Tragedy struck on Thursday in Kano as a woman who recently gave birth to quintuplets passed away just hours after delivery at Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital.
READ ALSO: Couple Welcomes Quintuplets In Kano
Hafsat Yusuf delivered three boys and two girls at the hospital on Wednesday.
Her husband, Salisu Nafiu, confirmed her death on Thursday, revealing that she died at about 1 a.m. at the hospital.
“She delivered the babies successfully in the afternoon, but we lost her in the early hours of today,” Nafiu said. “It is a painful loss for our family.”
Despite the mother’s death, Nafiu noted that all five newborns—three boys and two girls—are alive and under close medical supervision.
“The babies are stable and receiving proper care from the doctors,” he added.
Hafsat had given birth to the quintuplets through a Caesarean section at approximately 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
According to her husband, the birth marked her ninth childbirth, making the development both remarkable and emotionally overwhelming for the family.
Medical staffers at the facility have continued to monitor the infants closely.
A hospital source said, “The babies are being given specialised attention to ensure their survival and healthy development.”
The Kano State Ministry of Health had earlier announced that the state government would assume full responsibility for the medical care of the quintuplets.
“The government is committed to supporting the children and ensuring they receive the best possible healthcare services,” a statement from the ministry read.
It added that the intervention reflected broader efforts by the state government to strengthen maternal and child health systems and reduce mortality rates across Kano.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have signed a friendship treaty aimed at deepening ties.
Both are close allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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The treaty was signed on Thursday during Lukashenko’s two-day trip to Pyongyang. He told Kim that relations between their countries were entering a “fundamentally new stage”, the Belarusian state news agency Belta reported.
“In today’s reality of a global transformation when the global powers openly ignore and violate international law, independent countries need to cooperate more closely, consolidate efforts aimed at protecting their sovereignty and improving the wellbeing of our citizens,” he said.
Belta quoted Kim as saying their two countries shared positions on many issues and “we oppose undue pressure on Belarus from the West.”
The North Korean leader laid on a lavish welcome for Lukashenko as he kicked off his visit on Wednesday, including a white-horsed cavalry, flag-waving children and a 21-cannon salute.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pays his respects to the late leaders of North Korea, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, during a visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang on March 25, 2026 [Handout//Belarusian Presidential Press Service via EPA]
Both nations have backed Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Kim has reportedly provided Moscow with ammunition and sent soldiers to help Russia expel Ukrainian forces from its western region of Kursk in 2024.
Lukashenko allowed Belarus to be used as a launchpad for Russia’s invasion in February 2022 and has agreed to allow Russian tactical nuclear missiles on its territory, which borders three NATO countries.
The Belarusian leader, in power since 1994, is politically and economically dependent on Putin.
North Korea and Belarus conduct a small volume of trade but share long experience of surviving under international sanctions. North Korea has been sanctioned because of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and Belarus over its human rights record and backing for Putin in Ukraine.
But in recent months, Belarus’s relationship with Washington has thawed.
Scarlets head coach Nigel Davies says his side are preparing for a Test-match level challenge as they travel to face Leinster in Dublin.
Leinster return home after a heavy defeat by Glasgow last weekend and make 12 changes, but name a starting side featuring 13 internationals, underlining the scale of the task facing the Welsh region.
Scarlets head into the game without fly-half Sam Costelow after he rolled his ankle in training and captain Josh Macleod who has a hamstring injury.
It means their side to face Leinster shows five changes from the one that started in the 36-17 victory over Zebre last time out.
Joe Roberts returns at outside centre as Joe Hawkins is handed the number 10 jersey – with Carwyn Leggatt-Jones also unavailable through injury.
The other alteration among the backs sees Dane Blacker start at scrum-half in place of Archie Hughes who drops to the bench.
In the pack, hooker Harry Thomas is handed a second United Rugby Championship (URC) start of the season while Dan Davis comes in at openside flanker in place of skipper Macleod.
For Scarlets, the week has been framed less like a league fixture and more like an international assignment.
“We’re basically playing an international rugby game in an international venue against pretty much an international rugby team,” said Davies.
“I think it’s very difficult to look at last week, I’m sure we’ll face a slightly different Leinster team.
“I think they’ll have all the internationals and they’ll be building up into the following week with a European fixture. They’d be looking to sign off the URC on a positive note and build into that European fixture.”
Despite Welsh regions having beaten Leinster in recent seasons — including Scarlets in Llanelli last year — Davies says the scale of the task remains unchanged.
“In terms of the fear factor, no… and we need the fear factor,” he added.
Leinster v Scarlets
United Rugby Championship
Friday, 27 March, 19:45 GMT
Scarlets centre Roberts says the players are under no illusions about the level required.
“The squad is heavily filled with internationals… to compete, you have to be right up there,” he said.
“Because the amount of quality they have.”
Scarlets have shown in recent meetings that they can challenge Leinster, including a win last season and a competitive performance in Dublin in the knockout stages.
“It is just performance-driven from us really… and then seeing what happens,” Roberts added.
With the play-offs now unlikely, Davies says the emphasis is on performance in the closing rounds of the season.
“It’s all about performance really, and taking each game as it comes,” he said.
“And also… the legacy that they carry is from the previous generations… and the hope that they give their supporters and their families.
How they line up
Leinster: Jimmy O’Brien; Tommy O’Brien, Ringrose, Osborne, Kenny; Byrne, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Joe McCarthy, Deeny, Deegan, van der Flier, Doris (capt).
The global trading system is experiencing the “worst disruptions in the past 80 years”, World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala warned as the WTO ministerial conference opened Thursday.
“The world order and the multilateral system we use to know has irrevocably changed,” she said, adding: “We cannot deny the scale of the problems confronting the world today.”
The Organization’s 166 members appear deeply divided as trade ministers gather in the Cameroonian capital for the WTO’s top conference, amid global economic turmoil linked to the Middle East war.
Over four days in Yaounde, WTO members will try to revitalise an institution weakened by geopolitical tensions, stalled negotiations, and rising protectionism — against the backdrop of the war in the Middle East, which poses a serious threat to international trade.
“The scale of the problems confronting the world today, even before the conflict in the Gulf, destabilised trade in energy, fertiliser and food,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
“National governments and international institutions alike have been struggling to navigate rising geopolitical tensions, intensifying climate pressures, and rapid technological change.
“Accompanying these shifts has been an increasingly loud questioning of multilateralism.”
Okonjo-Iweala said these disruptions were just one symptom of broader upheavals shaking the international order created after World War II to prevent a repeat of the disasters of the first half of the 20th century.
“It feels appropriate that at the moment when the world is in turmoil with conflict in the Middle East, Sudan, Ukraine, and elsewhere, at this time of great disruption and uncertainty, we have gathered in Africa to discuss the road ahead for the global trading system,” she said.
“Africa is the continent of the future.”
RELATED: WTO Mulls Future Of Global Trade Under Cloud Of Mideast War
WTO ministerial conferences are typically held every two years. This is the second to be held in Africa, after Nairobi in 2015.
Mike Henson, BBC Sport rugby union news reporter and Jo Currie, Women’s sport reporter
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New England captain Meg Jones says she aims to be a relatable leader, but admits she may tone down some parts of her character in her new role.
Jones has been promoted to lead the world champion Red Roses after skipper Zoe Stratford announced that she is expecting her first child in September.
“I’m still going to be me, but probably less weird!” she told BBC Sport.
“Probably a bit more serious at times, but I want to keep that playful nature.
“I want to be relatable because growing up I always thought professionalism and being the top of your game meant being really serious.
“It’s actually quite the opposite for me – when I’m doing well is when I’m enjoying myself.”
The 29-year-old, who was nominated for World Player of the Year in 2025, is part of a clutch of England players who celebrate scores with a now-familiar ‘cowboy’ dance.
Jones has also co-hosted the Barely Rugby podcast with team-mate Hannah Botterman and comedian Harriet Kemsley, discussing life away from the pitch, while her honesty about her grief in the wake of her parents’ deaths has earned her praise.
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“Emily Scarratt is remarkable. She’s just always had a natural aura about her and I think probably the most that the bit I’ve learned from her and other captains as well would be to not jump to a conclusion straight away,” said Jones.
“I’m quite irrational – straight to the point, let’s just get it fixed – whereas Scaz is a bit more rational and ‘let’s have a think’.
“That’s probably what I am going to have to lean into a little bit more.”
Jones does not foresee any difficulties in motivating her team-mates after the high of September’s world title triumph.
“England have actually never won a Six Nations after a World Cup win – men or women – so to do that would be writing more history again,” she said.
“We pride ourselves on continuing to win and the competitive nature in this group is just unreal.”
A Los Angeles jury has found Alphabet’s Google and Meta liable for damages in a landmark civil trial over youth social media addiction. Campaigners and parents who say social media use has harmed their children, in some cases causing eating disorders, self-harm or deaths by suicide, welcomed the jury’s decision outside the court.
The jury’s decision on Wednesday came at the end of a case in which the plaintiff’s legal team argued the companies are legally responsible for the addictive design of their platforms.
Here is more about the jury’s verdict and the trial.
A 20-year old woman was the plaintiff in this case and was identified by the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County documents only by her initials, KGM. The plaintiff’s lawyers referred to her as Kaley.
KGM testified in February, saying her early use of social media triggered her addiction to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. She said she had developed body dysmorphia – a clinical condition diagnosed by doctors – as a result of her social media use.
Opening statements for the trial started on February 9, and deliberations lasted more than 40 hours.
Google and Meta, which is the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, were the two remaining defendants in the case.
In late January, TikTok and Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc, settled their parts in the case. Details of these settlements are not known.
Parents who say they have lost their children due to social media hold up a banner with their names and ages outside the court after the jury found Meta and Google liable in a key test case, accusing Meta and Google’s YouTube of harming children’s mental health through addictive social media platforms, in Los Angeles, California, US, on March 25, 2026 [Mike Blake/Reuters]
What did the plaintiff tell the court?
In February, KGM told the trial she had started using YouTube at the age of 6 and Instagram at age of 9. By the time she finished elementary school, she had posted 284 videos on YouTube.
The plaintiff told the court: “I stopped engaging with family because I was spending all my time on social media.” She added that she began to suffer anxiety and depression at the age of 10 – and was later diagnosed with both.
She said she would also “buy” likes through a platform on which she could “like” other people’s photos and receive a slew of likes in return. “It made me look popular,” she said.
KGM said several features, which lawyers argued are deliberately designed to be addictive, such as notifications, would give her a “rush”. She said she would sometimes go to the toilet during school just to check her notifications.
The plaintiff also said she used Instagram filters, which alter cosmetic appearance, on almost all her photos. She said she had not experienced the negative feelings associated with her body dysmorphia diagnosis before she began using social media and filters.
Victoria Burke, a former therapist the plaintiff worked with in 2019 for six months, also testified in February. Burke said that KGM’s social media and sense of self were intertwined, and what was happening online would influence the plaintiff’s mental health.
Juliana Arnold, Mary Rodee, and Lori Schott embrace after hearing the jury’s verdict outside the Los Angeles Superior Court during a lawsuit alleging that Meta and YouTube are designed to hook young users and cause them a variety of negative mental health effects and behaviours, including strangling themselves and developing eating disorders, on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 in Los Angeles, US [Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images]
While KGM’s lawyers claim she was preyed upon as a vulnerable user, lawyers representing Meta and Google-owned YouTube argued that KGM turned to their platforms as a coping mechanism or a means of escaping her already existing mental health struggles.
Meta argued that KGM’s challenges began before her social media use.
In February, Meta’s lawyer Paul Schmidt told the court that the core question in the case was whether the company’s social media platforms were a substantial factor in KGM’s mental health struggles.
During the trial, Meta lawyer Phyllis Jones showed jurors text exchanges and Instagram posts in which KGM discussed her mental health and her turbulent relationship with her mother, and played videos KGM had recorded of her mother yelling at her. The plaintiff acknowledged that their relationship was difficult. She currently lives with her mother and works as a personal shopper at Walmart.
What did the jury find?
The jury found that Meta had been negligent in designing or operating Instagram.
In the case of Meta, the jury found that the group’s negligence was a “substantial factor” in harm to the plaintiff and said it was liable for failing to adequately warn users about the dangers of using Instagram.
The jury also found Google had been negligent in designing or operating YouTube and that this negligence was a “substantial factor” in harming the plaintiff. It also found Google liable for failing to adequately warn users about the dangers of using YouTube.
A majority of jurors agreed to the findings and awarded the plaintiff $3m in compensatory damages.
Jurors later recommended an additional $3m in punitive damages after deciding the companies acted with malice, oppression or fraud in harming children using their platforms.
Meta will be liable for 70 percent of the total, while Google will be liable for the remainder.
The judge will have final say about how much damage is awarded. The judge has yet to enter a final judgement in the case, and it is not yet known when the formal ruling will be made.
Meta, the parent of Instagram and Facebook, and Google-owned YouTube issued statements disagreeing with the verdict. They said they would explore their legal options, which include making an appeal.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the verdict misrepresents YouTube “which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site”. A Meta spokesperson said teen mental health is “profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app”.
The day before the jury’s decision in the KGM trial, a separate jury in New Mexico determined that Meta had knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its social media platforms.
The lawsuit was the first jury trial to find Meta liable for activities on its platform. It was brought by New Mexico’s attorney general office in December 2023.
Jurors found there had been thousands of violations carrying a penalty of $5,000, each counting separately towards a penalty of $375m. This was less than one-fifth of what prosecutors were seeking, however.
