Nigerian telecoms firms blocked access to Twitter on Saturday following a regulatory directive aimed at suspending the US social media giant indefinitely, a move criticised by rights campaigners and diplomats as a gag on free speech.

Tributes are flowing in for televangelist TB Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, who has died in Nigeria aged 57.

Senegal could begin producing Covid-19 vaccines next year under an agreement with Belgian biotech group Univercells aimed at boosting Africa's drug-manufacturing ambitions, says a source involved in funding the project.

A gang targeting motorists with spikes placed across the road - forcing drivers to stop, before the vehicles' occupants are robbed - was foiled by Gauteng traffic police.

Marton Aszalos, a young Hungarian ambulance paramedic, and vet Eniko Tokacs-Mathe had to cancel their wedding twice during the pandemic and are finally getting ready for their big day this summer as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

TB Joshua Ministries said on Sunday the Nigerian evangelist has died at the age of 57, a week before his birthday.

At least 11 civilians, including children, were killed when their vehicle set off a landmine in northern Afghanistan, local government officials said on Sunday, accusing Taliban insurgents for planting the landmine bombs.

Pope Francis met with both Vatican-based Canadian cardinals on Saturday as their country reels from the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former school for indigenous students run by the Catholic Church.

The US Justice Department under presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden waged "a secret legal battle to obtain the email logs of four New York Times reporters," including a gag order on executives, the newspaper reported on Friday.

The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Houthi movement said it intercepted an armed drone launched on Sunday towards the southern Saudi Arabian city of Khamis Mushait, which the group said was fired at a military airbase.

The death toll from the worst militant attack in Burkina Faso in recent years has risen to 132, the government said on Saturday, after armed assailants laid siege overnight to a village in the jihadist-plagued northeast.

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Loadshedding will be suspended between 10pm on Saturday and 5pm on Sunday, Eskom announced on Saturday evening.

More than 225,000 senior citizens have so far received their Covid-19 vaccine shots in KwaZulu-Natal.

A businessman whose helicopter crashed into the Vaal Dam was able to escape from the wreckage but died after his aircraft sank in 9m of water.

Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu has admitted that terminating relief programmes, including the R350 Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant, will increase hunger, exacerbate social and political stress and slow down economic recovery.

Two people died and six were missing after an accident in a coal mine in central China, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday.

Having gone as low as 0.5 at the beginning of February, SA's latest Covid-19 reproduction number is now 1.33.

Australia's second-most populous state Victoria on Saturday reported a small increase in locally acquired Covid-19 cases as authorities hunted for the source of a highly infectious variant that has been detected in a new cluster.

United Airlines said on Thursday would buy ultra-fast jets from Denver-based aerospace company Boom Supersonic, bringing back supersonic passenger travel which died out with the retirement of the Anglo-French Concorde in 2003.

A bus veered off the roadway and rolled down an embankment in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday morning, leaving one person dead and 50 injured.

Helicopter pilot Stewart Graham was "living the dream in SA" and had been engaged for only four months when he took off on his final flight.

When paramedics in Gauteng want to monster their shift, they know which energy drink to glug.

Coronavirus updates.

SA recorded 5,668 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours - the third day in a row that the 5,000-mark has been breached.

Pieter van Zyl was nabbed while towing a 3.7m boat, which had pure cocaine worth an estimated R400m hidden in its hull.

Facebook Inc on Friday suspended former US President Donald Trump from its platform until at least January 2023 and announced changes to how it will treat rule-breaking world leaders in the future.

Nigeria said on Friday it had indefinitely suspended Twitter's activities, two days after the social media giant removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists.