Ethiopia

Hundreds of refugees are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after their boats capsized on the way to Europe, a Somali ambassador has said.

More than 400 refugees are thought to have drowned, the Somali ambassador to Egypt told BBC Arabic.

Hundreds of migrants are feared to have died in a new migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said on April 18. 

Unconfirmed media reports earlier on the same day spoke of up to 400 victims from boats that capsized near the Egyptian coast as they attempted to sail to Europe. 

Deliveries with a total weight of 28 kg containing qat, a psychoactive plant, have been confiscated by Bulgarian customs officers, the customs agency has said.

The entire quantity, worth around BGN 0.9 M (EUR 0.45 M), was confiscated at Sofia airport. Its final destinations were Belgium and the Netherlands.

Newly appointed Turkish Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union, Fatih Ulusoy, on March 25 expressed readiness to take his country's cooperation with Ethiopia in trade and investment to new heights.

The Marathon organized in Tokyo is one of six World Marathon Majors, but it is the only one in the world that the runners are dressed in eccentric costumes.

More than 1.7 million roadside spectators had the chance to see ballerinas, princesses, superheroes, and cartoon characters running in Tokyo Marathon on Sunday February 28.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an will visit four West African countries next week, in a new sign of Ankara's desire to be a major influence in the region.

The U.N. children’s agency estimates that at least 200 million girls and women in 30 countries have undergone female circumcision.

According to a statistical report released on Thursday by UNICEF, the global figure includes nearly 70 million more girls and women than estimated in 2014 due to population growth and new data received from Indonesia.

Ethiopia is struggling with its worst drought for 30 years, with millions in dire need of life-saving aid, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Jan. 31.

At least 10.2 million people need food aid in Ethiopia, a figure the U.N. has warned could double within months, casting a fifth of the population into hunger.

Cocaine hidden in bottles of wine, deodorant flasks and mobile phone chargers were discovered during customs checks at Bulgaria's borders last year, Dnevnik daily reported on Tuesday.

Smuggling dried leaves of the khat plant has been registered as a new trend, Dnevnik said citing the National Customs Agency report for 2015.

Tree by tree, more than a dozen African governments pledged to restore the continent's natural forests at the United Nations climate talks on Dec. 5.