PAKISTAN: Authorities have reached a peace agreement with a civil rights alliance, ending days of violent protests that left at least 10 people dead and bringing calm to Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Under Saturday’s deal, the regional government agreed to continue subsidising wheat and electricity and accepted more than three dozen other demands related to reducing the number of ministers and improving health, education and other public services.

JAPAN: Margaret Thatcher admirer Sanae Takaichi won election as the first female leader of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party at the weekend.

A supporter of the imperial family’s male-only succession and an opponent of same-sex marriage, Ms Takaichi is also a hawk on China and a second world war history revisionist who regularly visits the Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals are among those honoured.

UKRAINE: Russia launched drones, missiles and guided aerial bombs early today, killing five people in a major attack that Ukrainian officials said had targeted civilian infrastructure.

Moscow fired 53 ballistic and cruise missiles and 496 drones, Ukraine’s air force said.

Four people, including a 15-year-old, died in a drone and missile strike on Lviv.

UNITED STATES: Former rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sentenced  to four years and two months in prison for transporting people across state boundaries for sexual encounters.

Mr Combs was convicted in July of flying former girlfriends and male sex workers across the country to engage in drug-fuelled sexual encounters.