The president of Interpol, who disappeared 12 days ago, has resigned from his position with immediate affect after reports he was detained in China.

Chinese authorities said the president Meng Hongwei, a native of China, was under investigation for unspecified violations of Chinese law.

His disappearance was originally reported to French police by his wife who said she had not heard from his since she travelled to China.

The international police agency said it was using law enforcement channels to inquire into Meng’s status.

Opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif was arrested by Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday ahead of by-elections in the country. 

The NAB asserts that as chief minister of Punjab from 2013-2018, he unduly influenced authorities into awarding “contracts for a government-run housing program for low-income citizens to a company with which he had political affiliations” in 2014. Pakistani authorities said that they will hold him in custody for 10 days making it impossible for him to campaign alongside his party in a crucial by-elections that may threaten the ruling party’s slim majority.

Hong Kong’s government has rejected a visa for Financial Times editor Victor Mallet, following a talk by an independence activist in the city last month.

“This is the first time we have encountered this situation in Hong Kong,” the Financial Times said on the visa rejection. “We have not been given a reason for the rejection.”

A prominent Saudi journalist who disappeared last week in Istanbul was killed inside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in the city according to a probe by Turkey.

Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist and columnist for the Washington Post did not return home after going to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday.

Turkish authorities said the journalist never left the consulate.

According to the Washington Post’s report, Turkish investigators believe a team came from Saudi Arabia and that it was a preplanned murder.

Saudia Arabia has denied that he was detained after entering the mission.

At least 13 people were killed and another 25 wounded in a suicide bombing during an election rally in the eastern Afghanistan province Nangarhar on Tuesday.

The rally was held for the candidate Abdul Nasir Mohmmand in the Kama district outside the provincial capital of Jalalabad. According to Shoran Qaderi, a member of the provincial council stated that approximately 250 people were attending at the time of the bombing. 

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also know as ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack and pledged to disrupt the parliamentary elections due on October 20.

Incumbent Catalan president, Quim Torra, has threatened to withdraw further parliamentary support to Spain’s minority government unless a plan for regional independence is offered by the end of the month. 

The ultimatum came as over 180,000 Catalans marched through the region’s capital of Barcelona to mark the 1 year anniversary of the independence referendum, a move that was ruled illegal by Spanish courts. 

“If there is no agreed mechanism by November, the pro-independence parties will no longer guarantee stability in the Spanish parliament to Mr Pedro Sanchez, “ Mr Torra told parliament on Tuesday. 

Amnesty International has launched a campaign titled “Egypt, an Open-Air Prison for Critics,” which aims to highlight the government’s repression of free speech.

Namibian President, Hage Geingob, has expressed the need to expropriate land and redistribute it to the majority black population.

The current proposal aims to “transfer 43 percent, or 15 million hectares (58,000 square miles) of its arable agricultural land, to previously disadvantaged blacks by 2020. At the end of 2015, 27 percent has been redistributed, according to the Namibia Agriculture Union”.

In a similar vein, South Africa, Namibia’s neighbour and regional economic powerhouse, is also in the process of amending land ownership laws.

In a statement president Geingob stated: 

Leaders from the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee have called on the US government to formally acknowledge crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar as a genocide.

“Making a formal determination of genocide must be the next step for the US,” said Representative Ed Royce, the committee’s chairman, as he spoke at a hearing on the issue last week. “Defining these atrocities for what they are is critical to building international public awareness – and support – to stop them.”

He was addressing a hearing entitled “Genocide Against the Burmese Rohingya,” reports Reuters.

An Egyptian actor and activist has been jailed for uploading a Facebook video in which she described sexual harassment she experienced and criticised Egyptian public services.

Amal Fathy uploaded a video on Facebook in which she criticised “poor public services at a local bank, heavy traffic, sexual harassment by a taxi driver and over a general deterioration in living conditions”. She was arrested two days later by Egyptian security forces who arrived at her door and arrested her alongside her husband and young son. The latter were later released. The government have accused her of spreading false news which jeopardises national security and joining a terrorist organisation. In addition to these charges she faces a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (£430).