ECUADOR: The Constitutional Court voted unanimously on Thursday to reject multiple challenges to President Guillermo Lasso’s decree dissolving the opposition-led National Assembly as it tried to oust him in an impeachment trial.

With the ruling, there are no impediments to the country’s electoral body calling presidential and legislative elections, which are tentatively set for August.

ZIMBABWE: Authorities have freed more than 4,000 inmates in an effort to decongest the country’s overcrowded jails.

The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service said that the mass release, under a presidential amnesty, excluded violent criminals as well as those convicted of robbery, treason and public order offences.

The move came ahead of general elections due to take place in August.

IRAN: Authorities executed three men today who had been found guilty of deadly violence during last year's anti-government protests.

Mizan, the judiciary’s website, announced the executions of Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi, without saying how they had been carried out. 

The three men were alleged to have killed a police officer and two members of the paramilitary Basij group in Isfahan in November during nationwide protests.

AUSTRALIA: Eighty-eight-year-old doctor Ken Elliott, held captive by Islamist extremists in west Africa for more than seven years, has been freed and has returned to Australia.

Mr Elliott was safe and well and reunited with his wife and their children on Thursday night, said Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

Ms Wong said no ransom had been paid to secure Mr Elliott’s freedom from the al-Qaida-affiliated group responsible for the kidnapping, but no other details of his release were disclosed.