One of Libya’s rival prime ministers told The Associated Press that he has no immediate plans to rule from the capital of Tripoli, after his attempted move there last week sparked clashes and fears of a return to widespread civil strife. In an interview late Wednesday, Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha said that his government will work from its headquarters in Sirte, a city on the Mediterranean coast about halfway between the country’s east and west. Rival administrations from each end of Libya claim to be its legitimate rulers until elections are held.

Guatemala’s controversial attorney general has started a second term, but Maria Consuelo Porras‘ last-minute reappointment this week has sparked widespread condemnation and new sanctions amid alarm over backsliding on the rule of law. President Alejandro Giammattei swore in Porras for another four-year period on Monday, despite critics who accuse her of playing a role in dismantling anti-corruption efforts and judicial independence, including through the “persecution” of key anti-impunity prosecutors and judges.

Italy and Hungary have urged the EU to call explicitly for a ceasefire in Ukraine and peace talks with Russia, putting themselves at odds with other member states determined to take a hard line with Moscow ahead of a summit next week. A draft concluding statement for the May 30-31 summit, seen by Reuters and dated May 19, describes the European Union as "unwavering in its commitment to help Ukraine exercise its inherent right of self-defense against the Russian aggression." It does not mention peace talks.

A special National Investigation Agency court in the Indian capital New Delhi has sentenced iconic Kashmiri pro-independence leader Yasin Malik to life imprisonment in “terror” funding case. Malik, one of Indian-administered Kashmir’s prominent pro-freedom leaders, is the chief of now banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. The group renounced violence in 1994. The court prosecutor had sought the death penalty for Malik, who has pleaded guilty to all charges. 

The Gambian government has said it will prosecute former President Yahya Jammeh for murder, rape, torture and other alleged crimes committed during his more than 20-year rule. The Ministry of Justice said on Wednesday that it accepted all but two of the 265 recommendations made by a commission that probed alleged crimes committed by the state under the despotic former leader from July 1994 to January 2017.

Tunisia’s powerful UGTT trade union has refused to participate in a national dialogue proposed by President Kais Saied, its spokesperson has said, arguing the process excluded democratic forces. Saied sacked the democratically elected government last July before dissolving parliament and seizing control of the judiciary, in moves opponents called a coup against the only democracy to emerge from the 2010 Arab Spring uprisings. 

Armenia and Azerbaijan have announced that they had set up a border commission, a potential step towards ending a dispute over the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh that has festered for 30 years. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Monday posted a decree on his website creating a border delimitation commission under Vice-Premier Shahin Mustafayev. Armenia’s commission on border delimitation and security will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, according to the Telegram channel of the Russian Sputnik agency.

Flanked by bodyguards with bulletproof shields, Gustavo Petro stood on a stage and lashed out at Colombia’s political elite in a speech to the residents of Fusagasuga, a rural town where farmers are struggling. The leftist presidential candidate spoke of the need to protect local farmers from heavily subsidized foreign competitors.

The ruling Communist Party is accused of detaining over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region as part of a years-long crackdown the United States and lawmakers in other Western countries have labelled a "genocide." China vehemently denies the allegations, calling them the "lie of the century." Michelle Bachelet is expected to visit the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a six-day tour.

A baptismal certificate. A baseball cap. Wallets, belts, neckties and bank membership cards. At first, the ordinary-seeming items do not seem fit for display in a museum. Then, with just a few words from one of the slips of paper accompanying them, the objects’ quotidian nature takes a chilling turn. “Certificate awarded to Kanyiba Kanyl for the completion of Computer Operation course,” one note reads. “He was forcibly disappeared on 18th September 2006.