Muqtada al-Sadr's announcement of a coalition has left remaining Iraqi parties with the choice of closing ranks which could reinstate Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for another term. 

Sri Lanka is headed for a debt crisis, the finance ministry has warned, blaming a series of previous costly projects for record-high repayments.

Sierra Leone's electoral staff prepared polling stations in Freetown as voters queued for presidential run-off.

US President Donald Trump has appointed a lawyer to his legal team who has been critical of special counsel Robert Mueller's so-called Russia probe.

India's federal police filed charges against Canara Bank's former chairman over allegations that he helped a company defraud the bank of about $10.5 million taken in loans.

Uganda says it is widening a probe of government officials who allegedly stole aid intended for refugees to include UN staff.

Switzerland's financial market regulator says the local division of J.P. Morgan "seriously breached" anti-money laundering rules relating to a corruption scandal surrounding a Malaysian state fund.

Some 85 people, including 44 Taiwanese, are jailed in China over wire fraud charges.

Honduran police violently clash with protesters, who accuse authorities of manipulating presidential vote results.

Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga says the coalition he leads will hold nationwide campaigns to urge reforms of the electoral commission before the fresh presidential elections next month.