An exposé has shown that the Bank of Baroda made it simple and easy for its agents to steal money from customers’ accounts - and some of them did. The bank’s employees had linked unauthorised mobile numbers to accounts before uploading them onto the bank’s new mobile app. These numbers were of bank staff, managers, guards, their relatives, and bank agents in remote areas. Internal documents show that some of the bank’s agents withdrew tens of thousands of rupees from customers’ accounts. The bank’s head office has asked the managers concerned to do everything necessary to restore the money to the accounts. The  Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ordered an audit, and has told the bank to stop registering new customers on its app.

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake has struck western Afghanistan, four days after a series of deadly quakes left at least a thousand people dead. This second earthquake struck an area near Herat early on 10 October. There are conflicting reports about the number of casualties: one spokesperson reported at least 120 injured. It flattened all 700 homes in Chahak village, which was untouched by Saturday’s quakes. Rescue workers and volunteers have been working around the clock to try to dig out survivors and bodies from the ruins of the villages since the weekend. Relief efforts have been hampered by poor infrastructure in the impoverished country, following decades of war and a decline in foreign aid.

Church leader Rev Youssef Ourahmane has been convicted of holding an unauthorised religious assembly and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and a fine equivalent to approximately £600. He is vice-president of the Èglise Protestante d’Algérie (EPA), an association of around 45 Algerian churches which have been suffering under a severe crackdown that began in 2017. Many EPA-affiliated churches have been forced to close. In March 2023 a small number of Christian families spent three days in a church compound under Rev Youssef’s supervision. The small church in the compound had been sealed by order of the provincial governor in 2019. The pastor was charged with holding an unauthorised religious assembly and holding worship in a building not permitted for worship. He was convicted in absentia and was not informed of the court hearing or the verdict until mid-September. He has appealed the verdict: a hearing date has been set for 19 November.

Tension is rising in Guatemala, where protests by supporters of president-elect Bernardo Arévalo have run into a second week. They are demanding the resignation of attorney-general Consuelo Porras, who they accuse of plotting to prevent Mr Arévalo from taking office. He won the presidential election by a landslide in August, but just hours later his party was suspended by the supreme electoral tribunal - a move widely viewed as an attempt to stop Mr Arévalo, a political outsider who has campaigned against corruption, from being sworn in as planned. Ms Porras argues that the party was not properly registered, but critics point out that she only launched her investigation after Mr Arévalo secured a spot in the run-off. The protests intensified last week as demonstrators blocked key roads across the country, causing fuel and food shortages and paralysing traffic. The outgoing president, Alejandro Giammattei, condemned the blockades, and asked Mr Arévalo to sit down with mediators sent by the Organisation of American States (OAS), to ensure a peaceful handover of power.