RUSSIA: A deputy head of the Russian general staff has been arrested on charges of large-scale bribery, local media reported today, becoming the latest high-ranking military official to be detained for alleged corruption.

The arrest of Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin followed the detentions this week of Major General Ivan Popov, a former top commander of Russia's offensive in Ukraine, also on bribery charges.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that the wave of arrests did not indicate a campaign against the military, saying: “The fight against corruption is consistent work.”

GERMANY: The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party suffered another setback today when it was expelled from a far-right group in the European Parliament.

Identity and Democracy has decided to expel AfD with immediate effect, said Italy’s League party, which is a member of the group.

The move comes amid growing controversy surrounding the AfD lead candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, after he told an Italian newspaper that not all SS members were war criminals.

UNITED NATIONS: The International Court of Justice declined today to issue an immediate order for Ecuador to protect Mexican diplomatic property following the storming of Mexico’s embassy in Quito to arrest former vice-president Jorge Glas.

Court president Nawaf Salam said that pledges given by Ecuador in a letter to the court and in public hearings last month “encompass the concerns expressed by Mexico.”

CHINA: An explosion at a block of flats in the country’s north-east killed one person and injured at least three others today.

Officials said that the blast at the five-storey building in Harbin had probably been caused by a natural gas tank that was left on.