WORLD

Nigeria's election next week marks nearly a quarter century of democracy in Africa's most populous nation, which in previous decades had become a byword for coups and military misrule.

"We are able to diagnose our problems," President Kais Saied said, adding whoever wants to help Tunisians should "return our looted money and drop the accumulated debts."

The U.N. estimates 44 million people were displaced in 2022 up from 38.3 million people at the end of 2021.

World powers are vying for influence in Africa amid deepening global tensions resulting from the war in Ukraine and an increasingly aggressive Chinese posture towards self-ruled Taiwan.

Embattled Ghana has to restructure its debt to secure a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, which Ofori-Atta said the government hoped to secure in March.

Zelenskiy recalled his own experience as an actor, urging colleagues to "break the fourth wall" by directly addressing their audiences.

Under the agreement announced on Thursday, the United States agreed to transfer $954,807 to Nigeria to support improvements in healthcare centers across Bayelsa State, according to the Justice Department.

It is the latest deadly protest to rock the capital since the government was overthrown in 2021 and replaced with military leaders who have dragged their feet on promises to hand power back to civilians.

The row started on Feb. 4, when three clerics from Oromiya accused the leadership of the main church of discriminating against Oromos, the country's largest ethnic group.

The United States has paired security assistance to Nigeria with training focused on compliance with international law.

Every year, tonnes of donated clothing is sent to developing countries, but an estimated 30 percent of it ends up in landfills -- or flooding local markets where it can crowd out local production.

Outbreaks of the virus have widened in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, undefeated by summer heat or winter cold snaps, since a strain arrived in the United States in early 2022 that was genetically similar to cases in Europe and Asia.

Ethiopia's government rejected the report and has embarked on a diplomatic offensive to win international support for its bid to stop the commission from continuing its work.

In recent days police have detained a number of leading figures with links to the opposition or to critics of Saied, including prominent politicians, two judges, the head of Tunisia's main independent news outlet and a senior UGTT official.

More than half of the 66 passengers in the bus died in the accident near the Gualaca migrant shelter, an area with many curving roads, authorities said.

The proposed deal with NovaWulf should allow Celsius to exit Chapter 11 and begin returning crypto assets to customers in June, Celsius attorney Ross Kwasteniet said at Wednesday's hearing.

It said the balloons may have been carrying corner reflectors and reconnaissance equipment but did not specify when they flew over the capital, although air alerts were issued in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Later on Wednesday, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said Russian forces were mounting "round-the-clock" assaults on government positions, without specifying where.

Ahead of the Feb. 25 vote, political rallies and campaign events have become catwalks for colourful printed fabrics twisted into elaborate dresses, tunics and headscarves.

The audience clapped, cheered and sang along to more than 20 acts including Senegalese rap star Didier Awadi.

Africa's most populous democracy has among the lowest number of women in office in the world, and the number of those seeking to succeed Buhari or aiming for local and national offices has fallen since 2019.

Chasiv Yar lies a short drive down country lanes from Bakhmut, where Russian forces have been trying to seize control for the last six months in a grinding war of attrition.

Tunisia's president on Tuesday accused some people detained in a wave of recent arrests of being responsible for price increases and food shortages, saying they wanted to fuel a social crisis.

The authorities, who have officially recorded 18 deaths, found traces of a common but deadly bacterium, clostridium, both in the gourd's liquid and on corpses that they tested.

MARVAC includes representatives from the field of vaccine research and development, working to develop vaccines against the Marburg virus.

Separatist and gang violence is a major concern for Nigerians when they vote on Feb. 25 for new members of parliament and for a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Russian consulate in Cape Town tweeted a photo of the ship, the "Admiral Gorshkov", in the harbour, saying it was on "its way to Durban where it will take part in joint... drills".

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last February, the once-thriving industrial city of 30,000 in the disputed Donbas region has become a ghost-town.

Tunisian police on Monday detained two prominent opponents of President Kais Saied and the head of a radio station that has broadcast criticism of the president, part of a wave of arrests targeting politicians and other critics of the government.