BRAZIL: The trial of the alleged killers of a female Rio de Janeiro councillor is set to begin later today.

Two former police officers are standing trial in the city over the deaths of Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, on March 14 2018.

Ronnie Lessa is accused of firing the gun in the drive-by shooting, while Elcio Queiroz is accused of being the driver who pursued Franco.

The accused were arrested in 2019 and have been in custody since then. 

GREECE: The government is seeking stricter European Union migration policies as it braces for a potential surge in migrants and refugees due to the war in the Middle East, Migration Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said today.

He said the government was considering creating detention facilities on the islands of Rhodes and Crete after the rate of arrivals by sea more than doubled, starting last autumn.

PAKISTAN: Security forces raided a militant hideout today in a former insurgent stronghold in a restive province bordering Afghanistan, killing eight suspects.

A local militant commander was believed to be among those killed in the operation in Bannu, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police official Zahid Ullah said.

TURKEY: A mayor from the main opposition Republican People’s Party was detained today on suspicion of being a member of a banned Kurdish armed group.

State-run media reported that Ahmet Ozer, mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, had been arrested by anti-terrorist police for alleged connections to the Kurdistan Workers Party.