UGANDA: The government has agreed a deal with the United States to take deported migrants on condition that they have no criminal record and are not unaccompanied minors, officials said today.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said the “two parties are working out the detailed modalities on how the agreement shall be implemented.”

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: The Rwanda-backed M23 militia has denied involvement in a series of massacres in the country’s east that were detailed in a Human Rights Watch report.

In a statement on Wednesday night, M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka called the report “fake and a falsification of reality” and accused the human rights group of spreading “extremist propaganda.” 

IRAN: The armed forces have begun their first military exercise since the end of Iran's 12-day war with Israel, local television reported today, with navy vessels launching missiles at targets at sea in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean.

The TV report said the frigate IRIS Sabalan and smaller vessel the IRIS Ganaveh had hit the targets with Nasir and Qadir cruise missiles. 

CHINA: A celebration was held in the Tibet autonomous region today to mark 60 years of Chinese control.

Speakers in a large public square in Lhasa hailed economic development in the remote region in the foothills of the Himalayas and stressed the need to fight separatism. 

“Tibetan affairs are China’s internal affairs, and no external forces are permitted to interfere. All schemes to split the motherland and undermine stability in Tibet are doomed to fail,” senior Communist Party leader Wang Huning told around 20,000 people.