East African neighbours Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo have announced a joint plan to combat armed groups and foster economic growth.
The presidents of both nations signed a series of agreements in Kinshasa on security and also infrastructure - with plans for a railway to connect the nation's major cities and boost trade.
No cost and deadline were made public for the projects but a joint commission of experts who will oversee its progress was announced.

The African Union Commission has condemned the violence in South Africa that has left 72 people dead.
Protests against the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma morphed into looting and destruction of property in some provinces.
The commission in a statement says the AU Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemns in the strongest terms the surge of violence that has resulted in the deaths of civilians and appalling scenes of the looting of public and private property.
He says failure to resolve the crisis would have grave impacts on the country and the region.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, expressed the determination of the commission to deepen democracy through the use of technology.
He also put the number of Nigerians who have completed online voters’ pre-registration at 542,576.
He spoke against the backdrop of the clamour for the inclusion of electronic transmission of election results in the 2010 Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021, amidst efforts by the leadership of the National Assembly to delete the provision from the bill.
Yakubu said the voters’ register remained at the heart of any credible election.
He says the first quarter of the physical registration would commence between June 28 and September 30, while the second quarter of the exercise will start October 4 to December 30.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, says the N15 trillion Infrastructure Company Limited created by the federal government to bridge the nation’s huge infrastructure gap is to take off in the third quarter of the year.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says that although the government’s economic reforms had paid off in telecommunications, pension and maritime sectors, the current administration was making efforts to address the challenges in the power sector privatisation.
Emefiele says the federal government had approved KPMG as the financial adviser to InfraCo, adding that the firm is expected to commence operations in the third quarter of 2021.
He stated that for Nigeria to attain meaningful growth, there must be huge investments in key sectors of the economy, including infrastructure such as rail and power, among others.

The Senate has passed the National Electoral Offences Commission Bill which if assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, will be charged with investigating electoral offences and prosecuting electoral offenders.
The bill will ensure that the National Electoral Offences Commission, shall have the power to appoint and maintain investigators, prosecutors and experts to prosecute electoral offenders.
The Chairman of the Committee on INEC, Senator Kabiru Gaya says the creation of the commission is critical because the Independent National Electoral Commission clearly lacks the needed human capacity to prosecute electoral offences committed across Nigeria’s 119,973 polling units.

The Senate has rejected the nomination of Lauretta Onochie as an Independent National Electoral Commission National Commissioner.
The chairman of the committee on INEC, Senator Kabiru Gaya, says Onochie’s nomination was rejected because there is a serving INEC commissioner representing Delta state.
The rejection also followed the massive outcry that has trailed her nomination, especially from members of the opposition and civil society organisations who claim she is a card-carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress Former INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, says any person who generated such a controversy, the appointing authorities should be careful because it can lead to a loss of trust of the electoral management body.

Nigeria has recorded a fresh spike of COVID-19 cases.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in its report on Monday night disclosed that the country has recorded 161 new cases.
Lagos State recorded 153 new cases, while Gombe recorded two, Oyo and Rivers one each and the FCT four cases respectively.
This now brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 168,713.
164,476 have recovered.
The NCDC, however, assured Nigerians that the federal government has put measures in place to combat the disease, asking them to adhere to the recommended safety protocols.

Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Information National Orientation Ethics and Values, Segun Odebunmi, says that the House has agreed to suspend the Nigeria Press Council and the National Broadcasting Commission Amendment bill.
Odebunmi explained that the suspension is to allow for proper consultations over the bill.
The lawmaker had earlier faulted claims that the bill was targeted at gagging the media.
He rather maintained that it is aimed at removing identified hindrances to optimum performance.

The head of the World Health Organization has urged wealthy nations to focus on providing coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries, rather than booster shots for their own populations.
Tedros Adhanom Ghrebreyesus says the distribution of vaccines was still hugely uneven at a time when the Delta variant was threatening to cause health systems to collapse.
WHO director of health emergencies, Dr Mike Ryan complained that rich countries were behaving selfishly.

Ethiopia's state-linked broadcaster Fana reports that Ethiopia and Russia have signed a military cooperation deal following three days of talks.
The Ethiopian Defence Force's finance division signed the deal, which it said will boost long-standing relations between the two nations to a higher degree.
The agreement will reportedly focus on improving the national defence force's knowledge, skill, and technical capabilities.
Ethiopia's foreign policy alignment has recently shifted to Russia and China as a result of substantial pressure from the US government over the war in the Tigray region.