International
DR Congo announces new government after months of delay
The Democratic Republic of Congo announced a new government on Wednesday, ending more than five months of political uncertainty since the reelection of President Felix Tshisekedi.
The new Cabinet is composed of 54 ministers versus 57 in the last government, including Prime Minister Judith Sumonwa Tuluka, Congo’s first female prime minister who was appointed in early April.
At the Interior Ministry, the president appointed Jacquemain Shabani, his strongman former electoral campaign director who was already his main adviser on political and electoral matters.
Constant Mutamba, leader of the Congo Dynamic Progressive Revolutionary Opposition platform, was appointed justice minister, while Jean-Piere Bemba was replaced at the Defense Ministry by Guy Kabombo.
At the Foreign Ministry, Tshisekedi appointed a woman, Therese Kayiwamba, who replaced Christophe Lutundula.
Kizito Kapinga was appointed to the Mines Ministry, in charge of the Central African country’s globally significant reserves of coltan, copper, and other minerals.
The new government that has 16 women ministers came after more than five months of negotiations between new allies of the president, who control the parliament with 95% of National Assembly seats since the last election in December 2023.
The army claimed last week to have foiled a coup attempt in the capital Kinshasa, arresting several people involved in the plot.
The government’s immediate tasks include ending the M23 rebellion in the volatile east and improving the living conditions of ordinary citizens who live on less than $2 a day.
International
Death toll in Hong Kong fire rises to 44 with 279 still missing, authorities say
Hong Kong authorities say the fires in four of the buildings have been brought under control, but large plumes of smoke are still hanging over the residential estate.
Photo: AFP
At least 44 people have been killed so far in a major fire engulfing public housing apartments in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, with 279 people not accounted for.
Three construction company executives have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter connected to flammable materials, including mesh and plastic sheets, that may have allowed the fire to spread quickly.
More than 800 firefighters are tackling the blaze at Wang Fuk Court, which has been burning for over 18 hours.
The fire has been classified a level five blaze, the most serious level in Hong Kong.
A baby and an elderly woman were rescued during a late-night rescue, local media reports.
Hong Kong authorities say the fires in four of the buildings have been brought under control, but large plumes of smoke are still hanging over the residential estate.
I can smell it in the air. I can also see a number of small fires still burning in the apartment blocks.
Even more fire engines and an ambulance have arrived this morning to help with rescue efforts
BBC.
An Indian fighter jet has crashed while performing a display at an airshow in Dubai, officials have said.
Details later.
A Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal has sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death.
The verdict, delivered on Monday, November 17, 2025, follows a months-long trial that found Hasina guilty of ordering a lethal crackdown on a student-led uprising last year. She received a death sentence for the killing of several protesters and a life sentence on charges of crimes against humanity.
The ruling marks the most significant legal action against a former Bangladeshi leader in decades and comes ahead of parliamentary elections expected in early February 2026. There was cheering and clapping in the courtroom as the death sentence was pronounced. The verdict can be appealed in the Supreme Court, though Hasina’s son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, said they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government, including the Awami League, is in office.
Prosecutors told the court that evidence showed Hasina directly ordered security forces to use lethal force to suppress protests in July and August 2024. A United Nations report estimates that up to 1,400 people were killed during the demonstrations, with thousands more injured, making it the deadliest unrest in Bangladesh since its 1971 war of independence.
Hasina, represented by a state-appointed defense lawyer, denied the charges, calling the tribunal proceedings unfair and claiming a guilty verdict was “a foregone conclusion.”
Tensions in Bangladesh had escalated ahead of the verdict, with at least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles torched in recent days, though no casualties were reported.
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