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Razor wire. Thick black iron fencing. Metal detectors. Armed security guards. Bomb sweeps. The security at this centre where workers count ballots mirrors what you might see at an airport – or even a prison. And, if needed, plans are in place to further bolster security to include drones, officers on horseback and police snipers […]

Scientists believe they have found a quirky way to fight mosquito-spread diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika – by turning male insects deaf so they struggle to mate and breed. Mosquitoes have sex while flying in mid-air and the males rely on hearing to chase down a female, based on her attractive wingbeats. […]

Quincy Jones lived for 50 years after attending his own memorial service. When the musician suffered a brain aneurysm in 1974, his chances of survival were said to be so slim, and his stature so high, that his famous friends started planning a tribute concert. Then aged 41, Jones had already made an indelible mark […]

Eight people have gone on trial in Paris accused of encouraging the killer of Samuel Paty, the teacher who was beheaded on the street outside his school four years ago. Abdoullakh Anzorov, the young man of Chechen origin who wielded the knife, is dead – shot by police in the minutes after his attack. So […]

The Prince of Wales has spoken of his deep personal connections with Africa – ahead of his environmental Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in Cape Town in South Africa next week. “Africa has always held a special place in my heart – as somewhere I found comfort as a teenager, where I proposed to my wife,” […]

Warning: this story contains descriptions of injury detail Berhane Haile was walking home from school earlier this year through the mountainous countryside of Tigray in northern Ethiopia when an almighty blast changed his life forever. The 16-year-old had just stepped on a piece of ordnance that left the bones and flesh on his left leg […]

A lighting strike at a refugee camp in Uganda has killed 13 children and one adult, police say. They say the victims were attending a church service on Saturday evening when the lightning struck. Another 34 people were injured. The incident occurred at Palabek Refugee Settlement in the north-west of the country. The area has […]

The reception is poorly lit and a small fan barely moves the humid air as staff at Chidinma Emeneka’s laundry service in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, wait for the generator to kick in. It roars into action, but the engine noise marks the start of extra business costs which have to be paid because of […]

Police in South Africa have forced 540 illegal miners out of an abandoned mine shaft and arrested them. Earlier this week, security forces blocked deliveries of food and water to the miners in a bid to push them out of the mine. The miners experienced “starvation and dehydration” and were forced to resurface, police say. […]

Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing. Several women have taken their lives in Sudan’s central Gezira state after being raped by paramilitary fighters in the brutal civil war raging in the country, rights groups and activists have said. The reports come after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was accused by the […]