*N24.39tn💰 Debt: IMF Worries Over Nigeria’s🇳🇬 Repayment Capacity*

The International Monetary Fund, on Tuesday, expressed worry over Nigeria's ability to repay its foreign debt which had continued to rise.

The Financial Counsellor and Director, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF, Tobias Adrian, while presenting the Global Financial Stability Report at the ongoing joint annual spring meetings with the World Bank in Washington DC, said, "Nigeria has been borrowing in international markets but we worry.

When asked to comment on the risk of Chinese growing investment in Africa, Adrian said, "Lending - capital flows in general and these include flows from China - are, of course, important for development, on the one hand.

Adding that the Sovereign Wealth Funds should not be allowed to undertake extra-budgetary spending, the IMF said, "It is critical to develop a strong institutional framework to manage these resources-including good management of the financial assets kept in sovereign wealth funds-and to ensure that proceeds are appropriately spent.

This remains a significant challenge in many resource-rich countries that, on average, have weaker institutions and higher corruption "The governance challenges of commodity-rich countries- that is, the management of public assets- call for ensuring a high degree of transparency and accountability in the exploration of such resources.

*Anambra Assembly📜 Passes Bill to Stop Expensive⚰ Funerals*

The Anambra State House of Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill to stop expensive funerals in the state.

The bill, which was sponsored by the representative of Anaocha II Constituency, Charles Ezeani, now makes it an offence to hold funerals for more than one day in the state.

The bill says in the event of death "no person shall deposit any corpse in the mortuary or any place beyond two months from the date of the death, while burial ceremonies in the state shall be for one day".

The bill also says "no person shall subject any relation of a deceased person to a mourning period of more than one week from the date of the burial".

Ezeani told reporters that a monitoring and implementation committee would be set up by the Assembly to enforce the law after Governor Willie Obiano had signed it.

*PDP Backs👍 Tinubu Over no VAT Increment*

The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday aligned itself with the call by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on the Federal Government not to increase the Value Added Tax.

Tinubu had during the 11th Bola Tinubu Colloquium at the International Conference Centre, in Abuja, entitled, 'Next Level, Work for People,' said that an increase in VAT would reduce the spending capacity of the people.

He had said, "I will appeal to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and his team to put a question mark on any increase of VAT please.

Those who are not paying now, even it is inclusive of Bola Tinubu, let the (tax) net get bigger and take in more taxes and that is what we must do in the country instead of additional taxes for now."

"Having ruled for about four years, whatever extra efforts they think they can do to rejig the economy, they should put it on board now and not by imposing measures that will bring anguish and pains on Nigerians."

*Labour Urges💬 Buhari to Sign Minimum Wage💸 Bill Immediately*

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Wednesday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the new minimum wage bill.

The NLC said since the National Assembly approved the new minimum wage of N30,000 and passed it to the President for his assent nothing had been heard about it.

The union's Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, who spoke to our correspondent on the issue, said workers would be grateful if Buhari signed the bill this month.

He said, "The President constituted a committee that worked on the figure that was submitted to him and he sent it to the National Assembly as an executive bill.

This underscores the need for the President to sign into law the N30,000.000 National Minimum Wage Bill so the bodies that will work out the consequential adjustments arising from the new wage can be put in place."

🇬🇧British PM Voices🗣 Regret Over 1919 🇮🇳India Amritsar Massacre*

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday expressed regret for a massacre by British troops in India in 1919 but stopped short of a full apology.

"We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused," May told the British parliament, as India prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the killings.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, called for "a full, clear and unequivocal apology".

The April 13, 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in which British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, remains an enduring scar from British colonial rule in India.

Colonial-era records show about 400 people died in the northern city of Amritsar when soldiers opened fire on men, women and children in an enclosed area, but Indian figures put the toll at closer to 1,000.

Former British prime minister David Cameron described it as "deeply shameful" during a visit in 2013 but also stopped short of an apology.

Picture📷 of Black Hole Revealed for the 1⃣st Time

Astronomers announced on Wednesday that at last they had seen the unseeable: a black hole, a cosmic abyss so deep and dense that not even light can escape it.

The image, of a lopsided ring of light surrounding a dark circle deep in the heart of the galaxy known as Messier 87, some 55 million light-years away from here, resembled the Eye of Sauron, a reminder yet again of the power and malevolence of nature. It was a smoke ring framing a one-way portal to eternity.

To capture the image, astronomers reached across intergalactic space to a giant galaxy in Virgo, known as Messier 87. There, a black hole about seven billion times more massive than the sun is unleashing a violent jet some 5,000 light years into space.