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The Nigerian passport has been ranked among some of the weakest in the world.Although Nigeria is regarded as Africa’s largest economy, the Nigerian passport suffered the worst decline in rankings on the annual Henley Passport Index.The Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The ranking is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information and enhanced by continuous research by the Henley & Partners Research Department.

The index includes 199 passports and 227 travel destinations including micro-states and territories. For each travel destination, if no visa is required for passport holders, then a score of 1 is created for that passport. This also applies if passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) upon entry. These visa types require no pre-departure government approval.

Where a visa is required, or where a passport holder must obtain a government-approved electronic visa (e-Visa) before departure, a score of 0 is assigned. The same applies if they need pre-departure approval for a visa on arrival. Each passport is scored on the total number of destinations that the holder can access visa-free.

Nigeria ranked below African countries like Angola, Egypt, Cameroon and Liberia, which tied at the 93rd position alongside Burundi and Haiti, providing access to 49 countries of the world.

Some of the African countries with relatively powerful ranking include South Africa, which stood on the 56th spot with access to 100 countries; Botswana and Papua New Guinea on the 62nd position with access to 84 countries; Namibia on the 67th position with access to 76 countries; Lesotho on the 69th position with access to 74 countries. Others with relatively better ranking are Gambia, Zambia, Tanzania, Tunisia, Cape Verde and Uganda.

Further details showed that a passport from Japan opens more doors than a passport from anywhere else in the world. Details show that a Japanese passport promises uncomplicated travel to 191 other countries. In 2019, the passport promised access to 189 countries and tied with Singapore’s passport for the world’s most desirable travel document.

Since the 1990s, the Gambia has become a preferred destination for European women seeking sexual pleasure with available African ‘toy’ boys. It all started when international travel agencies from the UK introduced cheap package tours to this tiny West African country. After more than 30 years of receiving thousands of middle-aged women that arrived with this sex tourism intention, the Gambia government is tired of these UK women. Now, the former Briitish colony is seeking to attract “quality” visitors as this tiny African nation works to change its reputation as a sex tourism destination.

“What we want is quality tourists. Tourists that come to enjoy the country and the culture, but not tourists that come just for sex”, Abubacarr Camara, the director of the Gambia Tourism Board. With high unemployment rates and low wages in the Gambia, which has a population of 2.5million, a relationship with a wealthy Western mature woman is seen as a financial opportunity for these young men. The phenomenon has picked up a name for itself, ‘bumsters.’ The term is used to describe impoverished young Gambian men who seek out Western women with whom they can develop a relationship-typically arranged online.

While some use the beaches to locate older women who visit from Holland, Sweden, and Germany, The Sun previously reported that the ‘Senegambia strip,’ situated near the capital city, Banjul, has become a hotspot for British pensioners. The Gambia government has chosen to focus its attention on Gambia’s wildlife and cultural attractions.

The destination has over 300 species of tropical birds and two Unesco World Heritage sites that could boost its ‘quality’ tourism.Over the summer, the Gambia’s tourist officials traveled to the United Kingdom to meet with British Airways and tour operators to discuss increasing flights between London and Banjul to attract younger and wealthier tourists who would like a higher-class winter holiday.Tourism is currently the fastest growing sector in the country’s economy and makes up nearly 20 percent of GDP.

A family from Staten Island is hunting for truth and justice after their son was shot and killed while traveling abroad in Chile. Eric Garvin, 38, was shot three times in the capital city of Santiago on January 14 while taking a picture." From a father's perspective, this is the darkest day in my life and my wife's life," said his father Eric D. Garvin, who spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News on Wednesday. The victim's father and sister flew to Chile to meet with investigators who are reviewing unreleased security video of the crime.

"What they told us is my son was innocently walking down the street, paused for a moment, took a snapshot of a building in a drug-infested area," Garvin said. "And immediately following that, three gentlemen came across the street grabbed my son and stole his phone and shot him three times and he died there on the scene." The 38-year-old attorney by trade graduated high school in Maryland and moved to Staten Island a decade ago. He lived a life of service and exploration inspired by his dad, a former U.S. Air Force colonel.

"When he was going to law school at University of Maryland, he met a homeless guy by the name of Darnel who had a growth growing on side of his face, and he had no idea what that was and my son said 'hye you need to go get that checked out, make sure it's OK,'" Garvin said. "What he ended up finding out was that was cancerous, if it was left untreated he was going to die." Garvin said his son wanted to use his advocacy for those who are often not paid much attention to.

Gene, as his family called him, also worked with former Mayor Bill de Blasio's office on community initiatives to reduce gun violence in areas like Brownsville, Brooklyn. "I want people to be more like him, I want people to make space for each other," his sister Naomi Garvin said. "I want them to be curious about meeting each other and experiencing each other's cultures." Garvin's sister Naomi said Santiago is a beautiful place with beautiful people and authorities have been helpful in the investigation and hope there will be arrests soon.

Eric’s sister, Naomi Garvin, gave an update on her Facebook page stating that she and their father will be leaving Santiago and expected to return to the States on Feb. 2 with her brother’s body. The funeral service is planned for Feb. 10 in Fort Washington, MD.

With the recent discovery, the democratic republic of Congo has recently been the centre of attention due to the discovery of electrically charges stones. The video has been circulating the net showing the electric rocks sparking when touched against each other, and even being used to turn on a small light. Conspiracy theories believe this could be proof the vibranium is real. This discovery has caused a stir among researchers from around the world. Scientists have been intrigued by the potential uses of the electric rocks, including using them as a potential source of renewable energy.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), about the size of Western Europe, is the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). DRC is endowed with exceptional natural resources, including minerals such as cobalt and copper, hydropower potential, significant arable land, immense biodiversity, and the world’s second-largest rainforest. The country’s main economic resource is its mineral deposits; mining produces almost nine-tenths of total exports. The abundance of minerals in Katanga province was among those factors that attracted European powers to Congo in the 19th century.

Minerals found in Katanga include copper, cobalt, zinc, cassiterite (the chief source of metallic tin), manganese, coal, silver, cadmium, germanium (a brittle element used as a semiconductor), gold, palladium (a metallic element used as a catalyst and in alloys), uranium, and platinum. The region west of Lake Kivu contains cassiterite, columbotantalite, wolframite (a source of tungsten) beryl, gold, and monazite (a phosphate of the cerium metals and thorium). Lake Kivu also harbours vast reserves of methane, carbonic, and nitrogen natural gases.

There are deposits of iron ore and gem-quality diamonds in south-central Congo, while the central regions are rich in industrial diamonds. In the northeast there are gold, coal, and iron-ore deposits; there are prospective deposits of gold, monazite, and diamonds in the northwestern regions as well. Coastal Congo contains bauxite, gold, and offshore deposits of petroleum. The limestone deposits that occur throughout the country are considered to be among the richest in Africa.

Congo’s forest reserves cover more than half of the country and are among the largest in Africa. Wild game supplements the local diet and is an important item in local commerce. Rivers, lakes, swamps, and ocean contain vast reserves of fish.It is estimated that the country’s hydroelectric resources make up about one-eighth of global capacity and perhaps half of Africa’s potential capacity. This tremendous potential comes from the many rapids along the rivers of the Congo system. Thermal energy can be derived from the forests and coal and petroleum deposits.

Most people in DRC have not benefited from this wealth. A long history of conflict, political upheaval and instability, and authoritarian rule have led to a grave, ongoing humanitarian crisis. In addition, there has been forced displacement of populations. These features have not changed significantly since the end of the Congo Wars in 2003.

White privilege is a concept that highlights the unfair societal advantages that white people have over non-white people. often described as an invisible force – a series of unseen, unconscious advantages, such as the ability to move through life without being racially profiled or unfairly stereotyped. It is something that is pervasive throughout society and exists in all of the major systems and institutions that operate in society. White privilege is rooted in European colonialism, the Atlantic slave trade and the British Empire, and is a system explicitly designed to protect white racial privileges, rights and benefits at the detriment of everyone else.

It is the implicit and systemic advantages that white people have relative to those who are subjected to racism. It is also a system of conscious decisions meant to keep Black and brown populations subjugated, incarcerated and oppressed. It manifests in the racial wealth gap, in the statistics for prison populations – which see Black people locked up at wildly inflated rates compared to their white counterparts. When a white person commits an act of terrorism, they are portrayed in the media as a "lone wolf" or a victim of mental ill health. When a person of colour is involved in an act of violence, it is portrayed as representative of that person's race or community.

Since September the 11th, white supremacists have perpetuated more acts of terrorism in the United States than any foreign threat. None of these people were labelled "terrorists", nor were white people asked to apologise on their behalf or to publicly denounce them, the way communities of colour are asked to. Minneapolis Police killed George Floyd during an arrest based on allegations he had used counterfeit money. Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old white supremacist who murdered nine members of a Black church group in a targeted hate crime, was not only arrested alive and unharmed, but was later taken to Burger King because he said he was tired and hungry.

On the 23rd of March, 2015, a newspaper in Iowa ran two stories about two separate burglaries. The images used for the three white men from one burglary were yearbook photos. The other story, about the arrest of four Black men, used their mug shots. Brock Turner, a white college student who violently raped an unconscious girl, was given a six-month sentence due to his "previous good character". He served three months.Compare this to the Central Park Five, a group of innocent Black boys scapegoated for the rape of a white woman, who served between six to 13 years for a crime none of them had committed.

Tyre Nichols, the man who died this month after an alleged beating by five police officers, was "damn near perfect," his mother RowVaughn Wells said at a press conference on Monday. The 29-year-old Nichols had been living in Memphis, Tennessee, with his parents since the pandemic, according to his mother. Although he lived in Memphis at the time of his death, Nichols had previously lived in California. He had just started a job at FedEx working alongside his stepfather, Rodney Wells.

"He was very, very beloved at my job. Everybody's calling me with blessings, prayers [and] showing sympathy for what happened," Rodney Wells said."He only worked at FedEx for maybe nine months, but you should see the out pour of love and support," RowVaughn Wells said.The Wells' said that Nichols was passionate about skateboarding and photography, hobbies he engaged in during his downtime on weekends."Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way," Nichols stated on his photography page. "It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people."

His mother recalled the morning three days before her son's death. She said she had been preparing chicken for dinner that afternoon and planned to cook it his favorite way. At a press conference Friday, she said that Nichols was coming from Shelby Farms, a local park where he liked to go and take pictures of the sunset, on the day of his ultimately fatal encounter. Officers pulled over Nichols that Friday due to "reckless driving," according to Memphis police reports.

Brutal body camera video showing Tyre Nichols being beaten, pepper sprayed and Tasered by multiple cops during a traffic stop earlier this month was released by the Memphis Police Department on Friday. The FedEx worker who had no known police record claims he “didn’t do anything,” as the five black officers attempt to detain him, but before they can cuff him he escapes, leading to a second altercation where they kick, club and beat him, leaving him limp and unconscious.

During the second incident which took place just 100 yards from his home the 29-year-old dad, who was also black, repeatedly yells “Mom!” as officers attempt to handcuff him. Nichols, moaning in pain, says “alright” and appears to give up as the police pin him on his stomach and cuff him. Nichols would succumb to his injuries in the hospital three days later.

A substitute school bus driver in Georgia earned the ire of panicked parents after refusing to drop off their children at the designated bus stop. Mayhem ensued in the Atlanta distant suburb of Dallas, Georgia, on Jan. 19 after an elementary school bus driver refused to let several students off at their regular stop. Video shows the moment the driver pulls away from the stop with some of the children still on the bus. The parents of the Allgood Elementary School students waited for their children per usual on Wednesday. To their surprise, the driver wouldn’t let some of the students off the bus.

The driver was seen on the video trying to push two parents off the bus who were trying to collect their children, which prompted one to smack the driver. As the angered driver sped off, the children on the school bus were heard screaming as one parent yelled, “You don’t do that! Are you nuts? Hey! Hey!”

One parent, Samantha Lee, said her child was scared and thought she was being kidnapped as the bus drove off. “She thought that the bus driver was kidnapping her,” said Lee. “The parents were asking her over and over again, ‘Please open the door. Please let us see our children.'” It was after the school bus stopped again at the next stop that several frantic parents pulled their children from the bus. Several parents also pulled their children off the bus from the back door. The bus driver has been suspended pending an investigation.

The Paulding County School District released a statement saying they were investigating the incident while explaining the breakdown of the deboarding process.

“The Paulding County School District is investigating an incident that occurred Wednesday afternoon at a school bus stop at the intersection of Old Harris Road and Jimmy Lee Smith Parkway,” read the statement. “An Allgood Elementary School bus was being driven by a substitute driver as the normal driver for that route had fallen ill that morning. A large number of students typically deboard the bus each day at this particular bus stop. This afternoon that process broke down as the substitute driver was trying to manage the release of the younger students.”

They also built their dream home in an area where similar properties sell for $900,000. Friends and relatives are at a loss over how they made so much money. In August, the pair admitted a range of heinous sexual crimes, including rape and forcing their young sons to perform oral sex on them, after a midnight raid on their home during which one of the adults was hauled naked from the house. 

For the first time, it was revealed that the men allegedly pumped out their older sons, now 11 and 9 years old, to two other men in a pedophile ring. One of the men, Hunter Clay Lawless, 27, told investigators that Zachary - whose Instagram bio describes him as "Papa to our two wonderful boys" and an "activist" - invited him "multiple times" to take part in sexually abusing the boys.

However, Lawless claimed he never had physical contact with either child. Lawless also claimed Zachary sent him multiple messages on Snapchat, including one that allegedly read, “I’m going to f— my son tonight. Stand by,” along with images of himself sexually abusing the 11-year-old, according to the outlet. The two men were arrested on charges of soliciting an act of prostitution with the 11-year-old boy, according to the indictment.

It’s unclear whether Lawless and Armando Vizcarro-Sanchez had any physical interactions with the boys. The Zulocks who lived in Oxford, Georgia adopted the children from a Christian special-needs adoption agency. 

Police officers responding to reports that a man was downloading child porn raided the home in Loganville, where they found evidence the pair “were engaging in sexually abusive acts and video documenting this abuse,” police said at the time. During the raid, William was pulled out of his home naked. The government worker has admitted to forcing one of his sons to perform oral sex on him “with the intent to satisfy his own … sexual desire,”

Isla Bryson was a shaven-headed Adam Graham with a Mike Tyson-style face tattoo when carrying out the violent sex attacks in 2016 and 2019 after meeting the victims online.Bryson, who claimed to have had gender issues since the age of four, began transitioning from a man to a woman in 2020 after being charged with the rapes. The rapist has been taking hormones but has not had any surgery.The attacker denied the accusations, telling jurors any sex was consensual - although Bryson insisted to having no joy in sleeping with women and told the court they made the 'first move'.There was no reference to the 31-year-old having a gender recognition certificate during the trial. Bryson was found guilty of the two rapes. 

Bryson had first appeared in the dock in July 2019 as Adam Graham. By the start of her six-day trial the defendant was known as Isla Bryson. Bryson is currently taking hormones and seeking surgery to complete gender reassignment. The first victim recalled repeatedly stating 'no' as her 'muscular' attacker raped her when the then-man got into bed beside her in 2016. The second woman was raped at a flat when they were planning to watch the film Mean Girls in 2019.It is understood the defendant is being held in a segregation unit at Cornton Vale women's prison, where the attacker will be risk assessed ahead of sentencing on February 28. 

Officials will decide whether the sex attacker will serve the final jail term in a women’s or men’s prison. Activists have slammed the move which follows controversy over Nicola Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (GRR), which would allow anyone anyone over 16 to 'self-identify' as the opposite sex without needing medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. She said: ‘The risk assessment should be perfectly clear.’ She insisted Bryson was a danger to women and ‘should be nowhere near the sort of vulnerable women who are in prison’.

Miss Smith added: ‘Some of our MSPs must have led incredibly sheltered lives if they think that predatory and abusive men would not try everything they could to further hurt victims and to seek easier access to potential future victims.’The Scottish Government said: ‘Decisions taken by the Scottish Prison Service on the placement of transgender prisoners are based on protecting both the wellbeing and rights of the individual and those around them.’ 

Jamaica is not, geographically and politically, an African country. Jamaica is actually an independent country situated in the Caribbean (considered part of the North American Continent) sea. The island of 2,726,667 persons (at 2018 Statin population estimates) lies between 17.5 and 18.5 degrees north (latitude) and between 76 and 76 degrees west (longitude), about 90 miles south of Cuba (712 miles southward of Florida in the USA)

If you know anything about this history of Jamaica, you'll note that Jamaica shares an 'umbilical' relationship with the continent of Africa. Most of blacks in Jamaica has ancestral roots in Africa, particularly from the West Coast. Africans first arrived in Jamaica in 1513, been forcibly captured in their homelands and sold as slaves to the Spanish settlers here.

They served as body servants, cowboys, hunter and herders of wild horse, pigs and cattle then. The knowledge they gained of Jamaica's interior became invaluable as when the English took the island from the Spanish in 1655, many escaped in the mountains to be later called maroons.When the expanded sugar plantation system required more labour, millions of Africans were later forcibly taken to the so called New World, which included Jamaica, North America and the Caribbean.

Estimates suggested that between the years 1650 and 1807 when Slavery was abolished, between 750,000 and 1,000,000 were taken to Jamaica, after millions more died on the journey! Note also that between 1837 and 1867, following emancipation, another estimated 11,000 Africans arrived in Jamaica to work as indentured laborers on the sugar estates.

These Africans, it is said, arrived from Central Africa, from the Yoruba and Dahomey coasts and the Niger Delta. Today Jamaica maintains strong diplomatic and political relationship with many African countries, including the 'twinning' of cities in Jamaica with others of countries in Africa, eg. Windhoek, Namibia. Reggae music, which originated in Jamaica, came out of the inspiration of Jamaica's African origins.

The right clothes can make you feel better about yourself, even smarter, but the wrong clothes can in some cases make you feel pain and even make you sick. Tight clothing that pushes into the abdomen, everything from jeans to belts and compression undergarments, can be problematic.

1.Infertility in men

Men who wear skinny jeans are at risk of testicular torsion, or twisting of the testicles. This can be very harmful to the testicles and can lead to decreased sperm count or infertility.

2.Vulvodynia is a condition that causes chronic pain around the vulva, or outer walls of the vagina. Some studies report that wearing skinny jeans can be a risk factor for developing vulvodynia, vaginal thrush, or other vaginal infections in women.

3.Heartburn

Tight clothing around the waist can have adverse effects on digestion. High-waisted skinny jeans can be too tight around the stomach area. This can lead to heartburn or acidity due to the regurgitation of stomach acid to the food pipe.

4.Circulatory interruption

Skinny jeans and leggings can restrict blood flow to the legs and feet. This can lead to serious problems in the long term, particularly for people already suffering from other conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and nerve damage.

5.Lipoatrophia semicircularis

Lipoatrophia semicircularis, or ribbed thighs, is a skin condition that causes lesions, itching, and burning on the thighs. Lipoatrophia semicircularis may worsen due to wearing tight jeans or leggings and sitting in one place for too long.

6.Skin irritation is a common side effect of wearing tight clothing. It occurs due to chafing of the skin by fabric and lack of airflow to the skin. It may cause redness, itching, and skin infections.

7.Meralgia paraesthetica

Skinny pant syndrome, medically known as meralgia paraesthetica, is a form of nerve damage that occurs in the thighs. It is caused by wearing low-waisted skinny jeans that are very tight around the thighs. This can damage the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve in the outer thigh

8.Thrush is a common vaginal yeast infection in women. It can occur when proper hygiene is not maintained in your private parts or wearing tight pants for too long. Symptoms may include itching, irritation, and curdy white discharge from the vagina.

9.Intertrigo/tinea cruris

Fungal infections in the groin area such as tinea and intertrigo (rash between folds of skin) can be caused and aggravated by wearing tight jeans due to the excessive accumulation of sweat in this area and lack of proper air circulation.

10. Permanent muscle damage

A neurology journal recently published the case of a woman who suffered from severe muscle damage, or rhabdomyolysis, due to squatting in skinny jeans. This occurs due to decreased blood flow to the leg muscles while wearing tight pants.