A foreign power is preparing to attack. It comes after the expiry of a sunday deadline from west African Regional bloc ecowas, which demanded the coup be reversed. The group now plans to hold an Emergency Summit on thursday. Meanwhile, the United States is suspending more than 100 million in aid to niger. But officials insist theres still time to solve the crisis. The window of opportunity is definitely still open. We believe that they should step aside and allow president Mohamed Bazoum to resume his duties, today, tomorrow, anytime in the nearfuture. They dont want to put a time when that window be close, would you say that using diplomacy to achieve this objective is our top priority with respect to niger. Our correspondent chris ewokor following the story from neighbouring nigeria. It is one day after the expiration of the ultimatum given to niger coup leaders by ecowas to reinstate president Mohamed Bazoum. The leaders are due to meet on thursday this week to deliberate on the pro
Total isolation in jail too. they include the opposition activist, maria kalesnika, who was sentenced to 11 years for her role in peaceful street rallies three years ago, following widespread calls for lukashenko to step down. the bbc s eastern europe correspondent, sarah rainsford, has been speaking to maria s sister in warsaw, and to others living in exile in poland. the good will definitely win everything, because evil will defeat itself. writing to her sister from prison, maria kalesnikava has never given up her political fight her hope for change in belarus. keep strong and everything will be all right. your sister, maria. but her family haven t heard a word for months now. maria s energy and her huge smile helped rally these giant protests three years ago