An Afghan burqa-clad woman with children ride a donkey in Kishim district of Badakhshan province on October 12, 2023. (Photo by Omer Abrar/AFP Photo)

A period of relative stability has put the Iranian capital No1 on the list of world cities that have achieved biggest improvements in liveability over the past five years, as calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The “most improved” top 10 contains some unexpected names. So, eg, the fourth place: Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Latest ranking: 128; Ranking five years ago: 131; Five-year index movement: 3.8%. Here: A supporter of Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara campaigns in a market in the city’s Koumassi quarter. (Photo by Sia Kambou/AFP Photo)

The Villarrica volcano lights up the sky at night seen from Pucon town, Chile on December 14, 2023. (Photo by Cristobal Saavedra Escobar/Reuters)

A vendor (C) serves customers at a vegetable market as a commuter train passes in Jakarta October 2, 2015. Indonesia's high annual inflation rate cooled in September and should drop more by year-end, but it likely will be 2016 before the central bank can cut interest rates to help an economy growing at its slowest pace in six years. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

Sunrise over the fields of stemmy grassland in Burscough, Lancashire, UK on September 14, 2020 with wrapped bales of hay prepared for silage, haylage for animal winter feed. (Photo by MediaWorldImages/Alamy Live News)

A view of a stampede is seen during a New Year's celebration on the Bund, a waterfront area in central Shanghai, December 31, 2014. The stampede killed at least 35 people and injured 43 during New Year's Eve celebrations in Shanghai, on the city's famed waterfront tourist strip known as the Bund, authorities said. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Chileans watch the sky with special suits prior to a total solar eclipse on July 2, 2019 in Paiguano, Chile. Around 25,0000 tourists arrived to Paiguano, a small town of around 1,000 inhabitants in the Elqui Valley, 650 km away Santiago. This is the only Earth's total solar eclipse of 2019 and the first one since 2017. From this point, the sun will fully disappear for around two minutes. It is best visible from a stripe in the South Pacific, Chile and Argentina. (Photo by Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

Pennsylvania's wildlife agency, firefighters and police use a large blue tarp to capture a wayward black bear as it falls from a tree Tuesday, June 4, 2024 in Camp Hill, Pa. (Photo by Sean Simmers/The Patriot-News via AP Photo)