Today's World News covering, Africa, Europe, Middle East

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has announced the appointment of his "controversial" wife Grace to a key post within his ruling Zanu-PF party in a move seen by critics as a way of positioning her to a role that would influence the First Family’s wishes in the electoral process.

Russia and Belarus have launched a large-scale joint military exercise, called Zapad-2017, which has made nearby Nato countries nervous.

At least 24 students and teachers have died in a fire at a religious school in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.

At least 21 students have been killed after a fire broke out at a school in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur early Thursday morning.

The US State Department said it will stop issuing certain kinds of visas to citizens of Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea and Sierra Leone, because of their refusal to take back deported citizens.

People in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, are angered by the rise in taxes at a time when foreign aid is declining.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to miss next week's UN General Assembly debate as criticism of her handling of the Rohingya crisis grows.

The leader of the Djibouti opposition coalition USN, Ahmed Youssouf Houmed died in France on Sunday at the age of 79.

Opposition MPs in Kenya have boycotted the opening of the new parliament to protest against President Uhuru Kenyatta's decision to address it after a court annulled his election win.

Bangladesh's prime minister has urged Myanmar to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Rakhine state.

Former Gambian president, Yahya Jammeh, withdrew as much as $45 million (almost 2 billion dalasi) from the Central bank coffers to fund his lavish lifestyle, a presidential commission has heard.

Militant Islamists have attacked a Somali military base and police station near the border with Kenya, killing eight soldiers, an official has said.

Zimbabwe’s government is using money earned from diamond exports to fund its Central Intelligence Organisation, blamed for a raft of human-rights abuses as it’s helped to keep President Robert Mugabe in power since 1980, Global Witness said.