Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara and long-time rival Laurent Gbagbo hugged on Tuesday at their first meeting in over a decade, part of efforts to ease political tensions in the West African country.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Paris owed “a debt” to French Polynesia over nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific territory between 1966 and 1996, but stopped short of apologising.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday said that the outgoing government’s experience of engaging with world powers including the United States shows that “trusting the West does not work”.

The global economy’s business-as-usual approach to climate change has seen Earth’s “vital signs” deteriorate to record levels, an influential group of scientists said Wednesday, warning that several climate tipping points were now imminent. 

People vaccinated against Covid-19 in high-risk parts of the United States should resume wearing masks indoors, the top health authority said, as countries around the world yesterday extended curbs struggling to suppress the Delta variant.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that if the United States ended up in a “real shooting war” with a “major power” it could be the result of a significant cyber attack on the country, highlighting what Washington sees as growing threats posed by Russia and China. 

Senior U.S. and Russian officials began talks on Wednesday on strategic nuclear stability, with a fresh mandate from their presidents who held a summit in Geneva last month.

Britain reported its highest number of deaths and people in hospital with coronavirus since March on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging caution despite a week of lower reported numbers of infection.

At least half a million children face acute malnourishment in drought-hit southern Madagascar, causing irreversible damage to their growth and development, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Unicef warned Monday.

Lebanon’s new prime minister-designate Najib Mikati was due to start consultations with leading political parties yesterday with a view to forming a long-awaited government. 

Opponents of Tunisia’s President Kais Saied, who sparked a crisis by ousting the premier and suspending parliament, yesterday challenged him to hold new elections instead of building an “autocratic regime”.

At least 57 people drowned on Monday after a boat capsized off the Libyan coast near Khums, the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean where nearly 1,000 have perished this year, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.  

Facebook on Monday said it was combining specialists from across its hardware, gaming and virtual reality units to build an immersive digital world known as the “metaverse.”

President Joe Biden declared US relations with Iraq would enter a new phase with American troops exiting combat operations in the country by year-end as he held talks with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi.

Saudi Arabia will impose a three-year travel ban on citizens travelling to countries on the kingdom's 'red list' under efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus and its new variants, state news agency SPA said on Tuesday.

The Cuban Embassy in Paris said on Tuesday that its building had been attacked with petrol bombs, causing serious damage but no injuries to diplomatic staff.

An explosion at an industrial park for chemical companies shook the German city of Leverkusen on Tuesday, sending a large black cloud rising into the air. At least 16 people were injured and five remain missing.

Fiame Naomi Mata'afa entered parliament as Samoa's first female prime minister Tuesday, ending a bitter impasse that left the Pacific island without an effective government for 109 days after her election victory.

A boat carrying African migrants capsized off Libya’s coast Monday, leaving at least 57 people presumed dead, a UN migration official said. It was the latest disaster in the Mediterranean Sea involving migrants seeking a better life in Europe.

TUNISIAN DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS