NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump was sued for defamation a second time on Thursday by a writer who accused the former U.S. president of lying by denying that he raped her 27 years ago. In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll also accused Trump of battery in an alleged encounter at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. Carroll, 78, brought the battery claim under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a new law giving sexual assault victims a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers, even if the abuse occurred long ago and statutes of limitations have expired.

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PARIS (AFP) - Sudanese security forces have shot dead a protester during renewed demonstrations against last year’s military takeover led by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, medics said. The northeast African country has been gripped by unrest since Burhan seized power on October 25, 2021. He arrested the civilian leaders with whom he had agreed to share power in 2019 after mass protests led to the ouster of long-time ruler Omar al Bashir.

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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian gunmen kidnapped at least 60 people in a remote community in northwestern Zamfara state who were mostly women observing Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, residents said on Thursday in the latest wave of abductions to hit the state. Armed gangs are rife across the country’s northwest where they rob or kidnap for ransom, and violence has been increasing as thinly stretched security forces often fail to stop attacks. That has raised concern about whether residents in the region will be able to vote in the February presidential poll to choose a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is constitutionally barred from running again.

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LIMA (AP) - Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has accepted the resignation of his prime minister and will reshuffle his Cabinet once again, he said on Thursday, amid a lengthy battle between the executive and legislative branches. Former Prime Minister Anibal Torres, a staunch ally of Castillo, had challenged the opposition-controlled Congress to a confidence vote last week. But Congress declined to hold such a vote on Thursday, saying conditions for it had not been met. “Having accepted the resignation of the prime minister, whom I thank for his work on behalf of the country, I will renew the Cabinet,” Castillo said in an national television broadcast. The confidence vote challenge was meant to pressure Congress amid tense relations between the two branches of government.

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Al-Jazeera) – Anwar Ibrahim has started work as Malaysia’s prime minister after promising to lead a government inclusive of everyone in the multiethnic, multireligious Southeast Asian nation. Anwar clocked in at 9am (01:00 GMT) at the prime minister’s office in the country’s administrative capital Putrajaya on Friday, after being sworn into office by the king the day before. At his first press conference on Thursday night, the 75-year-old veteran politician sketched out his plans for the country. He said he would not draw a salary and that his government would “guarantee and safeguard the rights of all Malaysians, especially the marginalised and impoverished, regardless of race or religion”.