Good 2017 for The Gambia's female politicians: Veep, speaker, special MP

Last year brought huge political fortunes for women in The Gambia. A female vice president resigned but was replaced. The country also got a historic female duo in its national assembly.

The Gambia celebrated a democratic transition in January 2017 when erstwhile leader Yahya Jammeh left the country after a failed attempt to annul elections of December 2017. He is currently living in Equatorial Guinea.

Eritrea, Sudan re-designated by U.S. over violation of religious freedom

Eritrea and Sudan, are the only two African nations recently re-designated by the United States as “countries of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated egregious violations of religious freedom.

In all, the U.S. State Department said it had re-designated 10 countries over violations of religious freedoms. Beside the Africa duo, China is listed as well as Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.

Ethiopia acknowledging ‘political prisoners’ is good, time to act – U.S. lawmaker

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has reacted to Ethiopia’s latest political reform announcement under which political prisoners are to be released and its Maekelawi detention facility closed down.

In a terse statement released by his office, Ed Royce, said it was important that the government had finally acknowledged holding political prisonsers. He said more importantly, the government should honour commitments made in the January 3, 2018 announcement.

Boris Becker's son acts over 'clearly racist' AfD MP tweet

The German lawmaker denies that he made the comments about Noah Becker (right)

The son of German tennis champion Boris Becker is pressing charges against Jens Maier of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, his lawyer says.

It comes after a tweet posted to the politician's Twitter account called the 23-year-old a "little half-negro".

Noah Becker has an African-American grandfather on his mother's side.

'Bomb cyclone' brings travel chaos and deaths to US north-east

A winter storm has caused travel chaos in the north-east US and is being blamed for up to 17 deaths.

Nearly 4,000 US flights were cancelled on Thursday as snow blanketed parts of the north-eastern US seaboard as well as eastern Canada.

Boston could get up to 18in (45cm) of snow while rough waters have already triggered coastal floods in the region.