Nilanshi Patel, 17 all the way from India has retained her crown as the teen with the world’s longest hair. According to Guinness World Records, she remains a cut above other contestants having smashed her previous record of 5ft 6in set in December 2018 with a new length of 6ft 2in.

Nilanshi from the small town of Modasa in Gujarat state, has not been visited a hairdresser for 11 years after an ordeal. She said: ‘At six, I had a very bad experience at a local salon. Since then I have been apprehensive about cutting my hair.

Her mom has been a major support with a her proud dad saying his only child’s locks had turned her from a local celebrity into an international one.

‘My parents accepted my wishes and now my locks have become my lucky charm.’

The teenager is nicknamed ‘Rapunzel’ by her friends and schoolmates.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reportedly  recorded 108 new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.

In a tweet on Thursday night, the NCDC said that the new cases had taken the total number of infections in the country to 981.

The centre said that 78 of the new infections were recorded in Lagos, 14 in FCT, 5 in Ogun, 4 in Gombe, 3 Borno, 2 in Akwa Ibom, and 1 each in Kwara and Plateau.

The NCDC added that as of 11:30 p.m. on April 23, there were 981 confirmed cases of the coronavirus reported in Nigeria.

According to the Nigeria’s agency, total deaths recorded in the country from the coronavirus (COVID-19) now stands at 31, while 197 infected persons had been treated and discharged.

It disclosed that Nigeria now has 753 Active Cases as of 11:30p.m. on April 23.

According to a report in South Africa, Africa has registered a 43 percent jump in reported COVID-19 cases in the last week, with officials highlighting a warning from the World Health Organization (WHO) that the continent of 1.3 billion could become the next epicenter of the global outbreak.

Africa also has a “very, very limited” and “very, very strained” testing capacity, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in his weekly briefing on Thursday.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

These viruses were originally transmitted from animals to people, including SARS, which was transmitted from civet cats to humans.

It is been known that coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans. Corona virus comes from the Latin word corona, meaning crown or halo. Under an electron microscope, the virus looks like it is surrounded by a solar corona.

Nigerian writer, poet, journalist, filmmaker, and tv personality, Wana Udobang has been described as “one of the biggest champions of the new spoken word renaissance. Here are 12 amazing facts about her;

1. She graduated from the University for The Creative Arts with a first class degree in Journalism.
2. She is an ambassador for the Mirabel center in Lagos.
3. She founded the 1k4cancer initiative which to date has raised over three million naira in funds to assist women from low income families with their cancer treatment.
4. She worked as a radio presenter and producer at 92.3 Inspiration FM in Lagos, Nigeria for over six years and hosted the television show “Airtel Touching Lives”.
5. She is the producer of the documentary “Sensitive Skin” a documentary film about the skin condition, Psoriasis.
6. She is a public speaker in the areas of gender advocacy, youth mentorship and is a well sought after moderator in the creative and culture space.
7. She has starred in a number of television series and films like Indigo and Flip, to name a few. She plays Visha in the award winning Burkinabe film “Frontiéres”.
8. She has been a freelance writer and contributor for Aljazeera Online, Guardian UK NEXT, BellaNaija and the Huffington Post.
9. Wana has worked with the BBC Radio4, BBC world service, 92.3 Inspiration FM and Resonance FM.
10. She just aired a YouTube series called Warriors. She had earlier aired Culture Diaries and Room 313.
11. She also is the creator of the poetry series “Words and Inspirations” and the interview series “Culture Diaries”.
12. Wana is creative director of WanaWana productions and hosts the television show Airtel Touching Lives.

How inspiring to see her combine all this  as a media lady.

As the pandemic has put a close on schools at the moment, studying should not be put on hold. Michelle Obama has partnered with PBS for a weekly reading series for children. The Public Broadcasting Service is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor.

PBSKids announced the “Mondays with Michelle Obama” partnership via Twitter saying, “In this weekly read-along series, she’ll read 4 of her favorite children’s books (one book every Monday)… [starting with ] “The Gruffalo.”

Ramla Ali who was bullied at school for being overweight, took up a boxing career. Now she’s a British boxing champion, a model and the first Muslim woman to win a boxing title for England.

The amateur featherweight boxer was prepared to be the first boxer to represent her home country Somalia at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo this August until the corona virus pandemics struck.

As a child, her family fled Somali during the war after her eldest brother, who was just nine at the time, died as a result of a grenade that was thrown into their front garden as they played. Her family took refuge in London.

Due to her beginnings, she doesn’t seem to have a birth record. Although she believes she is between the ages of 27 and 30. “I genuinely don’t know the date, the month, the year,” she told Evening Standard.

A major secret she kept from her family is she took up boxing to knock off her weight, her mother thought it was immodest for women to play sports.

“When you come from an African household, education is key, ” her mother used to say, but she is her “number-one fan” today.

According to her, the first time she entered her local gym in East Ham, London, she had to wait up to 40 minutes to use the changing rooms because there were no facilities for women. “I was the only girl there,” she said.

In 2016, she became the best amateur boxer in the country in her weight division; she won the Elite National Championships, English Title Series and the Great British Elite Championships. In 2018, she represented her birth country, Somalia at an international level.

Somalia had no boxing federation so Ali and her husband and trainer Richard Moore created a boxing federation in the UK. Ali now travels around the world for competitions.

As model she was shot for British Vogue’s September 2019 “Forces For Change” issue, she said: “To see girls that look like me, with an afro, on the cover of magazines is amazing.”

“Beauty is 100% strength within yourself,” Ali said. “You have to feel it – that’s what beauty means to me. There are so many pretty women out there, but if you don’t feel like a beautiful person inside then you’ve gone from a ten to a two. As cheesy as it sounds, I truly believe that.”

She is gives back to her community by volunteering to teach self-defense classes to “predominately hijab-wearing” women, between the ages of 20-40, in south London once a week.

Full article here

A 68 year first time mother has been delivered of twins in Lagos University Teaching.

Her pregnancy was achieved artificially through IVF. Delivery through Ceaserian Section. Everything was successful as mother and babies are doing fine. With LUTH taken to their twitter page to break the news below;

This happens to be the oldest confirmed verifiable mother in Nigeria and in Africa.

God Is Good.