The Democratic Republic of Congo’s election commission has banned Jean-Pierre Bemba from running for president as the former warlord awaits the final outcome for his witness tampering case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Mr Bemba, who submitted his candidacy earlier in August after returning to the central African nation after 11 years spent in exile or prison, was one of six contenders deemed ineligible following hours of deliberation.
Back in June, the ex-rebel was acquitted of war crimes committed by his Movement for the Liberation of DR Congo forces in neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003.
The 55-year-old was one of four vice presidents in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2003 to 2006.
In their decision, the commission referred to the pending case in which Bemba was convicted of bribing witnesses. Under Congolese law, people convicted of corruption are unable to run for office.
Opposition parties condemned the election commission’s ruling, saying in a joint statement: “Once again the current regime is showing its determination to suppress the electoral process.”
Mr Bemba and the other rejected candidates can appeal against the decision before the final list of candidates is published on 19 September.
The announcement comes days after Congolese authorities blocked Moise Katumbi, a top opposition contender, from entering the country to register as a candidate
He vented his frustration in a scathing tweet that read: “These invalidations are unacceptable & once again show the total instrumentalisation of @cenirdc par #Kabila.”
Mr Katumbi added: “With the people, the opposition, the civil society & our partners, let us face, increase the pressure, refuse this mock election ‘kabiliste’!”
World news in pictures
1/51 25 August 2018
Rohingya refugees during a protest march after attending a ceremony to remember the first anniversary of a military crackdown that prompted a massive exodus of people from Myanmar to Bangladesh, at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia
AFP/Getty
2/51 24 August 2018
US President Donald Trump sits with children during a tour of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio
AFP/Getty
3/51 23 August 2018
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
EPA
4/51 22 August 2018
High waves hit Jeju Island, South Korea, as powerful Typhoon Soulik gradually approaches the Korean Peninsula
EPA
5/51 21 August 2018
A Palestinian man throws his child in the air following morning prayers marking the first day of Eid al-Adha celebrations on the compound known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem’s Old City. Eid al-Adha is the holiest of the two Muslims holidays celebrated each year, it marks the yearly Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) to visit Mecca, the holiest place in Islam. Muslims slaughter a sacrificial animal and split the meat into three parts, one for the family, one for friends and relatives, and one for the poor and needy
Reuters
6/51 20 August 2018
South Korean Lee Keum-seom, 92, meets with her North Korean son Ri Sung Chol, 71, during a separated family reunion meeting at the Mount Kumgang resort on the North’s southeastern coast. Dozens of elderly and frail South Koreans met their Northern relatives for the first time since the peninsula and their families were divided by war nearly seven decades ago
AFP/Getty
7/51 19 August 2018
The flag of the United Nations flying at half-mast to mark the death of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, at the European headquarters in Geneva. Kofi Annan died on 18 August, aged 80
EPA
8/51 18 August 2018
Newly appointed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan inspects the guard of honor on his arrival in the Prime Minister House during a ceremony in Islamabad. Imran Khan was sworn in at a ceremony in Islamabad, ushering in a new political era as the World Cup cricket hero officially took the reins of power in the nuclear-armed country
PID/AFP/Getty
9/51 17 August 2018
Muslim pilgrims walk out after the Friday prayer at the Grand mosque ahead of annual Haj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Reuters
10/51 16 August 2018
A man wades through flooded water in Kochi, Kerala state, India. According to reports, the region is on a high alert with schools and offices been closed due to the rising water levels of Periyar river after the gates of the Idukki reservoir were opened. The area has been hit by heavy rains that caused floods and reportedly killed at least 65 people
EPA
11/51 15 August 2018
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets schoolchildren after his speech as part of India’s 72nd Independence Day celebrations which marks the 71st anniversary of the end of British colonial rule, at the Red Fort in New Delhi
AFP/Getty
12/51 14 August 2018
A large section of the Morandi viaduct upon which the A10 motorway runs collapsed in Genoa, Italy. Both sides of the highway fell. Around 10 vehicles are involved in the collapse, rescue sources said. The viaduct gave way amid torrential rain. It runs over shopping centres, factories, some homes, the Genoa-Milan railway line and the Polcevera river
EPA
13/51 13 August 2018
Turkish President Erdogan addresses the 10th annual Ambassadors’ Conference in Ankara. Global markets have reacted fearfully to Turkey’s financial crash, which Turkish President Erdogan blames on a “political, underhand plot” by Donald Trump’s USA. Last week the US doubled steel and aluminium tariffs against Turkey amidst diplomatic tensions over the latter’s detaining of an American pastor
Turkish Presidential Press Service/AFP/Getty
14/51 12 August 2018
NASA, The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 12, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first-ever mission into a part of the Suns atmosphere called the corona. The probe will directly explore solar processes that are key to understanding and forecasting space weather events that can impact life on Earth.
NASA via Getty
15/51 11 August 2018
An activist confronts Virginia State Troopers in riot gear during a rally on the campus of The University of Virginia one-year after the violent white nationalist rally that left one person dead and dozens injured in Charlottesville, Virginia
AFP/Getty
16/51 10 August 2018
A man holds his son before Friday prayers at an evacuation centre in Sambik Bangkol village, in northern Lombok on West Nusa Tenggara province
AFP/Getty
17/51 9 August 2018
A rescuers stands next to a damaged tent in a flooded camping as storms and heavy rains sweep across France on August 9, 2018 in Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolas, southern France. – The bad weather caused large power cuts and a man who was working in a summer camp went missing according to the gendarmerie
AFP/Getty
18/51 8 August 2018
A Palestinian girl smiles as she waits to receive aids at a United Nations food distribution centre in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza
AFP/Getty
19/51 7 August 2018
An Israeli soldier rides an armoured vehicle during an army drill after the visit of Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel
Reuters
20/51 6 August 2018
Usable items are salvaged from a home destroyed in an earthquake in North Lombok, Indonesia. The powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, killing a number of people and shaking neighboring Bali, as authorities on Monday said thousands of houses were damaged and the death toll could climb
AP
21/51 5 August 2018
Accident investigators and rescue personnel work at the wreckage of a Junkers JU52 aircraft in Flims, after it crashed into Piz Segnas, a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) peak in eastern Switzerland. Twenty people were confirmed dead after the vintage World War II aircraft crashed into a Swiss mountainside, police reports said. The Junker JU52 HB-HOT aircraft, built in Germany in 1939 and now a collectors item, belongs to JU-Air, a company with links to the Swiss air force, the ATS news agency reported
AFP/Getty
22/51 4 August 2018
Members of different security forces stand guard and take evidence after an explosion targeted President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela. The Venezuelan Information Minister, Jorge Rodriguez, confirmed that President Nicolas Maduro was the victim of an attack with ‘drone-type flying devices that contained an explosive charge’, and that he escaped unharmed from the incident, which occurred during a military ceremony in Caracas
EPA
23/51 3 August 2018
People in Mbare celebrate after officials announced the re-election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in Harare, Zimbabwe. The election was the first since Robert Mugabe was ousted in a military coup last year, and featured a close race between Mnangagwa and opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC Alliance). Deadly clashes broke out earlier in the week following the release of parliamentary election results, amid allegations of fraud by Chamisa and MDC supporters
Getty
24/51 2 August 2018
A supporter of the ruling ZANU-PF walks past a burnt vehicle at the party’s offices a day after the clashes between security forces and opposition protesters in Harare, Zimbabwe
Reuters
25/51 1 August 2018
A ceremony takes place in a hangar, to mark the return of 55 sets of remains of American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. The ceremony was held five days after a US airplane transported the remains to South Korea from North Korea in a move expected to facilitate ongoing efforts to promote peace on the peninsula
EPA
26/51 31 July 2018
Veronika Nikulshina, one of four members of Russia’s Pussy Riot protest group who were jailed for 15 days for staging a pitch invasion during the football World Cup final and were detained again after their release on July 30, is escorted by a police officer before a court hearing in Moscow
Reuters
27/51 30 July 2018
A relative of a passenger of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 reads the safety report that has concluded that the planes controls were deliberately manipulated and that illegal interference by a third party cannot be ruled out. Flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on 8 March 2014
Reuters
28/51 29 July 2018
Palestinian activist and campaigner Ahed Tamimi kisses the tombstone of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his mausoleum in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, after she was released from prison following an eight-month sentence for slapping two Israeli soldiers
AFP/Getty
29/51 28 July 2018
Zimbabwe’s incumbent President and candidate Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives for his closing presidential campaign rally in Harare, two days ahead of the elections
AFP/Getty
30/51 27 July 2018
A house burns during the Carr fire in Redding, California. One firefighter has died and at least two others have been injured as wind-whipped flames tore through the region
Getty
31/51 26 July 2018
Supporters of Pakistan’s cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, and head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party, celebrate in Karachi, a day after a general election. Imran Khan claimed victory in the country’s tense general election marred by allegations of “blatant” rigging by rival parties. A visibly tired Khan cut a conciliatory tone in a wide-ranging address to the nation following the controversial contest
AFP/Getty
32/51 25 July 2018
A man who was injured in a suspected suicide bomb attack outside a polling station, receives medical treatment at a hospital in Quetta. At least 25 people were killed and 30 injured in the incident. Polling stations in Pakistan opened for the general election for around 105 million constituents. Voters will have to choose from 11,000 candidates to elect 272 members of the Parliament for the next term. These elections are the second in Pakistan’s history in which a government was able to complete its term to make way for another government after being ruled by military dictators for half of the 71 years of its existence since its founding in 1947
EPA
33/51 24 July 2018
A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece. At least 60 people are thought to have been killed
Reuters
34/51 23 July 2018
A house is threatened by a huge blaze during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens. More than 300 firefighters, five aircraft and two helicopters were mobilised to tackle the “extremely difficult” situation due to strong gusts of wind, Athens fire chief Achille Tzouvaras said
AFP/Getty
35/51 22 July 2018
Israeli-annexed Golan Heights shows a smoke plume rising across the border in Quneitra in southwestern Syria, as rebels destroy their arms stocks prior to their departure
Getty
36/51 21 July 2018
A Syrian child looks through the window of a bus as displaced people from the Quneitra province wait at the Morek crossing point to be transfered in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, northwestern Syria. The transfers come under a surrender deal agreed this week between Russia and Syrian rebels in Quneitra province that will see the sensitive zone fall back under state control. Rebels will hand over territory they control in Quneitra and the neighbouring buffer zone with the Israeli-occupied Golan, a war monitor and a rebel
AFP/Getty
37/51 20 July 2018
Men push a car past a flooded street in Ahmadabad, India. Hundreds of people have been rescued from flood affected areas in the past week as incessant rains continue to lash Gujarat state
AP
38/51 19 July 2018
Arab lawmakers stand up in protest during a Knesset session in Jerusalem. Israel’s parliament approved a controversial piece of legislation that defines the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people but which critics warn sidelines minorities
AP
39/51 18 July 2018
The 12 boys and their soccer coach who were rescued from a flooded cave arrive for a news conference in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand
Reuters
40/51 17 July 2018
President Barack Obama delivers the 16th Nelson Mandela annual lecture, marking the centenary of the anti-apartheid leader’s birth, in Johannesburg, South Africa
Reuters
41/51 16 July 2018
French supporters celebrate on the Champs Elysees their team’s victory after the World Cup 2018 final between France and Croatia
EPA
42/51 15 July 2018
Hugo Lloris lifts the trophy after France beat Croatia 4-2 in the World Cup final in the Luzhniki Stadium in Russia
AP
43/51 14 July 2018
Germany’s Angelique Kerber beat seven-time champion US player Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final. Kerber won her first Wimbledon title
PA
44/51 13 July 2018
Firefighters using fire helicopters fighting wildfires in Sordal in Setesdalen in the southern part of Norway. The fires are thought to be caused by lightning in the very dry landscape
EPA
45/51 12 July 2018
The Syrian national flag rises in the midst of damaged buildings in Daraa-al-Balad an opposition-held part of the southern city of Daraa. Syria’s army entered rebel-held parts of Daraa city, state media said, raising the national flag in the cradle of the uprising that sparked the country’s seven-year war, following a deal for rebels to hand over their heavy weapons in Daraa al-Balad and other opposition-held parts of the city
AFP
46/51 11 July 2018
US President Donald Trump and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attend a bilateral breakfast ahead of the NATO Summit in Brussels
Reuters
47/51 10 July 2018
The last four Thai Navy SEALs come out safely after completing the rescue mission inside a cave where 12 boys and their soccer coach have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. Thailand’s navy SEALs say all 12 boys and their soccer coach have been rescued from a flooded cave in far northern Thailand, ending an ordeal that lasted more than two weeks
Royal Thai Navy via AP
48/51 9 July 2018
Indonesia worker and firefighters try to extinguish a fire on fishing boats at Benoa harbour in Denpasar, on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. A massive fire laid waste to dozens of boats at a Bali port as firefighters battled to bring the dramatic blaze under control
Getty
49/51 8 July 2018
Russia’s football team are greeted celebrated by fans during a visit at the Moscow’s fan zone after they were knocked out of the World Cup in their quarter final match against Croatia on penalties
Getty
50/51 7 July 2018
Residents look over the flooded town by heavy rain in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, western Japan. Heavy rainfall killed 47 people, missing more than 49 people and five others in serious condition in southwestern and western Japan, public television reported on 07 July 2018. Japan Meteorological Agency has warned record rainfall on 06 July for flooding, mudslides in southwestern and western Japan. In nine prefectures in western and southwestern Japan, authorities issued evacuation orders to more than one million of people in southwestern and western Japan
EPA
51/51
1/51 25 August 2018
Rohingya refugees during a protest march after attending a ceremony to remember the first anniversary of a military crackdown that prompted a massive exodus of people from Myanmar to Bangladesh, at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia
AFP/Getty
2/51 24 August 2018
US President Donald Trump sits with children during a tour of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio
AFP/Getty
3/51 23 August 2018
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
EPA
4/51 22 August 2018
High waves hit Jeju Island, South Korea, as powerful Typhoon Soulik gradually approaches the Korean Peninsula
EPA
5/51 21 August 2018
A Palestinian man throws his child in the air following morning prayers marking the first day of Eid al-Adha celebrations on the compound known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem’s Old City. Eid al-Adha is the holiest of the two Muslims holidays celebrated each year, it marks the yearly Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) to visit Mecca, the holiest place in Islam. Muslims slaughter a sacrificial animal and split the meat into three parts, one for the family, one for friends and relatives, and one for the poor and needy
Reuters
6/51 20 August 2018
South Korean Lee Keum-seom, 92, meets with her North Korean son Ri Sung Chol, 71, during a separated family reunion meeting at the Mount Kumgang resort on the North’s southeastern coast. Dozens of elderly and frail South Koreans met their Northern relatives for the first time since the peninsula and their families were divided by war nearly seven decades ago
AFP/Getty
7/51 19 August 2018
The flag of the United Nations flying at half-mast to mark the death of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, at the European headquarters in Geneva. Kofi Annan died on 18 August, aged 80
EPA
8/51 18 August 2018
Newly appointed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan inspects the guard of honor on his arrival in the Prime Minister House during a ceremony in Islamabad. Imran Khan was sworn in at a ceremony in Islamabad, ushering in a new political era as the World Cup cricket hero officially took the reins of power in the nuclear-armed country
PID/AFP/Getty
9/51 17 August 2018
Muslim pilgrims walk out after the Friday prayer at the Grand mosque ahead of annual Haj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Reuters
10/51 16 August 2018
A man wades through flooded water in Kochi, Kerala state, India. According to reports, the region is on a high alert with schools and offices been closed due to the rising water levels of Periyar river after the gates of the Idukki reservoir were opened. The area has been hit by heavy rains that caused floods and reportedly killed at least 65 people
EPA
11/51 15 August 2018
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets schoolchildren after his speech as part of India’s 72nd Independence Day celebrations which marks the 71st anniversary of the end of British colonial rule, at the Red Fort in New Delhi
AFP/Getty
12/51 14 August 2018
A large section of the Morandi viaduct upon which the A10 motorway runs collapsed in Genoa, Italy. Both sides of the highway fell. Around 10 vehicles are involved in the collapse, rescue sources said. The viaduct gave way amid torrential rain. It runs over shopping centres, factories, some homes, the Genoa-Milan railway line and the Polcevera river
EPA
13/51 13 August 2018
Turkish President Erdogan addresses the 10th annual Ambassadors’ Conference in Ankara. Global markets have reacted fearfully to Turkey’s financial crash, which Turkish President Erdogan blames on a “political, underhand plot” by Donald Trump’s USA. Last week the US doubled steel and aluminium tariffs against Turkey amidst diplomatic tensions over the latter’s detaining of an American pastor
Turkish Presidential Press Service/AFP/Getty
14/51 12 August 2018
NASA, The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 12, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first-ever mission into a part of the Suns atmosphere called the corona. The probe will directly explore solar processes that are key to understanding and forecasting space weather events that can impact life on Earth.
NASA via Getty
15/51 11 August 2018
An activist confronts Virginia State Troopers in riot gear during a rally on the campus of The University of Virginia one-year after the violent white nationalist rally that left one person dead and dozens injured in Charlottesville, Virginia
AFP/Getty
16/51 10 August 2018
A man holds his son before Friday prayers at an evacuation centre in Sambik Bangkol village, in northern Lombok on West Nusa Tenggara province
AFP/Getty
17/51 9 August 2018
A rescuers stands next to a damaged tent in a flooded camping as storms and heavy rains sweep across France on August 9, 2018 in Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolas, southern France. – The bad weather caused large power cuts and a man who was working in a summer camp went missing according to the gendarmerie
AFP/Getty
18/51 8 August 2018
A Palestinian girl smiles as she waits to receive aids at a United Nations food distribution centre in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza
AFP/Getty
19/51 7 August 2018
An Israeli soldier rides an armoured vehicle during an army drill after the visit of Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel
Reuters
20/51 6 August 2018
Usable items are salvaged from a home destroyed in an earthquake in North Lombok, Indonesia. The powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, killing a number of people and shaking neighboring Bali, as authorities on Monday said thousands of houses were damaged and the death toll could climb
AP
21/51 5 August 2018
Accident investigators and rescue personnel work at the wreckage of a Junkers JU52 aircraft in Flims, after it crashed into Piz Segnas, a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) peak in eastern Switzerland. Twenty people were confirmed dead after the vintage World War II aircraft crashed into a Swiss mountainside, police reports said. The Junker JU52 HB-HOT aircraft, built in Germany in 1939 and now a collectors item, belongs to JU-Air, a company with links to the Swiss air force, the ATS news agency reported
AFP/Getty
22/51 4 August 2018
Members of different security forces stand guard and take evidence after an explosion targeted President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela. The Venezuelan Information Minister, Jorge Rodriguez, confirmed that President Nicolas Maduro was the victim of an attack with ‘drone-type flying devices that contained an explosive charge’, and that he escaped unharmed from the incident, which occurred during a military ceremony in Caracas
EPA
23/51 3 August 2018
People in Mbare celebrate after officials announced the re-election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in Harare, Zimbabwe. The election was the first since Robert Mugabe was ousted in a military coup last year, and featured a close race between Mnangagwa and opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC Alliance). Deadly clashes broke out earlier in the week following the release of parliamentary election results, amid allegations of fraud by Chamisa and MDC supporters
Getty
24/51 2 August 2018
A supporter of the ruling ZANU-PF walks past a burnt vehicle at the party’s offices a day after the clashes between security forces and opposition protesters in Harare, Zimbabwe
Reuters
25/51 1 August 2018
A ceremony takes place in a hangar, to mark the return of 55 sets of remains of American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. The ceremony was held five days after a US airplane transported the remains to South Korea from North Korea in a move expected to facilitate ongoing efforts to promote peace on the peninsula
EPA
26/51 31 July 2018
Veronika Nikulshina, one of four members of Russia’s Pussy Riot protest group who were jailed for 15 days for staging a pitch invasion during the football World Cup final and were detained again after their release on July 30, is escorted by a police officer before a court hearing in Moscow
Reuters
27/51 30 July 2018
A relative of a passenger of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 reads the safety report that has concluded that the planes controls were deliberately manipulated and that illegal interference by a third party cannot be ruled out. Flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on 8 March 2014
Reuters
28/51 29 July 2018
Palestinian activist and campaigner Ahed Tamimi kisses the tombstone of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his mausoleum in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, after she was released from prison following an eight-month sentence for slapping two Israeli soldiers
AFP/Getty
29/51 28 July 2018
Zimbabwe’s incumbent President and candidate Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives for his closing presidential campaign rally in Harare, two days ahead of the elections
AFP/Getty
30/51 27 July 2018
A house burns during the Carr fire in Redding, California. One firefighter has died and at least two others have been injured as wind-whipped flames tore through the region
Getty
31/51 26 July 2018
Supporters of Pakistan’s cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, and head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party, celebrate in Karachi, a day after a general election. Imran Khan claimed victory in the country’s tense general election marred by allegations of “blatant” rigging by rival parties. A visibly tired Khan cut a conciliatory tone in a wide-ranging address to the nation following the controversial contest
AFP/Getty
32/51 25 July 2018
A man who was injured in a suspected suicide bomb attack outside a polling station, receives medical treatment at a hospital in Quetta. At least 25 people were killed and 30 injured in the incident. Polling stations in Pakistan opened for the general election for around 105 million constituents. Voters will have to choose from 11,000 candidates to elect 272 members of the Parliament for the next term. These elections are the second in Pakistan’s history in which a government was able to complete its term to make way for another government after being ruled by military dictators for half of the 71 years of its existence since its founding in 1947
EPA
33/51 24 July 2018
A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece. At least 60 people are thought to have been killed
Reuters
34/51 23 July 2018
A house is threatened by a huge blaze during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens. More than 300 firefighters, five aircraft and two helicopters were mobilised to tackle the “extremely difficult” situation due to strong gusts of wind, Athens fire chief Achille Tzouvaras said
AFP/Getty
35/51 22 July 2018
Israeli-annexed Golan Heights shows a smoke plume rising across the border in Quneitra in southwestern Syria, as rebels destroy their arms stocks prior to their departure
Getty
36/51 21 July 2018
A Syrian child looks through the window of a bus as displaced people from the Quneitra province wait at the Morek crossing point to be transfered in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, northwestern Syria. The transfers come under a surrender deal agreed this week between Russia and Syrian rebels in Quneitra province that will see the sensitive zone fall back under state control. Rebels will hand over territory they control in Quneitra and the neighbouring buffer zone with the Israeli-occupied Golan, a war monitor and a rebel
AFP/Getty
37/51 20 July 2018
Men push a car past a flooded street in Ahmadabad, India. Hundreds of people have been rescued from flood affected areas in the past week as incessant rains continue to lash Gujarat state
AP
38/51 19 July 2018
Arab lawmakers stand up in protest during a Knesset session in Jerusalem. Israel’s parliament approved a controversial piece of legislation that defines the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people but which critics warn sidelines minorities
AP
39/51 18 July 2018
The 12 boys and their soccer coach who were rescued from a flooded cave arrive for a news conference in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand
Reuters
40/51 17 July 2018
President Barack Obama delivers the 16th Nelson Mandela annual lecture, marking the centenary of the anti-apartheid leader’s birth, in Johannesburg, South Africa
Reuters
41/51 16 July 2018
French supporters celebrate on the Champs Elysees their team’s victory after the World Cup 2018 final between France and Croatia
EPA
42/51 15 July 2018
Hugo Lloris lifts the trophy after France beat Croatia 4-2 in the World Cup final in the Luzhniki Stadium in Russia
AP
43/51 14 July 2018
Germany’s Angelique Kerber beat seven-time champion US player Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final. Kerber won her first Wimbledon title
PA
44/51 13 July 2018
Firefighters using fire helicopters fighting wildfires in Sordal in Setesdalen in the southern part of Norway. The fires are thought to be caused by lightning in the very dry landscape
EPA
45/51 12 July 2018
The Syrian national flag rises in the midst of damaged buildings in Daraa-al-Balad an opposition-held part of the southern city of Daraa. Syria’s army entered rebel-held parts of Daraa city, state media said, raising the national flag in the cradle of the uprising that sparked the country’s seven-year war, following a deal for rebels to hand over their heavy weapons in Daraa al-Balad and other opposition-held parts of the city
AFP
46/51 11 July 2018
US President Donald Trump and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attend a bilateral breakfast ahead of the NATO Summit in Brussels
Reuters
47/51 10 July 2018
The last four Thai Navy SEALs come out safely after completing the rescue mission inside a cave where 12 boys and their soccer coach have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. Thailand’s navy SEALs say all 12 boys and their soccer coach have been rescued from a flooded cave in far northern Thailand, ending an ordeal that lasted more than two weeks
Royal Thai Navy via AP
48/51 9 July 2018
Indonesia worker and firefighters try to extinguish a fire on fishing boats at Benoa harbour in Denpasar, on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. A massive fire laid waste to dozens of boats at a Bali port as firefighters battled to bring the dramatic blaze under control
Getty
49/51 8 July 2018
Russia’s football team are greeted celebrated by fans during a visit at the Moscow’s fan zone after they were knocked out of the World Cup in their quarter final match against Croatia on penalties
Getty
50/51 7 July 2018
Residents look over the flooded town by heavy rain in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, western Japan. Heavy rainfall killed 47 people, missing more than 49 people and five others in serious condition in southwestern and western Japan, public television reported on 07 July 2018. Japan Meteorological Agency has warned record rainfall on 06 July for flooding, mudslides in southwestern and western Japan. In nine prefectures in western and southwestern Japan, authorities issued evacuation orders to more than one million of people in southwestern and western Japan
EPA
51/51
The election scheduled for 26 December will determine a successor for President Joseph Kabila, whose second and final term in office ended two years ago. The 47-year-old became president in 2001 after the assassination of his father, former president Laurent Kabila.
However, opposition leaders worry that Mr Ksbila will continue to assert his influence through the governing coalition’s chosen candidate, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
Eve Bazaiba, the secretary-general of Bemba’s MLC party, reacted to the news on social media, saying the fear of Mr Bemba’s candidacy “has made Kabila tremble to the point of using the electoral commission to dismiss it.”
Fights between militiamen loyal to Bemba and state forces erupted in the streets of the capital of Kinshasha after Mr Bemba lost the 2006 election to Mr Kabila and it is feared the news will trigger more violence.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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