Ogun state govt. Begins demolition for reconstruction of 7.5km road

After having to leave Afghanistan where she was attacked for cycling, Masomah Ali Zada is now heading for the Tokyo Olympics where she will be part of the refugee team, a source of "pride" for her.

Vehicles are seen in a pile up on a motorway after record rainfall caused deadly floods in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou.

The Lagos State Government, through the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), has hundreds of men and women employed as street sweepers with the duty of cleaning up the state’s roads and highways. On Thursday, two of those sweepers were killed in a hit-and-run incident. Sadly, it is not the first time.

Dozens of Yemeni cyclists hit the road with a shared goal: to spread peace in a country that has been embroiled in conflict for more than seven years. In the capital Sanaa, the cyclists prepared for their 320-kilometre (200-mile) journey to the northern province of Saada, one of the areas devastated by the ongoing war between the government and the Huthi rebels.

Speaking to DW, FDP lead candidate Christian Lindner recommended focusing on finding safe refuge for Afghans in "the immediate vicinity." He also criticized Merkel for failing to engage with a conflict she "inherited."

Thirteen couples competed in the North American Wife Carrying Championship on Sunday in Newry, Maine, in which husbands run a 278-yard (254 meters) obstacle-filled course carrying their wives, in hopes of winning the wife's weight in beer and five times her weight in cash. The winning couple, Jerome and Olivia Roehm, took home the prize for the third consecutive time. "This year it was a really tough. We went up, I think, higher than we've done in the past, so running up that hill was tough," said Jerome. In addition to the beer and cash, the two were entered into the world championship held in Finland next summer.  

Four police officers have been arrested in Kogi following a viral video in which they were captured assaulting and extorting travellers while on patrol duty along the Adogo-Okene Road.⁣⁣ The police chief in Kogi has condemned the incident, adding that any of the officers found wanting after investigations would be dealt with accordingly.⁣⁣ ⁣

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Friday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Friday.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

In Montenegro, the construction of a motorway to open up the Balkan nation – a project launched in 2014 – is now more than two years behind schedule. With its high environmental and financial costs (more than $1 billion), this pharaonic project has dangerously increased the debt of the country of 600,000 inhabitants. FRANCE 24 investigates. The work is being financed by a Chinese bank and largely carried out by a Chinese state-owned company and a local firm close to the previous government, which signed the deal. But if Montenegro defaults on its loan, the contract stipulates that the country must relinquish sovereignty over certain parts of its territory. This burden on the country’s new government has aggravated the strong suspicions of corruption around the building site.

Last weekend, the US was hit by a cluster of perhaps the most devastating tornadoes in its history. In Kentucky alone, more than 70 people are known to have been killed by the severe weather system, and deaths were also reported in Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee. US President Joe Biden, who has signed a disaster declaration for Kentucky, paid a visit to the region and called the situation there "an unimaginable tragedy". We take a closer look at the scale of the damage.

After the first aid flights reached Tonga with more en route, the remote Pacific island nation, home to about 100,000 people, grapples with the aftermath of an underwater volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Government critics accuse the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP of using so-called demolition drives to intimidate the country's Muslim minority. But authorities say they are only targeting illegal structures.