Guinea

Some 800 migrants were plucked from flimsy rubber boats on Jan. 12, the Italian Coast Guard said, as Libya-based people smugglers took advantage of a window of good mid-winter weather to send them to sea. 

Significant changes will soon be made to the curriculum of Turkish schools abroad, which have been taken over from the network of Fethullah Gülen, the U.S. based preacher widely believed to have orchestrated the July 2016 coup attempt, according to the chairman of the Maarif (Education) Foundation.      

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he has evidence that U.S.-led coalition forces have given support to terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Syrian Kurdish forces. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said the West was breaking promises in Syria, accusing Ankara’s partners of backing “terror groups” including ISIS jihadists in the country.

A prototype vaccine for Ebola may be "up to 100 percent effective" in protecting against the deadly virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Dec. 23.

The Bulgarian national football team marked a progress of 17 places in FIFA rankings and now ranks 72nd.

Progress is due to the victory over Belarus (1:0) in Sofia, as part of the World Cup qualifiers. The Lions have 492 points, or 97 more, compared to the previous month.

In the rankings, Bulgarians football players are right behind Guinea and ahead of Uganda and Belarus.

France began clearing the sprawling "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais on Oct. 24, with hundreds carrying suitcases queuing outside a hangar to be resettled in reception centers across the country. 

The first buses departed less than an hour after immigration workers started the operation and officials predicted some 2,500 would leave on the first day, Reuters reported.

The European Union launched its common border guard at the Turkish-Bulgarian border on Oct. 6, hoping it will help keep people away from a bloc that is still struggling with political aftershocks from an uncontrolled influx of refugees and migrants last year. 

More than 4,650 migrants were saved on Oct. 4 and 28 bodies recovered in more than 30 rescue missions off the Libyan coast, the Italian Coast Guard said on Oct. 5. 
This brings the total rescued in the last 48 hours to more than 10,000 refugees, and the death toll to 50 as people smugglers take advantage of relatively calm weather to push boats to sea. 

Turkey has ratified the payment of $1 million to the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, the Official Gazette reported on Oct. 4.