WORLD

The United States began its annual counter-terrorism training program for African forces in Ghana on Wednesday, aiming to strengthen border defences in the fight against Islamist insurgents who are spreading south into new territories.

Nigeria's president-elect Bola Tinubu has promised to tackle a litany of problems, including escalating violence, double-digit inflation and industrial-scale oil theft.

Russian forces carried out relentless attacks on Bakhmut on Wednesday, trying to encircle and storm the eastern Ukrainian city and claim their first major prize for more than half a year after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.

Democratic countries worldwide should make Russia pay war reparations to Ukraine and cut all financial and economic ties with Moscow, Polish Climate Minister Anna Moskwa said on Wednesday.

Macron announced the withdrawal of French troops from Mali a year ago after its junta began working with Russian mercenaries, while Burkina Faso last month ended a military deal with France.

Two NASA astronauts will be joined by a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates for a six-month science mission made up of experiments ranging from human cell growth in space to controlling combustible materials in microgravity.

Social media has, meanwhile, filled with accounts by darker-skinned people in Tunisia, including migrants with and without valid visas, African students and Black Tunisians, of ill treatment and fear.

The meeting of the largely rubber-stamp parliament opens at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing on Sunday, where Xi is widely expected to secure his third five-year term as president.

Despite lingering questions about his health and past corruption allegations, the two-time Lagos governor will succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general he brags of helping put into power.

Macron's trip comes as alarm grows in Paris over Russia's rising influence in French-speaking African countries, alongside Chinese jockeying for position, which has been visible for some years.

Flower bouquets adorned each coffin in the building in Crotone, while a toy blue car had been laid on the smallest, ready for mourners to pay their respects.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan was in Ukraine to investigate Russia's campaign of missile and drone attacks on power and other infrastructure that killed hundreds of civilians and left millions with no electricity or water.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, must still confirm whether Tinubu secured 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states and capital, a threshold he must hit to be confirmed president.

Work is underway "to strengthen assessment of the spread of the epidemic," said the statement, read on national television.

In recent weeks, online conspiracy theories conflating child sexual abuse at boarding schools with consensual same-sex acts between adults have reached fever pitch.

In a process known here as banking, residents pile layers of tyres, rubbish and sacks of earth into the water, pack the ballast with mud, and then build homes on top.

Conflict still torments the oil-rich but deeply-poor country half a decade after its leaders declared an end to the civil war that killed 380,000 people.

The Ethiopian government's two-year conflict with forces in the northern Tigray region ended last November with thousands dead and millions uprooted.

Many of the victims washed ashore close to where the vessel sank near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria, while some of the bodies were recovered from the sea.

The outcome was similar to a G20 summit meeting in Bali last November, when host Indonesia also issued a final declaration acknowledging differences.

Russia is trying to cut the Ukrainian defenders' vulnerable supply lines into the city and force them to surrender or withdraw.

Oil is coming to this biodiverse but impoverished region on the eastern shores of Lake Albert -- and not everyone is pleased.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has so far released official results from only one of 36 states.

A local politician said "terrorists" had killed at least 13 civilians and burned homes in the village of Kani-Bonzon on Thursday, adding that the death toll could be as high as 20.

Russia, for its part, accused the United States, the European Union and the G7 nations of disrupting the ministers' meeting by trying to force through a joint statement on Ukraine.

Crotone's rescue centre said 12 of the 59 victims were children, including a newborn, and 33 were women, according to AGI news agency.

Macron is to visit Gabon for an environmental summit, followed by Angola, then the Republic of Congo, or Congo-Brazzaville, and finally the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

After five consecutive failed rainy seasons, parts of Somalia are on the verge of famine and the rest of the country is faring little better.

The leading Amhara opposition figure was held Friday evening by security forces and later jailed in the regional capital Bahir Dar, the Balderas for Genuine Democracy party said in a statement.