Cameroon

An Italian woman has won a Picasso painting worth more than $1 million in a charity raffle to raise money for village water projects in Africa.

The winner of May 20's draw at Christie's auction house in Paris was named as Claudia Borgogno, who was gifted the winning ticket.

By order of Minister of Health, Kiril Ananiev, the entry into and transit through the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria of heavy goods vehicles travelling to the Republic of Turkey and arriving from the following countries is temporarily suspended as of March 25:

Turkish Airlines will ground all international flights except five routes from March 27 to April 17, the national flag carrier announced on March 22.

"As of March 27, we will suspend all our international flights except Hong Kong, Moscow, Addis Ababa, New York, and Washington, until April 17," the company's CEO Bilal Ekşi said on Twitter.

U.S. officials were deciding where to dock a cruise ship in California with 21 virus cases aboard and four American universities canceled in-person classes as sweeping efforts to contain the outbreak that started in China spread to the West.

The Grand Princess, with 3,500 people aboard, was in international waters off San Francisco late on March 6.

A massacre in an anglophone region of Cameroon left up to 22 villagers dead including 14 children, the U.N. said on Feb. 16, with an opposition party blaming the killings on the army.    

Armed men carried out the bloodshed on Feb. 14 in the village of Ntumbo in the Northwest region, James Nunan, a local official of humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, told AFP.    

Greek forward Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks headlines the record-setting contingent of eight international players taking part in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game in Chicago, the league announced on Thursday.

The eight crew members of the Greek-flagged tanker Happy Lady - among them five Greek nationals - who had been abducted by pirates in an attack near the coast of Cameroon were released on Wednesday.
The tanker was attacked while anchored two nautical miles from Limboh port in Cameroon on December 21.

A boat carrying 101 Syrian nationals was detained by the Cyprus's coastguard, Kathimerini reported. This is the highest number of refugees detained in the last month.

The Syrians were transferred to a coastguard ship and taken to a port on the southeast part of the island.

A police spokesman said there were minors onboard and the refugees were likely traveling to Turkey.

Cyprus intercepted a vessel carrying 101 Syrians off its coast on Tuesday, police said, one of the largest arrivals of refugees from the neighboring country in recent months.

The Syrians were loaded at sea onto a coastguard vessel and from there led to a harbour in the south-east of the island.

Greece is taking "all necessary measures" to secure the safe return of the Greek seamen who were abducted by gunmen from Greek tanker off the coast of Cameroon on December 31, Shipping Minister Yiannis Plakiotakis said Thursday.

Speaking on TV channel ANT1 on Thursday, the minister called for calm, saying many of the actions taken "cannot be made public."