WORLD

One state in particular is set to stand out: Lagos, the buzzing coastal home of some 20 million people and economic nerve centre of the country and region.

The US on Tuesday accused Russia of forcing down one of its Reaper surveillance drones over the Black Sea through a collision with a Russian Sukhoi-27 war plane.

Washington's top general said the crash of a U.S. surveillance drone after being intercepted by Russian jets showed Moscow's increasingly aggressive behaviour, while Russia warned Washington that flying drones near Crimea risked escalation.

The report said they were members of the Boko Haram jihadist group, who were fleeing their hideout in Sambisa forest in northeast Nigeria.

Weather conditions were expected to improve as the storm dissipated over land after days of torrential rains, but flood levels remained high in some areas hampering emergency efforts.

Blinken said he hoped to restore cooperation "with the goal of strengthening the relationship" with Ethiopia, home of the African Union, amid a push by President Joe Biden to deepen relations with Africa.

He will then head to the West African nation of Niger on Thursday, which has been confronting a growing Islamist insurgency.

Relations between Russia and the U.S. have become more hostile since Moscow invaded Ukraine over a year ago, and Washington and its allies oppose Russian influence in West Africa.

The district around the commercial hub of Blantyre was among the hardest-hit. Severe flooding and rain damaged roads and bridges, hampering relief operations.

The demonstrations are the latest expression of growing tensions in Senegal in the run-up to a 2024 election that could see President Macky Sall vie for a controversial third term, which the opposition says is unconstitutional.

Blinken's trip to Africa's second most populous nation comes as part of a push by President Joe Biden's administration to step up engagement with Africa, where China and Russia have been stepping up influence.

Russia, a key arms exporter to Africa, is also making forays into the continent including through mining projects granted to the Wagner private paramilitary group, he said.

The Russian defence ministry offered a different account and Moscow's ambassador to Washington said his country viewed the incident involving a U.S. MQ-9 drone and Russian Su-27 fighter jet as a provocation.

International envoys as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo government say they want to give a chance to peace efforts for ending the insurgency by M23 rebels in North Kivu province.

Binance is halting its sterling deposits and withdrawals, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday, a month after the crypto exchange ceased dollar transfers.

Ninety-nine people have died in the impoverished country since Freddy smashed into southern Africa at the weekend, just weeks after it made a deady hit in late February, according to a provisional toll.

Crypto-focused U.S. bank Silvergate Capital Corp said it planned to close last week after it was hit with losses following the dramatic collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November last year.

The new assembly was elected in two rounds in December and January, with a voter turnout of just over 11 percent.

At least 99 people have died in the southern African country, many of them in Chilobwe, a hillside settlement near Malawi's second-largest city, Blantyre.

The move marks the latest step towards reopening China to the outside world, as Beijing breaks with the strict zero-Covid strategy that defined its pandemic response until a few months ago.

Ukraine's future hinges on the outcome of battles in the east, including in and around Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, with both sides describing brutal fighting in the small city as Russia intensifies a winter campaign to capture it.

Washington and Seoul have ramped up defence cooperation in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from the North, which has conducted a series of increasingly provocative banned weapons tests in recent months.

The Black Sea grain initiative aimed to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blockaded by Russia's invasion to be safely exported from three Ukrainian ports.

Freddy, on track to become the longest-lasting storm on record, barrelled through southern Africa at the weekend for the second time within a few weeks, making a comeback after a first hit in late February.

Islamist militants killed at least 35 people in an overnight attack on a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in retaliation for a military crackdown on rebel activity, an army spokesperson said on Thursday.

The visit, set as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed works to reestablish himself on the world stage following the two-year Tigray war, comes as foreign troops remain within the region and bureaucratic hurdles hamper the humanitarian response.

The U.S. Department Justice has appealed a court order approving Voyager Digital's bankruptcy plan, creating a new hurdle for the crypto lender's plan to sell its assets and transfer its customers to Binance.US in a deal valued at $1.3 billion.

Widely perceived to be pragmatic and business-friendly, the 63-year-old Li faces the daunting task of shoring up China's uneven recovery amid global headwinds and weak confidence among consumers and the private sector.

Magnnah, a college graduate working as a waitress, said the speech "incited physical and verbal violence" with openly racist actions taken without fear of reprisal.