Africa covers Iron Mike's 'sex swap op'

Online newspapers in Africa have published a spoof story about former Mike Tyson having a sex change.

The article first appeared on the UK satirical website, NewsBiscuit, at the end of November, reports the BBC.

It was then published by Zimbabwe's Standard on Sunday and picked up by the SpyGhana news website on Tuesday.

NewsBiscuit said their site kept crashing because of increased hits from Africa.

"We've had half as many visitors from Africa in the last few days as we'd expect generally in a whole month," said comic writer John O'Farrell from NewsBiscuit.

He said the story had been viewed more than 50,000 times in the last few days, about 20 times more than usual.

The spoof article said that the boxer would now be known as Michelle and was feeling fine after undergoing a 16-hour operation.

Versions of the story have appeared in the sport sections of the Standard and SpyGhana.

Zambian news website Zambia Watchdog also carried the story, with the headline "Mike Tyson sex change operation 'a complete success', say surgeons".