PAKISTAN: At least one person was killed after a grenade was thrown at people sitting in front of a hotel in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, as people celebrate the country’s independence day.

The pro-independence Baluch Liberation Army group claimed responsibility for all three attacks in the province in as many days after warning people not to celebrate the holiday.

COSTA RICA: Five officials from the child welfare agency Randall Zuniga, including lawyers and social workers, have been arrested on charges that they were involved in trafficking migrant children for adoption.

In a statement, judicial investigators said a probe began in 2022 when the then-president of the child welfare agency reported irregularities in adoptions at one of its regional offices.

SRI LANKA: The election commission has accepted applications from a record 39 candidates to run in next month’s presidential election, which comes amid an economic crisis in the country.

The vote is seen as a referendum on difficult economic reforms initiated by current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, which have improved key economic figures, though their effects have yet to reach many ordinary people.

UKRAINE: President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that the country’s troops have full control of the town of Sudzha in the Kursk region in their incursion into Russian territory, making it the largest seizure so far.

Russia did not immediately respond to Mr Zelensky’s statement, but its Defence Ministry said earlier that Russian forces had blocked attempts to take several other communities.