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  Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan announced the start of their annual "spring offensive" on Thursday, vowing a final summer of bloody attacks on foreign forces before the 13-year Nato combat mission ends. The Islamist extremists said that the offensive, beginning on Monday, would cleanse "the filth of the infidels" from the country and warned that Afghan translators, government officials and politicians would also be targeted. The "Khaibar" offensive, named after an ancient battle between Muslims and Jews, will coincide with a planned second round of elections next month to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has ruled since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The 51 000 US-led Nato troops still deployed in Afghanistan are set to withdraw by December, ending a long and costly battle to defeat the rebels, who launched a fierce insurgency after being ousted from power. Embassies A small number of US troops may stay on from next year on a traini...

Ugandan court has begun hearing the case against two men accused of engaging in gay sex – the first trial of homosexuals in the country since a severe law was passed in February. The detained Ugandan couple, Kim Mukisa, 24, and Jackson Mukasa, 19, appeared before a magistrate's court in the capital, Kampala, on Wednesday to apply for bail after prosecutors said they had enough evidence to proceed with the case. Police arrested the couple in January as they fled an angry mob, according to the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, a local watchdog group. Prosecutors have lined up several witnesses to testify against the two, who have been charged with engaging in sex acts "against the order of nature", said their lawyer, Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi. Although Uganda has had anti-gay legislation since the colonial era, President Yoweri Museveni enacted a law in February that increased criminal penalties against gay sex to life in jail. Gay leaders report that scores of Ugan...

  Davido, a nominee for best male artist at the main event, will headline this year’s Road to the MTV Africa Music Awards party in Lagos. The star-studded party is part of a pan-African club tour that will criss-cross the continent in the build-up to the main event that is set to take place in Durban, South Africa on 7 June.  South African Afro Pop megastars Mafikizolo will also be on the bill at The Marquee, Federal Palace Hotel V.I., Lagos, on Friday 30 May.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram will mark a key turning point in the battle against the militants. "I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria," Jonathan told delegates at the World Economic Forum, thanking Britain, China, France and the United States for their offers of help to rescue the hostages. The four world powers have pledged varying levels of expert help to track down the girls whose 14 April mass abduction from Chibok in Borno state has sparked global outrage. Jonathan's comments echoed those of US President Barack Obama earlier in the week. Obama said the Chibok kidnappings, "may be the event that helps to mobilise the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organisation that's perpetrated such a terrible crime". Jonathan had hoped that the World Economic Forum would highlight Nigeria...

The Nigeria Police has offered a cash reward of N50million to anyone who volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. This is contained in a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba, posted on the website of the Nigeria Police Force. He said, “The Force urges all patriotic citizens with such useful information to contact the following numbers: 09-2914649, 08081777309, 08055547536, 08032125050, 08034617591, 08035969731. “While calling on the general public to be part of the solution to the present security challenge, the Police High Command also reassures all citizens that any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality.”

In furtherance of efforts by the Federal Government to locate and rescue the girls abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Wednesday requested and received a commitment from Britain to deploy its intelligence gathering resources in support of Nigeria’s security agencies currently engaged in the search and rescue operation. President Jonathan who spoke with the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron on the phone after meeting with Premier Li Keqiang of China who is on an official visit to Nigeria, asked and received a promise of the deployment of British Satellite Imaging capabilities and other advanced tracking technologies  in support of the ongoing effort. The President thanked Mr. Cameron,  the British Government  and people for their concern over the fate of the abducted girls and their willingness to provide concrete assistance to save th  e girls from the terrorists who seized them from their scho...