INDIA: Seventeen police officers were sentenced to life imprisonment today for kidnapping and killing a job-seeker in 2009.

Business graduate Ranbir Singh had gone to northern city Dehradun looking for work but was arrested for alleged robbery.

An investigation found that he’d been tortured and shot 12 times at close range. The officers denied the charges and may appeal.

SYRIA: Infighting between rebel groups has killed 45 people in two days in eastern Deir el-Zour province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.

The fighting was between the al-Qaida affiliate Nusra Front and al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

SOUTH AFRICA: President Jacob Zuma has been discharged from hospital after doctors ordered him to stay for a thorough checkup, his office said today.

Mr Zuma will work mainly from home this week so that he can continue to rest, officials said.

The president has two check ups a year but “doctors felt he needed to be hospitalised for a thorough check-up following a demanding schedule,” a statement said.

COLOMBIA: A unilateral ceasefire from national liberation movement Farc took hold today, clearing the way for peaceful presidential elections.

The left-wing rebels have declared four unilateral ceasefires during ongoing peace talks with the Colombian government, which has not respected them.

FRANCE: National Front (FN) founder and president-for-life Jean-Marie Le Pen has thrown a Holocaust-inspired spanner in the works of his daughter’s bid to make the fascist party appear acceptable.

As he unleashed a barrage of insults at celebrity critics of FN success in the EU elections, Mr Le Pen said of Jewish singer Patrick Bruel: “We will organise an oven for him next time.”

The death camp reference was quickly taken down from the party’s website.

NIGERIA: Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have reportedly kidnapped 20 women near the town of Chibok, where the Islamic militant group snatched more than 300 schoolgirls in April.

Anti-Boko Haram vigilante Alhaji Tar said yesterday that men arrived around noon on Thursday, forcing the women and three men who tried to stop the kidnapping into their vehicles at gunpoint.

GREECE: Prime Minister Antonis Samaras replaced his finance minister today in a broad cabinet reshuffle following poor EU election results.

Current Eurobank chief economist Gikas Hardouvelis will step in for Yannis Stournaras, who was widely rumoured to be heading to the governorship of the Bank of Greece.

KOSOVO: Prime Minister Hashim Thaci claimed victory in the country’s general elections late on Sunday.

Results yesterday suggested his right-wing Democratic Party of Kosovo was leading the polls by around 5 per cent.

Serbia, from which Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008, encouraged ethnic Serbs to vote for the first time to strengthen both countries’ EU membership bids — though the turnout was still low at 42 per cent.

THAILAND: Residents fled their homes today after a fire damaged a petrochemical factory in the eastern province of Raygong.

Police officer Prapan Pitaksa said no-one was injured in the fire, which was brought under control in 20 minutes and was likely started by a gas leak.

GUINEA: The opposition announced today that it was pulling out of parliament and threatened massive street demonstrations.

Its move will paralyse parliament and could lead to a return to the violence that has plagued the country in recent years.

Opposition figures accused the government, which does not have a parliamentary majority, of violating a reconciliation agreement signed last July.

CUBA: Authorities said today that they had arrested eight people in connection with a scandal over the sale of university entrance exam papers.

Thousands of students had to take the test again and the issue has been a fixture of recent coverage in the socialist island’s media.

Unnamed suspects include five teachers, a methodologist, an employee at the Higher Education Ministry’s printing office and a person not linked to the education sector.