BERLIN (Reuters) - A Russian diplomat was found dead last month outside the country’s embassy in the German capital, it has emerged. The man’s body was discovered on the pavement on 19 October by police guarding the Berlin compound, Der Spiegel website reported. The man had apparently fallen from an upper floor, but it was unclear how, it added. Germany’s foreign ministry confirmed the diplomat’s death to reporters but would not give further details. Police in Berlin have not publicly commented on the death, which was reported for the first time on Friday.

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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney, lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent less than $200 on the race and leaving his party reeling. Edward Durr, a furniture company truck driver and first-time candidate, defeated Sweeney in New Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District, according to results tallied Thursday. According to NBC Philadelphia, Durr spent his $153 on Dunkin and paper fliers over the course of his campaign.

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PARIS (AFP) - Sudan’s army chief has ordered the release of four civilian ministers after the UN mounted pressure on his military coup that derailed the Eastern African country’s democratic transition. General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said a new government was “imminent” while keeping his cards close to his chest on what it would look like. “We are considering all internal and external initiatives to serve the national interest,” Burhan’s Media Spokesman Taher Abouhaga said Thursday. Sudan TV then announced that Hashem Hassalbalrasoul, telecommunications minister, Ali Geddo, who heads the trade ministry, Hamza Baloul, minister for information and Youssef Adam who has the portfolio of youth and sport, would all be freed. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Burhan to continue the democratic transition shortly before the decision to release the ministers.

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LIMA (AFP) -Peru has confirmed a new moderate-left cabinet, three months after President Pedro Castillo’s lineup led by the ruling communist party leader Guido Bellido crumbled amid political uncertainty. The new cabinet formation approved on Thursday will be headed by Mirtha Vasquez, a moderate left-wing politician and former head of Congress. He does not belong to Castillo’s party, the Marxist-Leninist Peru Libre or Free Peru Party. The vote was passed 68-56 by the opposition-controlled Congress, with one legislator abstaining. The reshuffle, widely seen as more moderate than Socialist Castillo’s original lineup, displeased some of his most left-wing allies.

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CAPE TOWN (Al-Jazeera) -South Africa’s voters have delivered a significant rebuke to the governing African National Congress, which got less than 50 percent of ballots cast in local government elections. Widespread corruption, persistently high rates of unemployment, crippling power blackouts and ineffective delivery of government services were burning campaign issues. In results announced Thursday night, the ANC won 46 percent of the vote, down from 54 percent in the last municipal elections five years ago.