IVORY COAST: Thousands of people protested in Abidjan on Saturday against a ban on opposition leaders contesting the presidency.

Four main opposition figures, including former president Laurent Gbagbo and former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam, have been barred from the election, in which President Alassane Ouattara is seeking a fourth term.

IRAN: Tehran will “not allow” the proposed US-developed transport corridor through Azerbaijan and Armenia, a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said.

Ali Akbar Velayati vowed that Iran would block the development, agreed by Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders at the White House on Friday, “with or without Russia,” which was also wrongfooted by the deal. Iran has suggested the route adjoining its northern border would compromise its security.

LEBANON: An explosion has killed six soldiers who were dismantling munitions at an abandoned Hezbollah weapons dump, the army said today.

Saturday's blast took place in the village of Zibqin in Tyre province. 

Hezbollah withdrew from land south of the Litani river in accordance with a ceasefire agreed with Israel in November, though Israeli forces have continued to bomb Lebanon.

Some of the Shi'ite group's bases and weapons caches are being taken over by the Lebanese army.

UNITED STATES: A gunman who killed a police officer on Friday when he opened fire at a pharmacy believed that an anti-Covid vaccine had given him depression, police said today.

Patrick Joseph White, who was killed in the gunfight, attempted to storm the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention HQ in Atlanta, Georgia, but he attacked the pharmacy after being denied entry.

The American Federation of Government Employees said its members had been put at risk by vaccine misinformation spread by President Donald Trump's administration.