Image source, Getty Images

Later today the credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's will announce the status of South African debt - and some are speculating that it might be rated as "junk".

Junk status means that the ratings agency thinks the government may default on paying back the loan. 

This has profound implications as investors, such as pension funds, are prevented from buying bonds with a junk status.

BBC Africa Business Report's Matthew Davis says what South Africa needs is political cohesion - and that seems in short supply at the moment.    

He points to rumours from a fortnight ago that the finance minister was under threat of arrest over the creation of an alleged spy unit in the tax collection service which he headed up.

Read: What are bonds?

Watch: What do bonds tell us about politics

At least 104 bodies of migrants have been retrieved from the Mediterranean after a smuggling boat capsized off Libya's shores, Libya's navy spokesman told AP news agency. 

He said the Libyan coast guards found the empty boat on Thursday and that it's possible the boat capsized a day earlier on Wednesday. 

He blamed Europe for "doing nothing but counting bodies" to stop the massive illegal migration from Libya.

Read More about the migrant crisis on the BBC News website.

Ghana's president has tweeted a message as the country remembers to more than 150 people who died in a fire and flooding a year ago today (see our previous entry):

Kenya's opposition has said that its controversial weekly protests over the make up of the electoral commission will resume on Monday, after the failure of mediation.

Last month, demonstrations by Cord opposition supporters in the capital, Nairobi, and in other cities, ended in violence as police tried to break them up.

Police used tear gas, water cannon and batons to disperse the demonstrations.

In some places, police fired live rounds which led to at least three deaths.

The opposition said the protests will be peaceful.

The protests were called to demand that the electoral commission be dissolved, and that a new one be appointed.

Cord says that the commission is biased.  

Image source, Reuters

The hashtag #RememberJune3 is trending in Ghana as people mark a year since the deadly fire caused by flooding in the capital, Accra.

At least 150 people were killed when a petrol station they were sheltering in exploded.

The fire service said at the time that diesel, which had mixed with the flood waters, was ignited when it reached a stove in a nearby house.    

Image source, EPA

The authorities said the floods were caused by clogged drains and sewers which prevented the water from flowing out to the ocean.  

So some tweeters have been putting forward solutions to blocked drains:

The Democratic Republic of Congo's senate has passed a bill which bans same-sex couples from adopting children.

It specifically relates to international adoptions, reports Radio Okapi, external.

Since 2013, the government has blocked the departure of adopted children to investigate the well-being of children who have been taken abroad.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is seeking 2,500 more troops to reinforce the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali. 

Twelve of the mission's members were killed in a series of attacks in May alone, making Mali one of the world's most dangerous peacekeeping operations. 

The reinforcements would include a rapid reaction force, aircraft and specialists in high security convoys, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The Security Council will consider Mr Ban's request when it votes on whether to extend the mission's mandate at the end of the month.

Image source, Getty Images

The rise in the income of African countries is now a familiar story, but at the same time people complain that they're not benefiting.

One problem is that the continent's population is also increasing meaning that income per person is not increasing so rapidly.

There is also the issue of how the new-found wealth is being used.

Research by the London-based Legatum Institute and reported by the Financial Times, external suggests that what it terms "prosperity" has not improved in many countries.

It measures this by looking at a host of variables measuring things like entrepreneurship, health and education.

Some countries like Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Mozambique and Cameroon do appear to be doing well.

But Nigeria, Angola and Sudan - among others - are under-performing.

Nigerian police have made arrests after a woman was killed by a mob who accused her of blasphemy.

The attack happened in a market in Kano, northern Nigeria's main city.

Witnesses told the Nigerian news site The Cable, external that the woman was involved in an argument over the Prophet Muhammad and some youths with weapons attacked her.

Tulanana Bohela
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

Residents of Kibatini village in the Tanga region, northern Tanzania, have been left in shock and fear after eight people were beheaded. 

The motive behind the killings is unclear and police are still searching for the perpetrators who are thought to be hiding in a nearby forest. 

They have also called for residents to exercise patience as they continue their investigation but many families have left the village following the attack.

Abushiri who lives in Kibatini and lost his brother during the attack says the government needs to do more to protect residents:

Security forces have been deployed to the area.

South African athlete Caster Semenya has continued her dominant form this season with another Diamond League victory in the 800m in Rome on Thursday.

Image source, EPA

It was her third win in the series this season.

In 2009, she was forced to take a gender test as people questioned her world championship victory in Berlin.

She later said that she felt humiliated by the experience.

Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana was also impressive in Rome, winning the 5000m in near-world record time.

Ibrahim Aden
BBC Africa, Mogadishu

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has just arrived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as part of an official visit to the Horn of Africa.

Mr Erdogan was welcomed by President Hassan Sheik Mohamud, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, and Turkey’s ambassador to Somalia, Olgan Bekar.

A Somali journalist has been tweeting pictures of Mogadishu getting ready for the visit.  

Later, the Turkish president will open a new building housing his country's embassy in Mogadishu.

In recent years Turkey has enjoyed close relations with Somalia.

Read more: The unlikely love affair between two countries.

A BBC sport journalist is speculating about where Togolese player Emmanuel Adebayor will go next:

Last season he played for English Premier League team Crystal Palace.

During Kenya's national prayer breakfast this morning Kenya's deputy president made this suggestion:

The prayer breakfast was attended by the president as well, who tweeted about it:

The hashtag #NationalPrayerBreakfast has been trending in Kenya, with some criticism of the event:

For the first time ever, permission has been given for an archive of original African music to be remixed.

The archive was created by ethno-musicologist Hugh Tracey, who made 35,000 recordings across Africa between the 1920s and 1970s.

The songs have been remixed into the album Beating Heart Malawi, with profits going back to the Malawian communities that created the original sounds.  

Chris Pedley, one of the founders of Beating Heart, external and Piers Agget, from the UK music group Rudimental, told BBC Newsday's Lawrence Pollard that hearing the songs was an amazing experience.

For more listen here:

In the latest in a series of attacks in Nigeria's oil producing region, the Niger Delta Avengers militant group have said it targeted the Forcados pipeline owned by the Shell oil company.

This comes a day after the government launched a project to clean up the area damaged by regular oil spills.

The Avengers have pledged to stop the production of oil in the region. It is believed that the group wants a more equitable distribution of oil wealth for the Niger Delta.

In another development the army says that militants killed six people in Warri in the Niger Delta.

But the Avengers said that it was not responsible for this attack.

The current spate of attacks in the Niger Delta has led to a dip in Nigeria's oil production.

Image source, AFP

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has appointed his daughter Isabel as head of state oil firm Sonangol, Angola National State Radio (RNA) reports.

The radio report adds that this came after the president fired the entire Sonangol board and appointed a new one.

Angola is currently Africa's largest oil producer as militant attacks have reduced Nigeria's output, according to Reuters news agency.

Critics accuse Mr dos Santos of mismanaging Angola's oil wealth and making an elite, mainly his family and political allies, vastly rich. 

Isabel dos Santos is Africa's richest woman, according to Forbes.

Forbes points out in their profile of her, external that she already owns a 7% stake in a Portuguese oil and gas firm Galp Energia.

Today’s African proverb:

Image source, AFP

Click here to send in your proverb.

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