MALI: The military regime has arrested Resolute Mining chief executive Terence Holohan and two other employees of the Australian gold-extraction company while they were visiting the country for talks on an unspecified dispute, the firm said today.

The three were detained last Friday the capital Bamako.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: The World Health Organisation said today that mpox cases in the region where a new and more infectious variant was first detected earlier this year appear to be “plateauing,” even as the virus continues to increase in other regions of the country, as well as in Burundi and Uganda.

The United Nations agency said the number of mpox infections “shows a general rising trend,” but that they may have levelled off in the South Kivu region.

CHAD: Boko Haram insurgents killed 17 soldiers in a weekend attack on a military post in the country’s west that also left 96 assailants dead, the army said today.

The attack in the Lake Chad region happened on Saturday, army spokesman General Issakh Acheikh said on national television on Sunday night. He did not provide details.

JAPAN: Shigeru Ishiba was re-elected as prime minister today after his government had suffered the worst election defeat in more than a decade, forcing the struggling leader to form his second cabinet just over a month after taking office.

The October 27 election saw Mr Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito lose their majority in the 465-seat lower house.