RUSSIA: A blast in an upscale residential block in Moscow killed one person and wounded four others this morning, Russian news agencies reported.

Those wounded in the blast, the cause of which was not revealed, were hospitalised in grave condition, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing Moscow health officials.

PAKISTAN: A police officer working on Pakistan’s first polio vaccination drive of the year was shot and killed today in Jamrud, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan by unidentified gunmen, police said.

Pakistan deployed thousands of police officers to protect health workers who inoculate children and are targeted by jihadists who falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilise children.

UGANDA: Opposition leaders demanded the release of a colleague after the nation’s top court ruled that civilians can’t be court martialed.

Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate in the East African country, has been in jail since his repatriation from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where he went missing on November 16.

FRANCE: A Paris court today found a film-maker guilty of the sexual assault of actor Adele Haenel when she was between 12 and 15 in the early 2000s, in the country’s first big Me Too trial.

Film-maker Christophe Ruggia was sentenced to two years under house arrest with an electronic bracelet plus a two-year suspended sentence. Mr Ruggia had denied any wrongdoing.

Ms Haenel was the first top actor in France to accuse the film industry of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse after the Me Too movement broke out.