BBC News with Cathy Clarkston.

President Donald Trump says he has total confidence in the U.S. Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions, amid controversy about his meetings with the Russian envoy during last year's presidential campaign. Mr. Sessions has come under pressure since it emerged that he'd met the Russian Ambassador twice, despite telling the Senate on oath that he had not communicated with the Russians during the election campaign.

The Russian government says the Syrian Army, backed by Russian airstrikes, has completely retaken the historic city of Palmyra from the Islamic State group. Palmyra has changed hands several times during the conflict.

Egypt's highest appeal court has found the former president, Hosni Mubarak, not guilty of involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that forced him to stand down. It's the final ruling in the long-running case.

Shares in the company that owns the messaging service, Snapchat, have jumped more than 50% on its stock market debut. Shares in Snap Inc. surged to more than 25 dollars each in the first hours of trading.

A Cuban singer has filed a complaint against the Colombian pop stars, Shakira and Carlos Vives, accusing them of plagiarizing part of a song he wrote 10 years ago. Vives and Shakira's catchy hit, La Bicicleta, won the Grammy Latino Award last year. The AFP news agency says Shakira's team has refused to comment on the case.

A drug given to pregnant women in 35 countries to protect them against malaria has also been shown to safeguard against sexually-transmitted infections. The study found that many of the estimated 2 million stillbirths and new-borne deaths which occur every year in Sub-Sahara Africa are linked to the mother having such infections.

And scientists say they have developed a new treatment for people with a serious blood disorder, known as sickle cell disease, which affects millions of people worldwide. For the first time, they've used gene therapy on a French teenager, and say he is free of all symptoms.

BBC News.