SUDAN: The bodies of dozens of people allegedly killed by Sudanese paramilitary and allied militia have been uncovered in a mass grave near Geneina, West Darfur, the United Nations said today.

The UN Human Rights Office said that the bodies of the 87 people, some of whom belong to the ethnic African Masalit tribe, were found dumped in a three-foot shallow grave.

PAKISTAN: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said today that the International Monetary Fund deposited the first instalment of $1.2 billion (£915.5 million) with the country’s central bank under a recently signed bailout deal aimed at helping the impoverished Islamic nation avoid defaulting on its debt repayments.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the remaining $1.8bn (£1.373m) would be received from the IMF over the next nine months. 

GUATEMALA: The troubled presidential election was thrown into even greater turmoil on Wednesday when the country’s top electoral tribunal confirmed the results of the June 25 vote while the attorney general’s office announced that the second-placed party had been suspended.

This comes after more than two weeks of rising tensions after the first round of voting, which had seemingly sent conservative Sandra Torres and progressive Bernardo Arevalo into an August 20 presidential run-off.

ARTSAKH: The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) said in a statement today that the situation in the region was critical after humanitarian access had been cut off to the area since June 15 by Azerbaijan threatening the lives of 120,000 people.

The statement added that since Tuesday Azerbaijan has blocked the “two-way transportation of patients and medicines by the International Committee of the Red Cross.”