Syrian President Bashar Assad has arrived for his first summit since the 22-member league suspended his country over the brutal crackdown on protesters that led to civil war in 2011.

Moldova, which borders Ukraine, is hosting the second European Political Community summit, as it seeks to solidify its EU bid. The 27 EU members and their European allies are gathering in a show of unity.

Leaders of the European Political Community — all European states with the exception of Russia and Belarus — are meeting in Moldova to discuss strategy over the conflict in neighboring Ukraine.

Ukraine's foreign minister has wrapped up a tour of Africa by saying that he welcomes plans for an African peace delegation to head to Ukraine and Russia but warned that it will take more than a ceasefire to resolve the war. UN judges decide that Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, who has dementia, is unfit to stand trial. And Human Rights Watch investigators call upon Nigeria to use more care in carrying out drone strikes after authorities admitted to killing 39 civilians.

After talks in Kyiv, the African delegation has met Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge an end to the conflict. Meanwhile, Ukraine says its counteroffensive is advancing in the south.

It was the kind of send-off that Donald Trump and Boris Johnson would surely love: a packed house and a packed piazza outside for the state funeral of Silvio Berlusconi. AC Milan supporters chanted their longtime president's name after the death this week at 86 of Italy's longest-serving leader since World War II.

Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed that Russia is more united than ever. The event was Putin's first multilateral summit since a short-lived insurrection.

A one-day summit by West African leaders from Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and the Niger Republic ended in a stalemate after the leaders met with Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Muslim Cleric Mahmoud Dicko.

The Nigerien junta has warned its West African neighbors from carrying out a military intervention in the country. Meanwhile, coup supporters attacked the French Embassy amid unrest in Niamey.

While several of Niger's neighbors have vowed to back the junta, the West African bloc ECOWAS has given the leaders one week to end the coup. Meanwhile, hundreds of European nationals have begun evacuating from Niger.

Thousands of pro-coup supporters take to the streets in Niger marking the 63rd anniversary of the country's independence from France, as FRANCE 24 and RFI are banned in the country. We talk to Dr Olayinka Ajala, senior politics lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, about the latest developments. Also, violence in the Sahel flares up again with the slaying of several fishermen in northern Cameroon.

Thousands of pro-coup supporters take to the streets in Niger marking the 63rd anniversary of the country's independence from France, as FRANCE 24 and RFI are banned in the country. We talk to Dr Olayinka Ajala, senior politics lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, about the latest developments. Also, violence in the Sahel flares up again with the slaying of several fishermen in northern Cameroon.