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  1. Video content

    Video caption: Morocco earthquake: Dust surrounds Kutubiyya mosque following deadly quake

    The top of the 850-year old Kutubiyya mosque looks precarious after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Marrakesh

  2. Video content

    Video caption: How one blind boy helped rebuild his school in Yemen

    Ahmed is a charismatic 11-year-old Yemeni boy the BBC met two years ago when he was teaching a class in a bombed-out classroom.

  3. Egypt needs to reduce births to avoid catastrophe - Sisi

    Egyptian President and new Chairman of African Union Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gives a press conference during the closure of the 32nd Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Summit at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 11, 2019.
    Image caption: President Sisi said that other African countries also require population control measures

    Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has said that the country needs to slow its birth rate to avoid a catastrophe.

    He said that Egypt had to lower its annual births to 400,000 from the current more than two million for the country to efficiently provide jobs and social services to its citizens.

    Mr al-Sisi also faulted remarks by Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Egypt’s health and population minister, that “having children is a matter of complete freedom”.

    "Leaving their freedom to people who potentially do not know the extent of the challenge? In the end, it is the whole of society and the Egyptian state which will pay the price," said Mr al-Sisi, who was speaking at the first Global Congress on Population, Health and Development

    "We must organise this freedom otherwise it will create a catastrophe," he added.

    He hinted that Egypt could emulate China’s one-child policy, since China “succeeded in their population control policy”.

    Since 2000, the population of Egypt, one of Africa’s most-populous countries, has grown by 40 million to reach 105 million people, according to Mr Abdel Ghaffar.

    Mr Sisi also said that other African countries should adopt population control measures as the continent lacks enough resources for its surging population.

  4. Tunisian police arrest top opposition officials

    Wazir Khamsin

    BBC News

    Mondher Ounissi, Member of the Executive Office of the Ennahda Movement speaks during press conference at Ennahda Party headquarters as Rached Ghannouchi, one of the main opponents of Tunisian President Kais Saied, has been arrested on April 17, 2023 in Tunis, Tunisia.
    Image caption: The interim head of Ennahda, Mondher Ounissi, was among those arrested

    Tunisian police have arrested the top two officials in the main opposition party, the party says.

    They include the interim head of Ennahda, Mondher Ounissi.

    His detention is said to be linked to audio messages in which he purportedly accuses party colleagues of receiving illegal funds.

    Mr Ounissi says the recordings are fabricated.

    The Tunisian authorities have detained a series of opposition figures this year.

    President Kais Saied has ruled by decree since 2021, when he sacked parliament and dissolved the government.

    His critics accuse him of carrying out a coup.