PAKISTAN: Islamabad announced a pause in attacks against Afghanistan today, saying the decision was made ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr at the request of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

In a statement, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the pause in strikes on “terrorists and their support infrastructure in Afghanistan” will take effect at midnight on Wednesday and remain in place until midnight on Monday.

UNITED STATES: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to bring more than 1,000 Voice of America employees back to work on Tuesday and resume broadcasts by the state-funded media organisation.

The order, by District Judge Royce Lamberth, follows his ruling last week that President Donald Trump’s choice of administrator to oversee the mass sackings, Kari Lake, was unlawfully appointed, making the job cuts invalid.

FRANCE: Former president Nicolas Sarkozy returned to court on Tuesday to appeal his conviction on charges that he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election.

He said: “I am innocent, I have committed no act of corruption, either directly or indirectly.”

Mr Sarkozy became the first French president in modern times to serve jail time, serving 20 days behind bars last year.

SUDAN: The latest heavy fighting between warring parties along Sudan’s border with Chad has killed 17 people and many wounded, Doctors Without Borders said in a social media post on Tuesday.

The army said the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces had expanded its attacks on military areas in Tina, but had been repelled and forced to withdraw.