Pakistan’s former premier Nawaz Sharif was reelected president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party on Tuesday. He last held the position in 2017, when he was forced out of office amid corruption allegations.

The PML-N came into power with the Feb. 8 elections that Sharif’s key rival, former premier Imran Khan, alleged were rigged, Associated Press reported.

Sharif’s younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, now leads a coalition government and Sharif is a member of Parliament.

Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power in 2017 when the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding any public office over concealing financial assets, a charge Sharif denies. His conviction and sentences were overturned last year, allowing him to hold any public or party office.

Sharif returned to Pakistan in October from self-imposed exile in London, where he went in 2019 for medical treatment when Khan was in power.

Khan was ousted through a no-confidence vote in 2022 and is serving multiple prison terms.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, making his third foreign trip since his re-election in March, arrived in Uzbekistan on Sunday and met with his counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev ahead of the start of formal talks.

Russian news agencies said Mirziyoyev met Putin on arrival in Tashkent in the evening and the two leaders traveled together in a single car.

Photos and video footage posted on the Kremlin website and by Russian news agencies showed Putin visiting the New Uzbekistan park in Tashkent and laying a wreath at a monument to Uzbek independence.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by news agencies, told Russian television that Russia was open to broader cooperation on gas supplies with Uzbekistan, saying “the possibilities here are very extensive”.

Putin has already visited China and Belarus since securing re-election by a wide margin.

The Kremlin leader has traveled abroad only infrequently since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest last March on suspicion of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin denies those allegations.

At least 24 people, including many children, died in a fire that broke out on Saturday evening in a family entertainment venue in the western Indian state of Gujarat, a government official said.

With rescue efforts continuing at the scene in the Rajkot district, the local mayor told Reuters the death toll was expected to rise, Reuters reported.

“Our focus is on rescue operations and saving lives. We will ensure strict action is taken against the people who are responsible for this incident,” Mayor Nayana Pedhadiya said.

Television images showed a massive fire engulfing the TRP game zone and thick clouds of smoke emanating from the site. The entire structure was gutted in the blaze.

A police official at the local civil hospital said some of the bodies were charred beyond recognition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on social media platform X that the local administration was working to provide assistance to those affected.

“Extremely distressed by the fire mishap in Rajkot. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones,” Modi said in the post.

The district’s chief fire officer, IV Kher, said firefighters had almost brought the fire under control.

“The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained,” he told Reuters.

Gujarat Chief Minster Bhupendra Patel said an investigation into the incident had been handed to a Special Investigation Team (SIT), and television reports said two people had been detained by Rajkot police in connection with the incident.