INDIA: New Delhi accused Pakistani soldiers today of using mortars and automatic gunfire overnight to kill two Indian soldiers on the Kashmir Line of Control border.

Pakistan’s strike at Indian positions in the Sunderbani sector violated the ceasefire accord of 2003, said Indian army spokesman Colonel Nitin Joshi.

Col Joshi called the Pakistani firing and shelling “unprovoked and indiscriminate” and said Indian soldiers retaliated “strongly and effectively.”

PANAMA: Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo says her country may take further retaliatory measures against Venezuela if Caracas doesn’t reverse diplomatic and trade bans announced last week.

Venezuela banned key Panamanian businesses from operating on its territory after Panama’s government put Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on a list of Venezuelan officials deemed at “high risk” for laundering money.

“Let’s hope Venezuela revises some things, because otherwise Panama will have to take coherent countermeasures,” said Ms de Saint Malo.

AZERBAIJAN: Voters are set to cast ballots tomorrow in a snap presidential election that is all but certain to extend the rule of President Ilham Aliyev by another seven years.

The country’s long-serving leader is expected to win the vote by a landslide, after leading opposition parties boycotted the race, leaving seven token challengers.

Opinion surveys have put support for the incumbent at over 80 per cent.

LIBYA: Militias, including some affiliated to the government, are holding thousands of prisoners in prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention, the United Nations said today.

Men, women and children have been rounded up based on “tribal or family links and perceived political affiliations” and held with “little or no recourse to judicial remedy or reparations,” it added.

Libya has been in chaos since 2011 when British and French air forces provided support to opposition forces fighting to overthrow dictator Muammar Gadaffi.