SENEGAL: Nearly 170 migrants returned to Senegal yesterday after Spanish authorities refused to let them disembark from their rescue boat near the north-west African nation of Mauritania.

Spain’s Interior Ministry said 168 migrants were safely transported back to Saint-Louis in the north of Senegal. 

GREECE: Two rescue operations were launched yesterday for migrants crammed on board sailboats, one far off a western Greek island and the other off a Cycladic island near the Greek capital, the coastguard said.

A group of 76 people were rescued from a sailing boat in distress 64 nautical miles south-west of the Ionian Sea island of Zakynthos in western Greece.

All were taken on board a passing Egyptian-flagged cargo ship, and there were no reports of any missing people.

SYRIA: Syria’s Kurdish-led and US-backed forces and an allied militia announced on Wednesday they have removed the militia’s commander, Ahmad Khbeil, from his post after his arrest this week led to intense clashes in the east of the country that left 32 people dead.

The clashes spread to several towns and villages in the province of Deir el-Zour and were the worst in years in a region where hundreds of US troops have been based since 2015.

UNITED STATES: The White House was set to propose a new rule yesterday that would make 3.6 million more US workers eligible for overtime pay.

The new rule would require employers to pay overtime to so-called white-collar workers who earn less than $55,000 (£43,000) a year. 

In another significant change, the rule proposes automatic increases to the salary level each year.