GUSAU, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen have freed all 279 girls kidnapped from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria, the governor in Zamfara state said on Tuesday.

GUSAU, Nigeria March 2 (Reuters) - Gunmen have freed all 279 girls kidnapped from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria, the governor in Zamfara state said on Tuesday.

GUSAU, Nigeria March 2 (Reuters) - Kidnappers released all 279 girls abducted from a boarding school in the northwest Nigerian state of Zamfara, the state governor told reporters on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Global carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 5.8% in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed economic activity, but they rebounded at the end of the year and are on course to rise further, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.

March 2 (Reuters) - Miners are seeking to take advantage of a jump in the prices of many rare earth elements, needed for permanent magnets used in low-carbon technologies as well as myriad other applications such as weapons systems.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has documented six cases of the South African coronavirus variant, its health ministry said on Tuesday, raising concern among its experts that the current vaccines might be less effective.

LONDON, March 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Actor Idris Elba and model Naomi Campbell have joined 65 other British celebrities, designers and politicians in calling for Ghana's president to engage with the country's LGBT+ community in an open letter published on social media on Monday.

NIAMEY, March 1 (Reuters) - Authorities in Niger have brought eight charges against opposition leader Hama Amadou, including participation in an organization seeking to overthrow a democratic regime, one of his lawyers said on Monday.

(Reuters) - The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.