GLOBAL SNAPSHOT

1 Brexit still a goer

Britain will start formal talks to cut ties with the European Union in just over a fortnight regardless of who wins the country’s election next week. British Prime Minister Theresa May and Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn have both vowed to start the negotiations 11 days after the poll.

2 IS media man dead

The founder of the Islamic State group news agency was reported killed with his daughter in an airstrike last week in eastern Syria, opposition activists said yesterday. The militant group itself has not reported the death of the Aamaq agency founder, Baraa Kadek.

3 Court told of fear

A North Carolina man thought he was “going to die” when members of his evangelical church beat and choked him for two hours to expel his “homosexual demons,” he testified yesterday. Matthew Fenner took the stand in the assault and kidnapping trial of Brooke Covington, a minister in Spindale, North Carolina.

4 Probe into remains

A team of forensic experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross is about to start identifying the remains of 123 Argentine soldiers buried in a Falklands Island cemetery after the 1982 war with Britain. Both countries reached a deal last year to identify the remains of the fallen soldiers.

5 Ex-PM faces vote

Lesotho former prime minister Thomas Thabane, who is fighting to regain power in this weekend’s elections, will never forget fleeing his official residence in 2014 as rogue soldiers apparently sought to kill him. He fled to safety in South Africa, and only returned to compete in the latest election.