GREECE: A court convicted five former firefighting and disaster response officials today over the wildfire that killed 100 people as it swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens in 2018. 

The officials, including a former fire chief, received sentences of between 15 and 111 years for multiple counts of criminal negligence resulting in injury and loss of life. 

PAKISTAN: A judge who was kidnapped after gunmen ambushed his vehicle has been freed in a late-night operation, a police official said today.

About 15 men on motorbikes intercepted Judge Shakirullah Marwat’s vehicle as he was travelling toward Dera Ismail Khan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday night.

SPAIN: Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ended days of speculation about his future today by saying he will continue in office “with even more strength.”

Mr Sanchez shocked his country last Wednesday by taking five days off to think about his future, following the decision by a court to open preliminary proceedings against his wife Begona Gomez on corruption allegations.

NATO: Turkey has told its Nato allies that Ankara will back the Netherlands’s outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s candidacy for the military alliance’s secretary general position, a senior Turkish official said today.

The unnamed official said Turkey notified Nato diplomats in Brussels on Monday. The decision comes three days after Mr Rutte travelled to Turkey to seek support from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his bid. 

Incumbent Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg, who has been the military alliance’s top civilian official since 2014, is nearing the end of his term which has already been extended several times.