AFRICA

It’s a world record that arguably nobody knows. But South African Vernon Kruger is ready to beat it, by spending more than two months perched in a barrel hoisted 25 metres above the ground. The 52-year-old professional scuba diver is trying to break his own record for the longest human …

A 55-year-old commercial bus driver has been found dead in a hotel at Ibusa, Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State, after allegedly having sex with a single mother of three. Saturday PUNCH gathered that the deceased was accompanied by a lady into a hotel along Ibusa bypass, close …

Two hundred more illegal miners were arrested in Mazowe, bringing to 1 107 the number of those netted in the blitz in Mashonaland Central Province this week. This came as security guards at a mine in Battlefields fought off a machete gang of around 60, killing one. The suspects who …

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has said that as a beneficiary of free, fair elections, he will ensure the 2023 general elections are free and fair to all parties. He said this was a legacy he eagerly wanted to bequeath to Nigerians, adding that he could not wait …

Police in Lesotho are appealing for help to trace Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s current wife who they want to question over the 2017 murder of his estranged wife. Maesaiah Thabane has not been charged, but police want to speak to her about Lipolelo Thabane’s killing, a government spokesman told the …

Countries across the coast of West, Central and southern Africa are suffering an internet outage that started on Thursday. The situation remains unstable as at Friday (January 17). Reports indicate that mobile phone access is also partly impacted by the outage which was triggered by a fault to a main …

Seven people were killed in a bizarre religious ritual in a jungle community in Panama, in which indigenous residents were rounded up by about 10 lay preachers and tortured, beaten, burned and hacked with machetes to make them “repent their sins”. Police freed 14 members of the Ngabe Bugle indigenous group …

A Ugandan Imam who married man dressed as a woman has been arrested and charged. Sheikh Mohammed Mutumba was charged with having carnal knowledge with a person against the order of nature, according to Daily Monitor newspaper. His charge was read out at a magistrate court in Kayunga district in …

Five English-speaking West African countries and Guinea have criticised a move to change the name of the regional currency from CFA franc to the eco. The West African Economic and Monetary Union, made up of eight former French colonies and former Portuguese colony Guinea Bissau, said in December that it …

A huge diamond unearthed in Botswana in April has been sold to French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed sum. The 1,758-carat stone is reportedly the second-largest found in a century. It has been named Sewelô meaning “rare find” in the Setswana language, and came from the Karowe …