News of the day from across the globe

Islamic militants from the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group attacked a remote African Union base in Somalia on Friday, causing many casualties, the AU mission said.

Stung by the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome, South Korea has passed a law authorizing prison terms of up to two years for people who defy quarantine orders or lie about their potential exposure to an infectious disease.

The U.S. Embassy in Burundi says about 100 university students who had sought refuge at the embassy parking lot amid the political turmoil in the country have left.

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man after he opened fire at soldiers at a military checkpoint in the West Bank on Friday, the army said.

According to the military, a car approached the checkpoint in the Jordan Valley and a gunman from inside the car opened fire at the soldiers.

Thailand’s military government on Friday forced a human rights group to cancel the public launch of its report on the Vietnamese government’s persecution of an ethnic minority, saying it could affect national security and bilateral relations.

The 33-page report by New York’s Human Rights Watch describes persecution of Montagnard Christians in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, whose religious practices have been described by the government as “evil.”

The attorney for a Zimbabwe journalist says his client was convicted of publishing a newspaper in a southern town without government permission and sentenced to eight months in prison.