met,” he said.

SOUTH ASIA: Pakistani and Afghan Taliban forces traded cross-border fire near a key north-western crossing, killing a woman and two children on the Afghan side, officials said today.

There was no word on casualties on the Pakistani side of the Torkham crossing, which was shut, disrupting trade and travel, local Pakistani official Zahid Khan said. It was unclear who fired first.

BANGLADESH: Police are investigating a murder case filed against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and other officials over the July killing of a shopkeeper during student protests that forced her to resign and flee the country.

SM Amir Hamza, a “well-wisher” of grocer Abu Sayeed, filed the case today with Dhaka Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury.

Student protesters want Ms Hasina and her supporters charged with murder over more than 300 deaths.

GREECE: Firefighters battled scattered blazes which remained today from a major wildfire that reached the northern suburbs of Athens.

The fire triggered multiple evacuations and left at least one person dead, but with the strong winds that had fanned the flames dying down overnight, the blaze no longer had any active, advancing fronts.