Eight months after his arrest on 14 February by National Intelligence Agency officers, journalist Bamporiki Chamira was still being detained at a prison in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a national media watchdog reported on Wednesday.

Silicon breast implants taken off the US market 11 years ago should be made available to all women who want them, a panel has decided, despite evidence that they could pose serious health risks. An independent advisory panel voted by nine to six to recommend an ending of the restrictions on the implants.

As the ferry headed towards the Staten Island harbour at the wrong speed and the wrong angle on Wednesday afternoon, its pilot, Richard Smith, sat frozen at the moment he was supposed to be guiding the boat in. The captain, Mike Gansas, knew something was wrong and tried to call Smith, first on his walkie-talkie, and then simply yelling his name ”Richie”.

Ragged, exhausted and scarred, 74 children apparently sold into bondage were on their way home on Thursday after being rescued from Nigerian granite quarries. The children, some just four years old, told aid workers at least 13 of their companions had died and been buried in shallow graves after succumbing to beatings, hunger, illness and exposure in the pits near the south-western Nigerian city of Abeokuta.