Tunisia is facing its worst crisis in a decade of democracy on Monday after President Kais Saied ousted the government and suspended parliament with help from the army, a move denounced as a coup by the country's main parties, including Islamists.

Saied's action followed months of deadlock and disputes pitting him against Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and a fragmented parliament, as Tunisia descended into an economic crisis exacerbated by one of Africa's worst COVID-19 outbreaks.

Bosnian Serb representatives have announced a boycott of all major institutions in the divided country—effectively blocking them—outraged about the decision of a UN representative to ban genocide denial.

Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko, the UN high representative in Bosnia who also holds various executive powers, made the decision last week.

Inzko imposed amendments to Bosnia’s criminal code to prohibit denial of genocide and war crimes in a country where the Srebrenica genocide is played down by Serb leaders.

South and North Korea have restored cross-border communications, just over a year since the hotline was cut off, in a surprise move that the two countries said was part of an effort to rebuild trust.

The decision was announced in statements by South Korea’s presidential Blue House and KCNA, the North’s state media agency.

KCNA said all inter-Korean communication channels were reopened at 10 am on Tuesday (01:00 GMT) in line with an agreement between the countries’ two leaders.

Canada installed an indigenous woman as its governor general on Monday, the first such person to hold the post, in an elaborate ceremony that spotlighted the country's effort to reconcile with its colonial past.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Mary Simon—a former journalist, ambassador, and Inuit community advocate—to serve as the representative in Canada of its head of state, Queen Elizabeth, earlier this month.

Ethiopia’s Amhara region has called on all armed residents to mobilize for battle against rebels from conflict-hit Tigray, calling it a “survival campaign,” state media reported.

Amhara borders Tigray to the south, and the two regions are embroiled in a decades-old land dispute that has become central to the eight-month-old war in Tigray.

Sunday’s statement from Amhara regional president Agegnehu Teshager echoes a call made Friday by the president of Ethiopia’s Afar region just east of Tigray.

Dozens of Lebanese MPs have pledged support for a parliamentary motion allowing a special judicial body to investigate and try caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and four ex-ministers over last year’s Beirut Port explosion, but legal activists and the families of the blast victims slammed the move as an attempt to shield the officials from accountability.

After months of government silence, leading rights organizations and grassroots groups on Thursday took France’s first class-action lawsuit targeting the nation’s powerful police machine to the highest administrative authority to fix what they contend is a culture of systemic discrimination in identity checks.

Police have used rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannon against protesters in Thailand’s capital Bangkok as demonstrators defied COVID-19 restrictions to call for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha’s resignation.

The protests came on Sunday as the kingdom is currently facing its worst wave of COVID-19 infections, registering daily case records as hospitals buckle under pressure.

Exacerbating the toll has been the government’s slow procurement of vaccines, which has drawn criticism as Thailand’s economy reels from increasingly severe restrictions on businesses.

Haiti has appointed a new prime minister, less than two weeks after President Jovenel Moise’s assassination threw the deeply divided Caribbean nation into greater political uncertainty.

Ariel Henry was sworn in during a ceremony in the capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, the same day that official commemorations were held to honor Moise.

The death toll from recent riots in South Africa has risen to 276, and police are investigating 168 cases for murder, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday.

The unrest started as protests over former President Jacob Zuma's jailing two weeks ago in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal. But it quickly escalated into arson and looting, and spread to Gauteng province where the biggest city Johannesburg is located.