NIGERIA: Eight people were confirmed dead and an estimated 100 were reported missing after an overloaded boat capsized in north-central Nigeria, emergency services said today.

The passengers were being conveyed from Niger state’s Borgu district to a market in neighbouring Kebbi state on Monday afternoon when the boat overturned on the River Niger, according to Niger State Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ibrahim Audu.

TURKEY: A court convicted the son of Somalia’s president today over the death of a motorcycle courier and sentenced him to more than two years in prison. The sentence, however, was immediately commuted to a fine.

Mohammed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was charged with “causing death by negligence” after a diplomatic car he was driving hit Yunus Emre Gocer on a highway in Istanbul on November 30. 

LABOUR MOVEMENT: The African regional organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) laid plans today to build the capacity of trade unions in the continent.

Speaking at the ITUC-Africa’s annual New Year School on the importance of the engagement of trade unions in the continent’s transformation agenda, general secretary Akhator Joel Odigie said unions were “at the heart” of this process.

ESTONIA: Police have arrested a Russian professor teaching at the Baltic country’s most prestigious university on suspicion of spying for Moscow, officials said today.

The Estonian Internal Security Service said it had opened an investigation into Vyacheslav Morozov, a Russian national and professor of international politics at the University of Tartu, for his alleged involvement in intelligence activity meant to undermine the country’s national security.