Burundi’s government on Tuesday rejected a proposed African Union peacekeeping mission already dubbed an “invasion force” by parliament. Lawmakers on Monday rejected the planned AU force proposed last week amid growing international alarm over spiralling violence in the tiny central African nation.

As fuel scarcity bites harder in Hadejia, Jigawa, the price of a litre of petrol has risen to N300. Many petrol stations in Hadejia had no product to sell at the time of this report. Petro is only available at black markets where it sold at N300 per litre, well above the N87 approved pump price.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said N221.7 billion would be spent on health sector in 2016 as part of the initiative to improve the health care delivery to Nigerians. Buhari said this while presenting the 2016 budget to the joint National Assembly session in Abuja. He said that N369.6 billion was set aside for education sector as against N294.5 billion earmarked for defence, while the Ministry of Interior would receive N145.3 billion.

Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic were named the women’s and men’s players of the year by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Tuesday. Both won three of the four Grand Slams in 2015 and are well clear in the world rankings. Williams, who was named ‘ITF World Champion’ for the sixth time, won five titles throughout the year, finishing with a 53-3 win-loss record.

“In the coming weeks, we will present the full programme, which will include our home-grown public primary school feeding and free education for science, technology and education students in our tertiary institutions. “Indeed, this will mark a historic milestone for us as a nation.’’ The president also said the Federal Government would collaborate with states and local governments to tackle the “chronic shortage’’ of teachers in public schools across the country.