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A young Australian woman was the latest confirmed death, and her friend was fighting for her life, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Two Danish citizens and an American had also died, officials said, after what media said was a night out in Vang Vieng where they drank possibly tainted alcohol. The group of about a dozen tourists became ill after going out on November 12, according to British and Australian media.

Vang Vieng has been a fixture on the Southeast Asia backpacker trail since Laos' secretive communist rulers opened the country to tourism decades ago. The town was once notorious for backpackers behaving badly at jungle parties and has since re-branded as an eco-tourism destination. On their travel advice websites for Laos, UK and Australian authorities warn their citizens to beware of methanol poisoning while consuming alcohol in Laos.

Methanol can be added to liquor to increase its potency, but can cause blindness, liver damage and death. In neighbouring Thailand, at least six people died and more than 20 were hospitalised after drinking methanol-laced bootleg alcohol in August.

The West African country, plagued by jihadist and separatist violence, has been led by the military since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021. Maiga, who was appointed by the military after the second coup, had been seen as isolated in his position as prime minister, with little room for manoeuvre. His dismissal creates further uncertainty in an already troubled context.

Maiga on Saturday publicly condemned the lack of clarity regarding the end of the transition to civilian rule. He said the confusion could pose "serious challenges and the risk of going backwards".

Maiga, 66, previously served as a minister on several occasions and ran three times as a presidential candidate. He was the civilian face of the junta's strategic pivot away from former colonial ruler France and toward closer political and military ties with Russia.

At the United Nations in September 2021, Maiga denounced what he called the "abandonment in mid-air" regarding the announced withdrawal of the French anti-jihadist force deployed in the country. He said the withdrawal forced Mali to explore new avenues with other partners, at a time when the presence of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner loomed.

After his criticism of the junta on Saturday, Maiga's position became increasingly untenable. An influential group supporting the military rulers, the Collective for the Defence of the Military (CDM), had called for him to step down within 72 hours. Limited demonstrations took place on Tuesday in support of the military and calling for the prime minister's resignation. Maiga's comments gave rise to speculation as to whether he was positioning himself for a possible future presidential election.

"The latest upsurge in violence in Haiti's capital is a harbinger of worse to come," UN rights chief Volker Turk warned in a statement. "The gang violence must be promptly halted. Haiti must not be allowed to descend further into chaos."

Violence has intensified dramatically in Port-au-Prince since November 11, as a coalition of gangs pushes for full control of the Haitian capital.

"At least 150 people have been killed, 92 injured and about 20,000 forced to flee their homes over the past week," Turk's statement said. In addition, "Port-au-Prince's estimated four million people are practically being held hostage as gangs now control all the main roads in and out of the capital".

Turk said that at least 55 percent of the deaths from simultaneous and apparently coordinated attacks in the capital resulted from exchanges of fire between gang members and police. He also highlighted reports of a rise in mob lynchings.

This was happening "at a time when the health system is already on the brink of collapse", he said, adding that "threats and attacks on humanitarian workers are also deeply worrying". "Gang violence must not prevail over the institutions of the State," he said, demanding "concrete steps ... to protect the population and to restore effective rule of law".

Before it started, 56-year-old Kim Yun-suk fell asleep to the hum of insects and woke to the chirping of birds. Now, she is kept awake every night by what sounds like the soundtrack of a low-budget horror movie at top volume. "The peaceful sounds of nature... have now been drowned out," Kim told AFP. "All we hear is this noise."

The campaign is the latest manifestation of steadily-declining ties between the two Koreas this year, which have also seen Pyongyang test ever more powerful missiles and bombard the South with trash-carrying balloons.

Since July, North Korea has been broadcasting the noises for huge chunks of almost every day from loudspeakers along the border. The northern point of Ganghwa -- an island in the Han river estuary on the Yellow Sea -- is only about two kilometres (a mile) from the North. When AFP visited, the nighttime broadcast included what sounded like the screams of people dying on the battlefield, the crack of gunfire, bombs exploding, along with chilling music that started at 11:00 pm.

Experts said the new broadcasts almost meet the criteria for a torture campaign. "Almost every regime has used noise torture and sleep deprivation," Rory Cox, a historian at University of St Andrews, told AFP. "It is very common and leaves no physical scarring, therefore making it deniable."

Exposure to noise levels above 60 decibels at night increases the risk of sleep disorders, experts said, but AFP tracked levels of up to 80 decibels late at night on Ganghwa during a recent trip.

"I find myself taking headache medicine almost all the time," An Mi-hee, 37, told AFP, adding that prolonged sleep deprivation due to the noise has also led to anxiety, eye pain, facial tremors and drowsiness. "Our kids can't sleep either, so they've developed mouth sores and are dozing off at school." Distraught and desperate, An travelled to Seoul and got on her knees to beg lawmakers at the National Assembly to find a solution, breaking down in tears as she described the island's suffering.

Choi Hyoung-chan, a 60-year-old resident, said the South Korean government had failed to protect vulnerable civilians on the frontier. "They should come here and try to live with these sounds for just ten days," he told AFP, referring to officials in Seoul. "I doubt they could even endure a single day."

The census is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, and will provide sorely needed up-to-date demographic data for the country which has an estimated population of around 44 million. It will be the first census to cover all 18 governorates since 1987, when dictator Saddam Hussein was in power, following repeated delays caused by years of war and political tensions between factions.

A count conducted in 1997 excluded the three northern provinces that make up the autonomous Kurdistan region. The upcoming census has reignited tensions between Baghdad and Kurdistan over disputed territories in the north.

The census includes religion but does not differentiate between sects, such as Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and, unlike previous counts, it excludes ethnicity.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the census was important for "development and planning steps in all sectors that contribute to the advancement and progress of Iraq", where electricity is scarce and infrastructure largely in disrepair.

During the census a two-day curfew will operate, with families having to stay at home so 120,000 researchers can collect data directly from households.

Demographics are likely to have shifted with the exile of hundreds of thousands of Christians, and also of tens of thousands of Yazidi families who were displaced from Sinjar by atrocities committed by IS extremists.

To organise the count, authorities partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in an effort to generate "accurate demographic information, facilitating effective policymaking and promoting inclusive growth".

Previous censuses were cancelled mainly because of tensions over disputed territories between the Kurdish, Arab, and Turkoman communities in the northern governorates of Kirkuk and Nineveh.

In the census, Baghdad has agreed to register only the descendants of families who were present in the disputed territories during the 1957 count, in order to prevent subsequent waves of migration from disrupting the demographic balance. Newcomers will be counted in their province of origin.

Decades of sporadic conflict between the military and ethnic rebel groups have left the Southeast Asian country littered with deadly landmines and munitions. But the military's ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi's government in 2021 has turbocharged conflict in the country and *birthed dozens of newer "People's Defence Forces" now battling to topple the military.

Anti-personnel mines and explosive remnants of war killed or wounded 1,003 people in Myanmar in 2023, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said on Wednesday. There were 933 landmine casualties in Syria, 651 in Afghanistan and 580 in Ukraine, the ICBL said in its latest Landmine Monitor report.

Myanmar is not a signatory to the United Nations convention that prohibits the use, stockpiling or development of anti-personnel mines.

ICBL said it had seen evidence of junta troops forcing civilians to walk in front of its units to "clear" mine-affected areas.

All sides in the fighting were using landmines "indiscriminately," the United Nations Children's Fund said in April. Rebel groups have told AFP they also lay mines in some areas under their control.

The ICBL said at least 5,757 people had been casualties of landmines and explosive remnants of war across the world in 2023. Of those, 1,983 were killed and 3,663 wounded. Civilians made up 84 percent of all recorded casualties, it said.

Provisional results showed 91.8 percent of voters had backed the new constitution, the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI) said in a statement. An estimated 860,000 people in Gabon were registered to vote. The interior ministry said 53.54 percent turned out to cast their ballot.

National broadcaster Gabon TV said there were no serious incidents reported during voting across 2,835 polling stations nationwide.

The proposed new constitution sets out a vision of a presidency with a maximum of two terms, but increases the length from five to seven years. It also abolishes the post of prime minister and stops family members from succeeding a president. Presidential candidates would have to be exclusively Gabonese – with at least one Gabon-born parent – and have a Gabonese spouse.

transitional president Brice Oligui Nguema, declared the referendum a "great step forward" as he cast his vote at a Libreville school. "All Gabonese are coming to vote in a transparent fashion," the junta chief told the press, having ditched his general's uniform for a brown civilian jacket over jeans.

Oligui has vowed to hand power back to civilians after a two-year transition but has made no secret of his desire to win the presidential election scheduled for August 2025. Opponents of the proposed text had dismissed it as tailor-made for strongman Oligui to remain in power.

Police opened fire in both encounters, killing 10, and then chased down those who fled with the help of self-defense groups, formed by residents opposed to the gangs and their violent rule over swaths of the country.

Well-armed gangs control some 80 percent of the city, routinely targeting civilians despite a Kenyan-led international force that has been deployed to help the outgunned police.

The Haitian capital has seen renewed fighting in the last week from Viv Ansanm, an alliance of gangs that in February helped oust former prime minister Ariel Henry. Streets were almost deserted on Tuesday after police and residents erected barricades in several neighborhoods.

Viv Ansanm spokesman Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherisier, a notorious gang leader, has called for the resignation of the transitional government currently leading the country. “The Viv Ansanm coalition will use all its means to achieve the departure of the CPT,” Cherisier said Monday, using the acronym for the Transitional Presidential Council.

The council itself -- made up of unelected officials tasked with the difficult mandate of leading the country to its first elections since 2016 -- is facing its own internal disarray.

The country lost major links to the rest of the world last week when the United States banned all civilian flights to the country for a month, after three jetliners approaching or departing Port-au-Prince were hit by gunfire.

A statement by the group said the sanctions "result from baseless slander directed at Amana by hostile and extremist elements".

US authorities said Monday they would impose sanctions on Amana and its construction branch Binyanei Bar Amana, as well as others who have "ties to violent actors in the West Bank". "Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank", the US Treasury said. "More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land," it added.

All settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law. Settlement outposts are built by private actors including Amana, and are also illegal under Israeli law.

The new sanctions will block Amana assets in the United States and prevent financial transactions between it and US-based individuals and institutions. Several Israeli settlers have already been the target of US sanctions.

Amana was founded in 1979 to develop the Jewish presence in the West Bank, the northern Israel region of Galilee and in the Negev region in the south. It has founded and developed dozens of settlements and settlement outposts since then.

"We are confident that with the change of administration in Washington, and with proper and necessary action by the Israeli government, all sanctions will be lifted," Amana said Tuesday of US President-elect Donald Trump's perceived leniency towards Israeli actions.

The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA), said in its latest report that 300 incidents involving settlers occurred in the West Bank between October 1 and November 4. Not counting annexed east Jerusalem, about 490,000 settlers live in the West Bank, which is home to three million Palestinians.

The three men were arrested earlier this month after travelling to the capital Bamako for what they thought were routine negotiations with the ruling junta. Instead, British chief executive Terence Holohan and two of his colleagues were "unexpectedly detained" for questioning.

Resolute said it would pay the Malian government $80 million (€75 million) from "existing cash reserves", with a further payment of $80 million in the "coming months".

Since seizing power, Mali's leaders have vowed to claw back gold mining revenues from foreign companies operating in the country. [...] Gold contributes a quarter of the national budget and three-quarters of export earnings.

The Australian company also owns a gold production site in Mako in neighbouring Senegal, and has other exploration operations in Mali, Senegal and Guinea.

The arrest of the Resolute team came soon after four employees at another foreign mining firm, Canadian company Barrick Gold, were detained in Mali for several days in September before being released..Barrick Gold said it had reached an agreement with the state and in October paid 50 billion CFA Francs (€76 million).

Manipur in India's northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than 18 months between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community, dividing the state into ethnic enclaves. Ten Kuki militants were killed when they attempted to assault police last week, prompting the apparent reprisal killing of six Meitei civilians, whose bodies were found in Jiribam district days later.

New Delhi has "ordered 50 additional companies of paramilitary forces to go to Manipur", a government source in New Delhi with knowledge of the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorised to speak with media. Each company of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), a paramilitary unit overseen by the home ministry and responsible for internal security, has 100 troops.

India already has thousands of troops attempting to keep the peace in the conflict that has killed at least 200 people since it began 18 months ago. Manipur has been subject to periodic internet shutdowns and curfews since the violence began last year.

Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and jobs. Rights groups have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.

The jihadists seized a third of Iraq, ruling their self-declared "caliphate" with an iron fist, before an international coalition wrestled control from them in 2017.

Iraq -- marred by decades of war and turmoil even before the rise of IS -- is home to more than a million internally displaced people. Baghdad has been pushing for the closure of the displacement camps, with the country having attained a degree of comparative stability in recent years.

Most of the camps in federal Iraq have now been closed, but around 20 remain in the northern autonomous Kurdistan region, which according to the United Nations house more than 115,000 displaced people. But for many, actually returning home can be a difficult task.

In an effort to close the camps and facilitate returns, Iraqi authorities are offering families around $3,000 to go back to their places of origin. To do so, displaced people must also get security clearance -- to ensure they are not wanted for jihadist crimes -- and have their identity papers or property rights in order.

But of the 11,000 displaced people still living in six displacement camps near Hassan Shami, 600 are former prisoners, according to the UN. They were released after serving up to five years for crimes related to membership of IS.

For them, going home can mean further complications. There's the risk of ostracism by neighbours or tribes for their perceived affiliation with IS atrocities, potential arrest at a checkpoint by federal forces or even a second trial.

Imrul Islam of the Norwegian Refugee Council said displacement camps by definition are supposed to be temporary, but warned against their hasty closure. When people return, "you need schools. You need hospitals. You need roads. And you need working markets that provide opportunities for livelihoods," he said. Without these, he said, many families who try to resettle in their home towns would end up returning to the camps.