They met at eight years old, married, and died together in a Ukrainian trench

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso — Burkina Faso's military regime, in power since a 2022 coup, will extend its rule for five years under an accord adopted during national consultations on Saturday, the talks' chairman said.  "The duration of the transition is fixed at 60 months from July 2, 2024," Colonel Moussa Diallo, chairman of the organizing committee of the national dialogue process, said after the talks.  He added that coup leader and acting president Ibrahim Traore could run in any elections at the end of the transition period.  What was supposed to be a two-day national dialogue began earlier Saturday, ostensibly to chart a way back to civilian rule for the West African nation beset by jihadi violence.  The army has governed Burkina Faso since 2022, carrying out two coups that it said were justified in large part by the persistent insecurity.  Jihadi rebels affiliated with al Qaida and the Islamic State group have waged a grinding insurgency since 2015 that has killed thousands and displaced millions.  An initial national dialogue had resulted in a charter that installed Traore as president and put in place a government and a legislative assembly.  Under the new charter, quotas will no longer be used to assign seats in the assembly to members of traditional parties. Instead, "patriotism" will be the only criteria for selecting deputies.  "You have just rewritten a new page in the history of our country," said Minister of Territorial Affairs Emile Zerbo, who opened the meeting on Saturday morning.  The initial charter set the transition to civilian rule at 21 months, with the deadline set to expire July 1.  But Traore had repeatedly warned that holding elections would be difficult given the perilous security situation.  The new charter also calls for a new body called the "Korag" to "monitor and control the implementation of the country's strategic vision in all areas and through all means." Its composition and operations are at the discretion of the president.  Civil society representatives, the security and defense forces and lawmakers in the transitional assembly took part in the weekend talks, which most political parties boycotted.  Human rights groups have accused Burkina Faso's junta leaders of abuses against civilians during their military campaigns against jihadis, and of silencing media and opposition leaders.   After taking power, the coup leaders expelled French troops and diplomats, and have instead turned to Russia for military assistance.   

LONDON — Discontented, economically squeezed voters have turned against sitting governments on both right and left during many of the dozens of elections held this year, as global power blocs shift and political certainties crumble. From India to South Africa to Britain, voters dealt blows to long-governing parties. Elections to the European Parliament showed growing support for the continent's far right, while France's centrist president scrambled to fend off a similar surge at home. If there’s a global trend, Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer said at a summit in Canada in June, it’s that “people are tired of the incumbents.” More than 40 countries have held elections already this year. More uncertainty awaits — nations home to over half the world’s population are going to the polls in 2024. The world is already anxiously turning to November’s presidential election in the U.S., where an acrimonious campaign was dealt a shocking blow by an assassination attempt against Republican nominee and former president, Donald Trump. Unpopular incumbents Aftershocks from the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and spiking prices for food and fuel have left dissatisfied voters eager for change. “Voters really, really don’t like inflation,” said Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester. “And they punish governments that deliver it, whether they are at fault or not.” Inflation and unemployment are rising in India, the world’s largest democracy, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party unexpectedly lost its parliamentary majority after a decade of dominance. Modi was forced to rely on coalition partners to govern as the opposition doubled its strength in parliament. In South Africa, sky-high rates of unemployment and inequality helped drive a dramatic loss of support for the African National Congress, which had governed ever since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. The party once led by Nelson Mandela lost its parliamentary majority for the first time and was forced to enter a coalition with opposition parties. In Britain, the center-left Labour Party won election in a landslide, ousting the Conservatives after 14 years. As in so many countries, Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a jaded electorate that wants lower prices and better public services — but is deeply skeptical of politicians’ ability to deliver change. US-China tensions Caught between world powers China and the United States, Taiwan held one of the year's most significant elections. Lai Ching-te, of the Democratic Progressive Party, won a presidential election that was seen as a referendum on the island’s relationship with China, which claims Taiwan as its own. Beijing regards Lai as a separatist and ramped up military pressure with drills in the Taiwan Strait. Lai has promised to strengthen the defenses of the self-governing island, and the U.S. has pledged to help it defend itself, heightening tensions in one of the world’s flashpoints. In Bangladesh, an important partner of the U.S. that has drawn closer to China, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth successive term in an election that opposition parties boycotted. The U.S. and U.K. said the vote was not credible, free or fair. Political dynasties In several countries, family ties helped secure or cement power. Pakistan held messy parliamentary elections – under the eye of the country’s powerful military — that saw well-established political figures vie to become prime minister. The winner, atop a coalition government, was Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, younger brother of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif. Opponents say the election was rigged in his favor, with opponent and former prime minister, Imran Khan, imprisoned and blocked from running. The situation remains unstable, with Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruling that Khan’s party was improperly denied some seats. In Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest democracy, former Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto was officially declared president more than two months after an election in which he won over 58% of the vote. His two losing rivals alleged fraud and nepotism — Subianto’s vice president-elect is outgoing leader Joko Widodo’s son, and Subianto was the son-in-law of Indonesia’s late dictator, Suharto. The country’s highest court rejected their arguments. Some outcomes were predictable. Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected to a fifth term in a preordained election that followed his relentless crackdown on dissent. Rwanda's election extended the 30-year rule of President Paul Kagame, an authoritarian leader who ran almost unopposed. Far right's uneven march The far right has gained ground in Europe as the continent experiences economic instability and an influx of migrants from troubled lands. Elections for the parliament of the 27-nation European Union shifted the bloc’s center of gravity, with the far right rocking ruling parties in France and Germany, the EU’s traditional driving forces. The EU election triggered a political earthquake in France. After his centrist, pro-business party took a pasting, President Emmanuel Macron called a risky snap parliamentary election in hope of stemming a far-right surge. The anti-immigration National Rally party won the first round, but alliances and tactical voting by the center and left knocked it down to third place in the second round and left a divided legislature. New faces, daunting challenges A presidential election tested Senegal's reputation as a stable democracy in West Africa, a region rocked by a recent spate of coups. The surprise winner was little-known opposition figure Basirou Diomaye Faye, released from prison before polling day as part of a political amnesty. Faye is Africa’s youngest elected leader, and his rise reflects widespread frustration among Senegal’s youth with the country’s direction. Senegal has made new oil and gas discoveries in recent years, but the population has yet to see any real benefit. Mexico elected Claudia Sheinbaum as the first female president in the country’s 200-year history. A protege of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the 61-year-old former Mexico City mayor vowed to continue in the direction set by the popular leftist leader. She faces a polarized electorate, daunting drug-related violence, an increasingly influential military and tensions over migration with the U.S. Uncertainty is the new normal On July 28, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will seek to extend a decade-plus presidency marked by a complex political, social and economic crisis that has driven millions into poverty or out of the country. Opposition parties have banded together, but the ruling party has tight control over the voting process, and many doubt votes will be counted fairly. South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, is scheduled to hold its long-delayed first elections in December. That would represent a key milestone, but the vote is rife with danger and vulnerable to failure. Looming above all is the choice U.S. voters will make Nov. 5 in a tense and divided country. The July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, in which the former president was wounded and a rallygoer was killed, came as Democrats agonize over the fitness of President Joe Biden, who has resisted calls to step aside. The prospect of a second term for Trump, a protectionist wary of international entanglements, is evidence of the world’s shifting power blocs and crumbling political certainties. "The world is in the transition," said Neil Melvin, director of international security at defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute. “There are very broad processes on the way which are reshaping international order," he added. "It’s a kind of anti-globalization. It’s a growing return to the nation state and against multilateralism.”

A member of the team, a water boy, accidentally stumbled upon a stone that turned out to be the first step of an ancient staircase.

[The Conversation Africa] The dramatic loss of power by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which had governed Botswana since independence in 1966, will go down in history as one of the biggest electoral upsets in Africa.

[Addis Standard] Addis Abeba -- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) presented to the UN's Human Rights Council a five-year review of press freedom in Ethiopia ahead of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Ethiopia at the 47th Session taking place today by the UN's Human Rights Council.

Man sentenced to three years imprisonment after admitting to possessing and distributing child pornography

Man accused of stealing car and taking money from a shrine placed under two-year treatment order by a court

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s inflation slowed to 2.7% in October, the lowest level in three years in a win for the libertarian government of President Javier Milei who came to power almost a year ago promising to pull Argentina out of a dire economic crisis. Argentina’s statistics agency on Tuesday reported October’s number. In September, inflation was 3.5%. READ: Recession-hit Argentina gripped by ‘Ponzidemia’ On an annual basis, inflation in October was 193% compared to 209% reported in September. Milei has trumpeted falling prices in recent months as a victory in his fight against Argentina’s worst economic crisis in […]...

Keep on reading: Argentina's monthly inflation drops to 2.7%, lowest level in 3 years

British wage growth excluding bonuses fell in the third quarter to its lowest in over two years, official data showed on Tuesday, potentially boosting the Bank of England’s confidence that inflation pressures will continue to ease. Average weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, were 4.8 per cent higher in the three months to the end of September […]

A 15-year-old was seriously injured while riding a moped overnight in the Famagusta district. According to the police, the accident happened around 9pm on Tuesday in Xylophagou, when a 35-year-old woman driving on Anastassi Manoli Street, under circumstances that are being investigated, ran over and injured the 15-year-old boy. The 15-year-old was initially taken by […]

Remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the 30 Years of Kazakhstan-ADB Anniversary Reception, 8 November 2024

Nik Bonitto's production has steadily increased since being taken in the second round out of Oklahoma in the 2022 draft by the Denver Broncos.

to write a year end report

This brochure explores the 30-year partnership between the Asian Development Bank and the Kyrgyz Republic, sharing highlights from key sectors.

Forget videos by gamers or influencers. For a real online thrill, watch the world's biggest flower emerging in a former web designer's greenhouse, says Annalee Newitz

An army of tadpoles and a stretching lynx are just some of the incredible photos winning accolades at the annual competition

Ancient volcanic rock from South Africa has been found to harbour primitive bacteria, which may shed light on some of the earliest forms of life on Earth

A fossil of a tadpole from Argentina is 161 million years old - and isn't that different from some modern species

A new diet based on research into the body's ageing process suggests you can increase your life expectancy by up to 20 years by changing what, when and how much you eat

Carbon emissions within the next 50 years could lead to a tipping point where large parts of the Greenland ice sheet melt over the next 10,000 years

Climate researchers thought that current global average sea levels were the highest in more than 100,000 years, but new models suggest oceans just 6000 years ago may have been higher than at the beginning of the industrial revolution, and possibly even higher than today

If humans still exist millions of years from now, they will face inhospitably warm conditions on a supercontinent centred at the equator. Most land mammals won't be able to survive

Analysis of tree rings shows that two faults near Seattle, Washington ruptured at the same time or soon after each other more than 1000 years ago – a repeat today would cause a major disaster in the region

This spectacular selection of images is taken from the winners of the Northern Lights Photographer of the Year competition, run by Capture the Atlas

The Kikai-Akahoya eruption of an underwater volcano off the coast of Japan ejected enough material to fill Lake Tahoe twice, three times as much as the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815

The Luna structure, a 1.8-kilometre-wide depression in north-west India, may have been caused by the largest meteorite to strike Earth in the past 50,000 years

Exhausted by today's political and environmental instability, Annalee Newitz investigated what a future Earth might look like. Get ready for green mining, soft cities and robo-taxis

El Niño and La Niña cycles driven by ocean temperatures in the Pacific can influence weather in the North Atlantic 12 months later – a finding that could improve long-range forecasts

A story passed down in folklore led scientists to evidence of an 8-metre tsunami that hit an island in Hawaii hundreds of years ago

Antibiotics can reduce diversity in the gut microbiome, raising the risk of infections that cause diarrhoea - and the effects may last years

A fossil of a tadpole from Argentina is 161 million years old - and isn't that different from some modern species

This year’s average global temperature is almost certain to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial times – a milestone that should spur urgent action, say climate scientists

The climate impact of flights taken by the super-rich rose sharply from 2019 to 2023, fuelling calls for a carbon tax on private aviation

DNA from bones found in a cave in Germany has been identified as from Homo sapiens, showing that our species endured frigid conditions there as they expanded across the continent

Experiments with a replica suggest that a piece of mammoth ivory with carved holes found in a cave in Germany was used by ancient humans to make ropes

Our hominin ancestors originated in Africa and the consensus is that they didn't leave there until about 1.8 million years ago, but stone tools found in Jordan challenge the idea

Lake sediments reveal the ancient history of Aboriginal people’s use of fire to manage the landscape, a tradition that has benefits for biodiversity

Intact human brains 12,000 years old or more have been found in unexpected places such as shipwrecks and waterlogged graves, but it is unclear what preserved them

Italian canoes capable of transporting people and goods have been dated to the Neolithic period, suggesting there was a bustling trade across the Mediterranean Sea

An excavation on an island in the Coral Sea shows that Indigenous Australians were producing ceramics long before the arrival of Europeans

A site in Siberia has evidence of human presence 417,000 years ago, raising the possibility that hominins could have reached North America much earlier than we thought

An urn found in a tomb in Spain contained the cremated remains of a man, a gold ring and about 5 litres of liquid, which has been identified as now-discoloured white wine

Wooden sticks found in an Australian cave appear to match the accounts of a 19th-century anthropologist, suggesting the GurnaiKurnai people practised the same ritual at the end of the last glacial period

A new radiometric dating technique reveals that cave paintings on Sulawesi, Indonesia, are even older than previously thought, pushing back the earliest evidence of storytelling

DNA evidence from tombs in Sweden and Denmark suggests major plague outbreaks were responsible for the Neolithic decline in northern Europe

Prehistoric mammal bones found at a construction site in Argentina appear to have been cut with stone tools, suggesting that humans lived in the region much earlier than previously thought

DNA and protein analysis has identified a white substance smeared on mummies in China as a kind of kefir cheese, made from cow and goat milk

A young boy who lived towards the end of the last glacial period had dark skin, blue eyes and a congenital heart condition, a study of his genome reveals