Geography of Africa

Turkey has suspended work at its embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Aug. 6, two weeks after his ministry advised Turks to leave the North African country due to worsening lawlessness.

Egypt plans to build a new Suez Canal alongside the existing 145-year-old historic waterway in a multi-billion dollar project aimed at expanding trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia.
   

Sofia is the most affordable EU city for expat living, shows the 2014 Mercer Cost of Living Rankings annual survey. 

The capital of Bulgaria takes the 172-nd position out of 211 surveyed cities. 

Compared to the 2013 survey, the cost of expat living increased, shows the survey. Last year Bulgaria was at the 181-st place. 

France on Friday said it is boosting passenger screening at its airports, responding to a request from Washington for extra security for US-bound flights over fears Islamist radicals could be plotting new attacks using hard-to-detect bombs.
      

Three-time world champions Germany had to go through extra time in order to beat Algeria in the 1/8 final of the World Cup.

The African side was playing its first ever match at this stage of a World Cup, but had a positive record against Germany in their previous meetings, the last of which came in 1982.

Two Turkish citizens were kidnapped in Libya late on June 24 and their whereabouts are still unknown, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official who wanted to remain anonymous has said.

A Sudanese Christian woman detained when she tried to travel to the United States after her release from death row was freed June 26 and took refuge at the U.S. embassy, her lawyer said.

"She is in the U.S. embassy now," Mohanad Mustafa said of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 26.  "She and her husband think this is a safe place for them," after receiving death threats, Mustafa told AFP.

The first group of Turkish nationals who were evacuated from Libya returned to Turkey on June 24 after they were threatened with arrest on spying claims.

Some 248 Turkish citizens, working for the construction company GAMA in the central coast city of Sirte, have returned to Turkey with a Turkish Airlines (THY) flight from Misrata in northwest Libya.

Gunmen have killed 17 Muslims at a camp in the centre of the strife-torn Central African Republic in the latest sectarian violence to wrack the impoverished country, peacekeepers said on Tuesday.
      

A Sudanese court on June 23 ordered the release of a 27-year-old woman who was sentenced to death last month for converting from Islam to Christianity, the state news agency said.