US President-elect Donald Trump paid tribute to the late Jimmy Carter as he lay in state in Washington on Wednesday, reports AFP. 

Stony-faced and silent, Trump stood with his wife Melania for several minutes before former president Carter's flag-draped coffin in the soaring Rotunda inside the US Capitol, then took a deep breath and Melania's hand as they turned and left.

Four years ago the same space was stormed by Trump supporters seeking -- unsuccessfully -- to prevent certification of his election loss to President Joe Biden.

But he made a remarkable comeback in last year's November vote, and will be inaugurated as the 47th US president on January 20 -- though flags will be flying at half-staff during the ceremony, in honor of Carter.

That is part of a customary 30-day mourning period for a US president, though Trump has criticized it, saying "no Americans can be happy" about the lowered flags as he takes over from Biden.

Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100, served a single term from 1977-1981 and was widely praised for his post-presidential humanitarian efforts, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

His body will lie in state at the Capitol until Thursday for members of the public to pay their respects to a man who was panned for his political instincts while in office, but redefined what a post-presidency could look like. 

A state funeral service is to be held Thursday at the National Cathedral, an Episcopal church in Washington that also hosted funerals for former presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.

Biden is to deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat, while Trump along with the other three living former presidents -- Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- are expected to attend.

MSH

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).