In the news

A woman was burnt beyond recognition due to her inability to repay a N70,000 loan she took from a microfinance bank, popularly known as LAPO, in Oke-Keesi, Itoko, Abeokuta, Nigeria. LAPO is known for lending money to traders and other small-scale business owners with specific instructions for repayment plans. A …

More than 70 women working on two British-owned tea plantations in Kenya have told the BBC they were forced to have sex by their managers to retain their jobs. Undercover filming by the BBC caught local bosses pressuring a female worker for sex. The two firms, Unilever and James Finlay …

Twelve South African cheetahs began a voyage to India on Friday as part of an intergovernmental agreement to reintroduce the big cats to the Asian country, Reuters agency reported. They will join eight cheetahs from neighbouring Namibia that were released into the Kuno National Park in central India last year. …

While only 185 kilometers separate Bath from London, it will have taken a little more than a century for a letter posted in this city in the west of the country to arrive in the British capital. As CNN and the Guardian report, an envelope dating back to 1916 was …

Police in Kenya have questioned a member of parliament over claims of funding bandits in the country’s northern Rift Valley region. Pokot South MP David Pkosing was arrested on Thursday evening by officers from the Serious Crimes Unit and released hours after interrogation. His lawyer says the MP will appear …

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said his country will not embrace homosexuality and the West should stop seeking to impose its views to compel dissenting countries to “normalise” what he called “deviations”. Officiating at the national celebrations to mark Janani Luwum Day at Wii-Gweng village in Mucwini Sub-County, Kitgum District, Mr …

French authorities have decided to no longer require a negative PCR test less than 48 hours old for travelers coming from China, a measure that was taken in early January in the face of the outbreak of cases in the Asian country. “As of February 16, travelers from China to …

A request by a provincial government for a state funeral to be given to a popular South African rapper murdered last week has been rejected by the president, local media report. Gauteng’s premier Panyaza Lesufi had written to President Cyril Ramaphosa requesting permission to give slain rapper Kiernan Forbes, popularly …

A pastor, founder of the Santa Trindade evangelical church in the central province of Manica, died after fasting for 40 days in an attempt to reach the record set by Jesus on the biblical Mount of Olives in Mozambique. After 25 days of fasting, the pastor had lost a lot …

A man has been arrested in the Turkish province of Hatay as he tried to steal a baby from a hospital, taking advantage of the chaos created by the violent earthquake that devastated the south of the country, press reports Thursday. The 55-year-old man, who came from Ankara, introduced himself …