Delayed talks on Chad’s future that the ruling military says are a “decisive moment” opened despite some opposition groups boycotting the gathering. 

More than 1,400 delegates from the military, civil society, opposition parties, trade unions, and rebel groups gathered on Saturday in the capital, N’Djamena, for the “national dialogue” that is expected to last three weeks. 

For the seven Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations forcibly shut by Israeli raids on Thursday, the reasons are quite clear. 

According to Mazen Rantisi, head of the board of directors of the Health Work Committees, which runs hospitals and clinics, and was among the groups raided, the closures were aimed at “destroying Palestinian society.” 

A ceremony has been held in Glasgow, Scotland, to officially repatriate seven Indian cultural artefacts looted during British colonial rule. Dignitaries from the High Commission of India joined members of Glasgow Life, the charity that manages the Scottish city’s museum collections, at the transfer of ownership ceremony on Friday, following more than 18 months of talks. 

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have met in Brussels for another European Union-mediated attempt to resolve lingering issues between the two wartime rivalling states that have spiked tensions in the Balkans. 

A huge explosion has ripped through a crowded mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 21 people, police say. Another 33 people were injured, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran added. 

British national El Shafee Elsheikh was sentenced to life in prison Friday for his role in an Islamic State scheme that took roughly two dozen Westerners hostage a decade ago. Elsheikh’s hostages gave him a somewhat whimsical nickname — he was dubbed a “Beatle” along with other English-accented captors — but the moniker belied the viciousness of his conduct. 

The United Nations Human Rights Council is due to renew the mandate of its Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, 125 national and international organizations working on Venezuela said today.

Israeli defense officials have confirmed that an Israeli raid on a Gaza cemetery killed five Palestinian children during its assault in early August, according to a new report, contradicting previous statements senior military officials made to local media. 

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told the UN rights chief that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh must return home to Myanmar, from where they had fled waves of violent persecution. 

With 50,000 people locked up since late March for alleged gang ties, El Salvador’s congress has approved another month-long extension of the state of exception that suspends some fundamental rights in the name of combatting the country’s powerful gangs.