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The US State Department approved a possible $346 million weapons sale to Nigeria to help improve security in the sub-Saharan country, the Pentagon said Wednesday, Associated Press reported.

Congress was notified and would need to approve the sale, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. The agency is a division of the Department of Defense body that provides technical assistance and oversees transfers of defense equipment.

The weapons requested by Nigeria include munitions, bombs and rockets, according to Associated Press.

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he will approve plans to build more than 3,000 homes in a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank - a move he said will prevent the creation of a Palestinian state, Associated Press reported.

The so-called E1 project between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim settlement has been frozen for decades amid fierce opposition internationally. Building there would effectively cut off the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem and significantly obstruct its territorial contiguity. 

"The plan will bury the idea of a Palestinian state," Smotrich said, according to Israeli media.

Settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this, according to Associated Press.

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has elected Edson Fachin as its next chief justice, succeeding Luis Roberto Barroso. Fachin won 10 of 11 votes in a symbolic ballot, while Alexandre de Moraes was chosen as his deputy with the same tally, in line with the tradition that justices do not vote for themselves, Xinhua reported.

Fachin, a court member since 2015, said he assumes the role with a “sense of mission” and a focus on dialogue. He will take office on Sept. 29 and also lead the National Council of Justice. Moraes, who has faced US sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, described his appointment as “an honor and a joy.”

A series of attacks against Pakistani police by militants left five officers dead and eight wounded in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said, Associated Press reported.

There were four attacks with three resulting in officer casualties Thursday, police said.

Most died or were injured in a single attack in the Upper Dir district when armed men ambushed a police van early Thursday. Three officers died and seven were injured during the routine patrol, police official Ismail Khan said.

In the Peshawar suburb of Hassan Khel, armed men opened fire on a police station with automatic weapons. One officer died and another was wounded in an exchange of fire, Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Qasim Ali Khan said, according to Associated Press.