A Zambian pastor identified as Brighton Samajomba has reportedly died of starvation 10 days before the end of his annual 30-day fasting programme.

Samajomba, 37, of “Heaven Is My Home” in Solwezi, Northwest area of Zambia, was reportedly found dead by his wife in the early hours of the 20th day of his 30-day fasting programme of standing in the gap for his family and church members.

Samajomba’s death was confirmed by his brother Reagan Samajomba in Solwezi on Wednesday.

Reagan said the deceased Samjomba who led a lifestyle of taking on many days of prayer and fasting programmes, started his annual fasting programme on 8th of August with a view to pray for his family and church members who he wanted to remain united.

He told The Zambian Sun that, Pastor Samanjomba took on many other yearly 90 days fasting programmes during which he only had a single meal in the evening each August.

“I would say he died in the early hours, because my sister and his wife were there and took turns to check on him, and then it was time for my in law to check on him, she was with him according to her till mid night,

“Then she decided to rest, when she woke up, they had a tendency of sharing dreams with each other as partners. So she dreamt of something and wanted to tell the husband.

“But as she tried to shake him up, he was not responding and so he was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

“The only consolation that we have as a family is the way he died because he was in the closet with the Lord,” Reagan said.

American superstar, Nicki Minaj says she has “decided to retire and have a family”.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the rapper made the announcement on Thursday via her Twitter page @nickiminaj.

“Love you for LIFE,” the post reads, closing with emojis.”

The Grammy-nominated rapper is dating a man called Kenneth Petty and has hinted that they are planning to get married.

Apart from music, the 36-year-old has appeared in several Hollywood films and has her own radio show.

It was not clear whether or not the post was serious, a plea for attention, or, as the second sentence suggests, an act of spite toward naysayers.

In August, she said on her Queen Radio show that she and boyfriend Kenneth Petty will be married “in 80 days.”

After releasing a string of mixtapes in the 2000s, Nicki Minaj joined Drake on Lil Wayne’s record label Young Money Entertainment.

Her debut album Pink Friday came out in 2010 and has since released mega-hits like ‘Super Bass’, ‘Anaconda’ and ‘Starships’, which established her as one of the world’s biggest female rappers.

Her solo albums have sold millions as well as her collaborations with Ludacris, Usher, David Guetta, Madonna, Ariana Grande, Kanye West and Justin Bieber.

She has been nominated for ten Grammys, won five MTV Video Music Awards and broken the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 entries by a solo female artist.

Away from music, her film appearances include ‘The Other Woman’ and ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’.

Tennis star, Serena Williams stunned fans with a black sleeveless Kimono jacket by a Nigerian designer, Jane Michael Ekanem

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the jacket was part of her fashion ensemble for the cover of Essence Magazine’s latest issue.

Essence is a popular monthly magazine for African-American women. It was first published in 1970.

Ekanem is a popular Nigerian fashion designer who has styled Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage and other celebrities.

Serena paired the Kimono with a floor-length skirt, white shirt, and strappy heels and has raved about how much she loves the design.

According to Ekanem, the Kimono represents light and energy which Serena is known for globally.

The kimono featured inked artwork on the lapels by Laolu Senbajo, another Nigerian designer, was also responsible for Serena’s face art on the magazine cover.

Laolu, who is a popular name in the international fashion scene, is also a renowned face artist.

He has worked with notable brands like Nike, Bvlgari, Beyoncé, and most recently a Grace Jones-inspired bodysuit for Hollywood actress, Taraji P. Henson.

In the cover feature interview, Serena spoke about her take on the fashion world following the launch of her own fashion line ‘Serena’ in 2018.

Reacting to the cover, an excited Jane Ekanem, on Instagram @janemichaelekanem appreciated Serena for rocking the designs.

She wrote, “About this same time 4 years ago, I posted a video of Serena Williams of how she said ‘I want other people to be like me’ when she was asked who she would like to be like.

“It’s not far fetched from mine as I always tell people I want to be a better version of myself.

“Today, at this same period, I have my piece worn by @serenawilliams, one of the most powerful and most accomplished women in the world wear my Kimono piece.

“(The piece was) tailored and made here in Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria in a global magazine, @essence, in a global fashion edition.

“No matter who you are and where you are, when your time is here, your universe will come for you. Keep at what you are doing. Do good relentlessly.

“I am just that young black girl who is trying to keep the dreams alive. And as @lupitanyongo would say ‘your dreams are still valid’.

“I have never doubted my journey even though sometimes I got angry and impatient.

“My life is a work in progress and I will trust the process. A huge thanks to @laolunyc for being the bridge. The art you put on the lapel made it even more attractive.

“The kimono was inspired from the #EnergyGod kimono made by @janemichaelcollection for @do2dtun during his photoshoot. The Kimono symbolizes energy and light,” Ekanem said.

NAN reports that the outfit is the latest design in the Jane Ekanem’s eponymous brand collection.

A 33-year-old bride preparing for two weddings suffered a grueling medical emergency that required surgery just one day before she was set to exchange her vows.

When it came time for longtime sweethearts Rhema Gaines and Eze Nnadi to marry, the Orlando, Florida, couple wanted to throw two separate weddings for their families. The first would be a traditional Nigerian ceremony on May 24, followed by a Western wedding on May 26.

With the big weekend approaching, Gaines had her sights set on piecing together the final wedding details — until something wasn’t right.

“I had come down with a flu or upper respiratory infection. I went to the ER, and they kept me for a really long time,” Gaines, who shares a 2-year-old daughter with Nnadi, tells PEOPLE. “Eventually symptoms of the infection were going away, but I was still there. They were still running scans, and I didn’t know what was going on.”

Doctors ultimately found a cyst resting on Gaines’ ovaries, but this was no typical growth — it was a dermoid ovarian cyst, a noncancerous lump that often contains a buildup of hair, fluid, teeth or skin glands since they form from embryonic cells, according to Mayo Clinic. Dermoid cysts are rare, and even more so on the ovaries. The growths will typically begin during a woman’s reproductive years.

Gaines’ cyst either wasn’t noticed by doctors when she was pregnant two years earlier, or it simply hadn’t grown yet.

“There we were two years after giving birth, and they’re seeing this mass grow inside of me that’s the size of a melon,” Gaines says. “That’s not normal.”

The team’s plan was to remove the cyst via an operation to minimize any risk it would rupture and cause an infection, but because her dual weddings were approaching, the doctors assured her the surgery could wait. One doctor even said he had never seen a cyst like hers burst in his 30-year career.

Gaines went on with her wedding preparations, confident that her medical scare could be put on pause. Then things went wrong once again.

“With the wedding planning, all the stress of having not one but two weddings is going on, and the Sunday before that wedding I started to not feel well,” she says. “By Tuesday I was really ill. By Wednesday I couldn’t even walk. I was hunched over, and I’m still trying to do last-minute wedding stuff.”

By 10 p.m. that night, Gaines was back in the emergency room, where doctors discovered the melon-sized cyst had ruptured.

“At this point I’m scared. Because I’m thinking, am I going to miss my wedding?” says Gaines, adding that doctors were worried she could develop sepsis. “I’m like, I don’t think I’m gonna make it. They told me, ‘Sweetie, you’re past that point. You’re going to have emergency surgery. We have to do this to save your life.’ “

Once in the operating room, the surgeons made three incisions in Gaines’ abdomen, one on her side and another near her belly button.

“They got it out, everything,” she says. “The surgery went very well, thankfully. But everything leading up to the surgery was a nightmare.”

Gaines was released from the hospital shortly after the operation, with only 24 hours to go before the first of her ceremonies.

“Everybody was at the house trying to organize everything, and then the next morning I had to go to the rehearsal walk through — and I could barely walk,” she says.

“I had to pull it together to get hair and makeup done. But they had me on pain killers, which helped me get through Friday,” adds Gaines. “Friday was the worst, though, because I was in so much pain, and Nigerian weddings are all about dancing and it’s all about the bride.”

The second wedding, which was captured by Orlando photographer Anesha Collins of Unashamed Imaging, went off without a hitch, and now Gaines and Nnadi are settling into married life after an eventful start.

“I’m so happy. Even though there was that black mark on the situation, it just feels really good to walk away with a legacy that we had one of the best weddings in our family, like wow, we did it,” Gaines says of the situation. “I’m so grateful that I was able to triumph.”

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean independence icon turned authoritarian leader, has died aged 95.

Mr Mugabe had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Singapore since April. He was ousted in a military coup in 2017 after 37 years in power.

The former president was praised for broadening access to health and education for the black majority.

But later years were marked by violent repression of his political opponents and Zimbabwe's economic ruin.

His successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, expressed his "utmost sadness", calling Mr Mugabe "an icon of liberation".

Mr Mnangagwa had been Mr Mugabe's deputy before replacing him.

It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe's founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe (1/2)

— President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) September 6, 2019

Who was Robert Mugabe?

Mr Mugabe was born on 21 February 1924 in what was then Rhodesia - a British colony, run by its white minority.

He was imprisoned for more than a decade without trial after criticising the government of Rhodesia in 1964.

In 1973, while still in prison, he was chosen as president of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu), of which he was a founding member.

Once released, he headed to Mozambique, from where he directed guerrilla raids into Rhodesia. But he was also seen as a skilled negotiator.

Political agreements to end the crisis resulted in the new independent Republic of Zimbabwe.

With his high profile in the independence movement, Mr Mugabe secured an overwhelming victory in the republic's first election in 1980.

But over his decades in power, international perceptions soured, with an increasing number of critics portraying Mr Mugabe as a dictator.

In 2000, he seized land from white owners, and in 2008, used violent militias to silence his political opponents during an election.

He famously declared that only God could remove him from office.

He was forced into sharing power in 2009 amid economic collapse, installing rival Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister.

But in 2017, amid concerns that he was grooming his wife Grace as his successor, the army - his long-time ally - turned against the president and forced him to step down.

A rescue team on a scuba diving training exercise found two cell phones that were in a plastic bag in a river in Southwest China and were still in working order.

Zhai Ke, leader of the Blue Sky rescue team in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, told Pear Video that he found two cell phones at the bottom of the river on July 29.

"I saw two phones that had been put into waterproof bags in the sand, so I took them out of the water," Zhai said.

He cleaned the phones and took them to his home. "I put them on a sponge to absorb water in the phones and then charged them." To his surprise, the phones turned on and could still work.

Zhai guessed the two phones belonged to a couple and their passwords were 1314, which sounds like the Chinese words meaning together forever, a popular phrase among couples.

After checking contact list on the phones, Zhai was able to reach the owners of the phones and found they were married.

The wife told Zhai that their phones accidentally fell in the river while they were on a boat cruise in August 2016 and never expected the phones would be returned.

"TV dramas do not dare make a story like this," the wife said. "We will not use the old phones but consider them as a beautiful memory and preserve them."

A grandfather in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province, carried his grandson along a narrow ledge outside his 8th floor in a heart-stopping attempt to escape a furious fire in his apartment.

A video posts by btime on Weibo, a Chinese social platform, shows the man carrying a child on his back as they sidestep along the ledge. He then attempts to use the bars covering the window of an apartment on a lower floor as ladder but he can't seem to get a foothold.

The shaky video ends just as the man and child appear to be in danger of falling, but btime reported that they were rescued by firefighters.

The video then shows thick black smoke billowing from a window and the fire appears to have completely engulfed the apartment.

The viral video on Weibo received a lot of comments, with many netizens saying the grandfather's attempted escape was too reckless and could have resulted in the death of both the man and the child. Others admired the man's courage and one netizen nicknamed him "Grandpa Spiderman."

A rare two-headed baby timber rattlesnake has been found in a forest in the US state of New Jersey.

The reptile, named Double Dave, was spotted last month and taken by an environmental group.

Joined at the body, the baby venomous snake has two fully-formed heads, four eyes and two flickering tongues - which work independently of each other.

"It would be pretty difficult for this snake to survive in the wild," environmentalist Dave Schneider said.

He said the snake stiffens when trying to escape, and it would have been an easy catch for predators.

Mr Schneider from Herpetological Associates (HA), a consultancy specialising in the study of endangered and threatened reptiles and amphibians, said he and his colleague spotted Double Dave on 25 August in the Pine Barrens forested area.

This happened as they were observing a rattlesnake giving birth.

Two-headed snakes are usually born the same way as Siamese twins: a developing embryo begins to split into identical twins - but then stops part way.

They came up with the name Double Dave because Mr Schneider and his colleague are both called David.

Mr Schneider told the BBC a special permit had been obtained from the state authorities for HA to keep and study the rare snake.

"We'll take care of it," he said.

Source: BBC

A 17-year-old is undertaking one of the most controversial lawsuits of the history of the country as he is suing his own biological parents for being born white.

Anthony Dwight, 17, claims he has suffered his whole life from the shame of being born white.

“When I was a kid, I’d spend hours in the shower trying to wash off the white off my skin, but it would never go away,” he recalls painfully.

“Isn’t there enough white people on this planet already? Haven’t we inflicted enough suffering, racism and oppression in this world?” he asked reporters.

His parents admit they were completely in shock when they learned their son had hired a lawyer against them. “We just want to end this nonsense and we want him to come back home. We love you whatever the color of your skin,” pleaded his mother on camera.

White guilt

The young man’s lawyer, Robert Hoffman, claims his client has suffered severe psychological distress, symptoms of depression and suicidal tendencies because of what he called “the burden of white privilege.”

“My client did not choose to live this kind of life. Why would he have to carry the burden of hundreds of years of slavery and racism all because his parents had the selfish desire to bring another white child into this world,” he told the judge.

“Because of the level of psychological distress of my client, we ask that his parents pay for all necessary expenses to change his racial status, including skin coloring treatments,” he added.

Anthony Dwight, who plans to change his name to Jamal Freeman, is asking that his parents pay for the $20,000 skin coloring treatment he needs to turn his skin color to “dark black” he told reporters.

His lawyer argued in court that $20,000 is a low price to pay to positively change this young man’s life, considering the suicidal tendencies of his client and the “profound feeling of shame and despair” his client has faced since his birth.

United Airlines announced this morning that it had fired two of its employees after they allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse in midflight while the plane’s internal communication system was on.

49-year old Jordan McPhee and 38-year old Bayani Ceniza were operating a Boeing 747 carrying 412 passengers from Manilla to Los Angeles when the speakers in the plane’s passenger area started emitting strange noises.

71-year old Betty Garrison who was aboard with her husband, says that both flight attendants and passengers were shocked when the unidentifiable sounds turned into “a gay porn soundtrack”.

“At first, we heard strange sounds and thought someone had entered the cockpit and was wrestling the pilots. But then it became clearer and we heard stuff like “fuck me harder Daddy” and other disgusting things.”

According to Ms. Garrison, flight attendants rapidly ran to the cockpit to warn the pilots, but the two ignored them and continued for several minutes before finally answering the door.

“We could clearly hear the poor girls yelling and banging the door and the two men complaining about it while they continued having sex.”

Over 30 passengers filed complaints with United Airlines upon their arrival in Los Angeles and the company decided to act swiftly.

In a brief press conference held in Chicago this morning, the airline has announced that it had launched an investigation on the event and that both Mr. Mcphee and Mr. Ceniza had been fired.

United Airlines executive vice-president James Garreth claims the company will investigate the incident thoroughly and do everything it can to prevent such a thing from happening again.

Over 300 incidents of sexual nature involving airplane pilots are reported every year in North America according to the FAA.

A vast majority of these cases involve pilots engaging in sexual intercourse with flight attendants or passengers, and cases involving both pilot and co-pilot are extremely rare.

In 2013, four employees of American Airlines had been fired after engaging in group sex with 17 passengers.