HUNGARY: The European Union began the process today of clawing back hundreds of millions of euros meant to go to Budapest after the anti-migrant government refused to pay a huge fine for breaking the bloc’s asylum rules.

In June, the top EU court ordered Hungary to pay €200 million (£170m) for persistently depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum. The court imposed an additional fine of €1m (£800,000) for every day it failed to comply.

PORTUGAL: More than 100 wildfires in the country’s north stretched thousands of firefighters to the limit today, with seven deaths since the worst spate of recent years spread out of control over the weekend.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro declared a state of calamity in the hardest-hit areas on Tuesday night, invoking powers to mobilise more firefighters and civil servants.

CHINA: Sanctions against US companies selling arms to the breakaway island of Taiwan were announced by the government today.

Chinese media reported the sanctions, citing the Foreign Ministry, but gave no details of the companies involved. Taiwan is awaiting deliveries of F-16 fighter jets, Abrams tanks and a range of missiles from the United States.

PAKISTAN: Police have arrested the key suspect in the gang-rape of a female polio worker who was assaulted by three men during last week’s vaccination campaign, officials said today. Two other suspects remain at large.

The victim had alerted the authorities, saying she had been raped by three men after going into a house in Jacobabad to administer polio drops to the children there, local police official Mohammad Saifal said.