Lusaka residents react on the streets of the capital after Zambian business tycoon and veteran opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema scored a landslide victory in bitterly-contested presidential elections.

Key Venezuelan opposition figure Freddy Guevara, arrested for "treason" and "terrorism" last month, was released Sunday -- days after the start of new talks between the opposition and government.

Two days after the putsch that ousted President Alpha Conde, his main political opponent, Cellou Dalein Diallo, told DW that he hopes the coup will lead to more democracy.

In an interview with FRANCE 24 from South Africa, Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine said he was "definitely the elected president of Uganda". Wine, who unsuccessfully ran for the country's top job in January, accused President Yoweri Museveni of "mass murder" and called on the Ugandan people to "liberate themselves" from a "dictatorship". Comparing Museveni to ousted dictators Robert Mugabe, Omar al-Bashir and Muammar Gaddafi, Wine predicted it was "just a matter of time" before the president "ends up in the dustbin of history".

Cambodian anti-landmine authorities are training dogs to sniff out Covid-19, hoping the sharp-nosed canines normally used to detect underground explosives can keep the virus on a tight leash.

The leader of the UK's opposition Labour party said on Sunday (December 12) that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had broken the public's trust over COVID-19 regulations, making him "unfit for public office." Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Keir Starmer said Johnson posed a risk to public health following reports that parties were held at Downing Street during a 2020 Christmas lockdown when such festivities were banned.

Ethiopia has released opposition party leader Eskinder Nega after holding him in prison for a year and a half, his party said. Ethiopian state media has reported he was among several government critics set free.

Security forces appeared to have quelled massive riots in Kazakhstan although the political situation remains volatile. Karim Massimo, a close ally of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, is now suspected of treason.

Magawa, the landmine-detecting "hero rat" has died aged eight, the NGO that trained him said in a news release on Tuesday.

Domingos Simoes Pereira, opposition leader in Guinea-Bissau, speaks to DW

President Suluhu Hassan talked to DW about COVID vaccines, climate change and ties with the EU. But she declined to be drawn on the terrorism charges the leader of the opposition will now have to face.

Cristiana Chamorro, who has been on house arrest since June 2021, was formally placed on trial for alleged money laundering other crimes. President Ortega's government has cracked down on many opposition figures.