SENEGAL: Weekend clashes between police and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko have left one person dead and several injured.

Aliou Bodian was killed Friday in the city of Kolda in the country’s south, said friend Boubacar Balde. “It’s a sad atmosphere that has overtaken the family,” he said.

Opposition leader Mr Sonko is being tried this week for rape and death threats against a woman working at a massage parlour and could face up to 10 years in prison. 

PAKISTAN:  A snowy avalanche in northern Pakistan killed 11 people and injured 25 from a nomadic tribe as they crossed a mountainous area with their goats on Saturday, police said.

The avalanche hit the Chambeli area of Shounter Pass, which connects the Astore district of the Gilgit Baltistan region to the bordering Azad Kashmir region.

INDIA: A government official has been suspended from his job after he ordered a water reservoir to be drained so he could retrieve his phone, which he had dropped while taking a selfie.

The Times of India reported that food inspector Rajesh Vishwas dropped his Samsung smartphone in Kherkatta dam in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last week.

More than two million litres of water were pumped out, enough to irrigate at least 1,500 acres of land.

UNITED STATES: President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement in principle to raise the nation’s legal debt ceiling late on Saturday.

Congress must now rush to approve the spending cuts package in a matter of days to avert a potentially disastrous default — which would occur if the government exceeds its legal borrowing limit and can no longer pay all its creditors or pay for existing programmes.