Paraguay's new President Santiago Peña promised at his swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday to make investments in education, health care and security to help lift the economy.

"The best social policy there is healthy economic growth from which everyone can benefit," the conservative politician said in the capital Asunción.

Peña's conservative Colorado Party has held power nearly continuously for eight decades.

The 44-year-old economist and former finance minister defeated his centre-left challenger Efraín Alegre by 15 percentage points in April's election.

Peña has criticized the European Union's demands for stricter environmental regulations in the long-stalled free trade agreement with South America's Mercosur states - Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - as too harsh.

"We will continue to negotiate, but without giving up our sovereignty, values and culture," he said in his inaugural speech.

Paraguay has almost 7 million inhabitants and is the only country in South America apart from Bolivia without access to the sea. Its main exports are soya, electricity and beef.

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The Federal Government has applied to withdraw the ‘illegal possession of firearms’ case it filed against the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Abubakar told Justice Nicholas Oweibo that the application followed the result of further investigations made by the government.

Olga Carmona, whose goal won the Women’s World Cup for Spain on Sunday, learned after the final of her father’s death, the Spanish football federation said.

He had been ill and died while Carmona’s mother and other relatives travelled to Australia to watch her play in the final, the federation said early Monday, without giving more detail on the cause of death.

The family decided to wait until after the title celebrations to give Carmona the news.

“And without knowing it, I had my Star before the game started,” Carmona said on X, formerly known as Twitter, along with a photo of her kissing the winners’ medal. “I know that you gave me the strength to achieve something unique. I know that you were watching me tonight and that you are proud of me. Rest in peace, Dad.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Denmark "personally" for its recent pledge to deliver F-16 fighter jets to Kiev, in a speech to the Danish parliament on Monday.

Zelensky said in Copenhagen: "Thank all of you for helping us in our fight, [our] difficult fight for freedom."

"All of Russia's neighbours are under threat if Ukraine does not prevail," he said.

"Democracies can become a target, either for missiles or for mercenaries or for destabilization. But Ukraine will prevail," Zelensky add

More than two million children are "in need of humanitarian aid" in Niger, a country destabilized by a recent coup and undermined by jihadist violence, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday. , in a statement sent to AFP.

"More than two million children have been affected by the crisis and are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance," the organization said.

"Before the recent civil unrest and political instability in Niger", UNICEF already estimated in 2023 "at 1.5 million the number of children under 5 suffering from malnutrition, including at least 430,000 suffering from deadliest form of malnutrition".