SPAIN: Spanish human rights activist Ana Baneira has been released from prison in Iran after almost four months, Spain’s Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday.

The reason for Ms Baneira’s arrest and detention in November was never made public by the Iranian authorities but Spanish national news agency EFE reports that she had been taking part in protests in Tehran at the time.

PAKISTAN: A bombing at a crowded bazaar in south-western Pakistan on Sunday killed at least five people and wounded 16, authorities said amid a surge in violence in the south Asian nation.

No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Barkhan, about 360 miles north-east of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

Balochistan has long struggled with a low-level insurgency by the Balochistan Liberation Army and other small separatist groups demanding independence from the central government.

AFRICAN UNION: A helicopter belonging to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia crashed on Sunday, killing three people and injuring eight others.

The mission reported that the helicopter was carrying Somali National Army officers on a joint training mission for casualty evacuation drills when it crashed at Baledogle airstrip in Lower Shabelle region

FRANCE: French President Emmanuel Macron began a four-nation tour of central African countries yesterday, as Paris seeks to counter growing Chinese and Russian influence in the region.

President Macron is to visit Gabon for an environmental summit, followed by Angola, then the Republic of Congo, and finally the Democratic Republic of Congo.

His visits come as alarm grows in Paris over warming relations with Russia and China on the part of French-speaking African countries.