Nigerian troops have rescued 338 people, mainly women and children, held by Boko Haram Islamists around the group's Sambisa forest stronghold in the restive northeast, the army said Wednesday.

"The (army) unit ... rescued 338 persons that were held captive by the terrorists," the army said of an operation on Tuesday, adding that 192 of the survivors were children and 138 women.

Turkish prosecutors have charged two schoolboys aged 12 and 13 with insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after they tore down a poster of him, local media reports said Wednesday.

It is the latest case in which youngsters have been hauled before the courts in Turkey on similar charges, fuelling concerns about freedom of speech under Erdogan.

With only two months to go before the copyright of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" expires, debate is raging over whether the anti-Semitic manifesto should again be published in Germany, where all reprints have been halted since the defeat of the Nazis.

Authorities in the southern Bavaria region were handed the copyright by Allied forces after World War II. For seven decades, they have refused to allow it to be republished out of respect for victims of the Nazis and to prevent incitement of hatred.

Austria said Wednesday it would build a fence along its border with fellow EU state Slovenia to "control" the migrant influx, in what would be the first barrier between two members of the passport-free Schengen zone.

Both countries have become key transit points for tens of thousands of refugees and migrants seeking to reach northern Europe, as they try desperately to outrun winter and get ahead of more potential EU border closures.

With no little swagger, Myanmar's army-backed ruling party has hit the campaign trail predicting it will win 75 percent of votes in next month’s election despite a formidable opponent in Aung San Suu Kyi and her wildly popular opposition party.

The November 8 elections will be the first nationwide polls in a quarter of a century to be contested by Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party.

At least seven gunmen have been killed in battles with security forces in Burundi, a governor said Wednesday, the latest in a string of clashes in the troubled central African nation.

Gunmen and soldiers fought Tuesday in the eastern district of Gitega, a government stronghold, the province's governor Venant Manirambona said.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, who won a second term in office according to official results released Wednesday, has revived the country's war-scarred economy -- but at the cost of being accused of creeping authoritarianism.

A high-flying economist before taking office five years ago, the tall 73-year-old is a former top official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).

Riot police firing tear gas and water cannon on Wednesday stormed the Istanbul headquarters of a media group linked to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's bitter rival, on what was described as a dark day for democracy ahead of a pivotal election.

The action triggered widespread concern about media freedom in Turkey, with critics accusing the government of trying to silence opponents of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) before Sunday's legislative vote.

International monitors in Myanmar voiced concerns Wednesday over next month's crunch polls as the body charged with organizing the election canceled voting in several more villages, blaming fighting between the military and rebels.

Myanmar heads to the polls on November 8 in what observers and voters hope will be the fairest election in decades as the nation slowly shakes off years of brutal and isolating junta rule.

Tanzania's ruling party presidential hopeful held the lead Wednesday with around half the votes counted in the country's tightest ever election, though several veteran politicians have lost their seats.

With 133 of 264 constituencies having released results on the third day of counting in east Africa's most populous country, John Magafuli of the long-ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) had won 56.51 percent of votes.