Image source, CHANNEL 2

Egypt's state broadcaster has suspended eight of its female TV presenters and told them to go on a diet, sparking uproar among women's rights groups.

The Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) has given the women one month to slim down before they can appear on air again with an "appropriate appearance", the Al-Yawm al-Sabi website reports. 

The ERTU has a female director, Safaa Hegazy, a former state TV anchor herself. The announcement prompted an outcry among the affected presenters. 

Khadija Khattab, a host on Egypt's Channel 2, told the paper that she wants people to watch her most recent TV appearances and judge for themselves if she is really "fat", and whether she deserves to be prevented from working. 

Another presenter said the situation had upset their families and should have been dealt with internally. 

Read full story

Image source, Getty Images

Police shot a man dead and several others were injured during a massive demonstration yesterday in Guinea's capital, Conakry, the AFP news agency reports. 

Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo claims 700,000 people attended the rally while the security forces put the number closer to 500,000. 

The BBC's Alhassan Sillah in Conakry says protesters vented their anger, blaming President Alpha Conde's government for the economic hardships they were experiencing, including high unemployment, especially among the youth. 

The protest organisers accused the government of running the country badly, and said that filth had engulfed the city.

South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will vote with the Democratic Alliance in its bid to take control of key cities from the governing African National Congress (EFF), the party's leader Julius Malema has said. 

This is despite the fact that the EFF has ruled out entering into a coalition government with the DA  in the economic hub of Johannesburg and Tshwane (which includes the capital, Pretoria) and Nelson Mandela Bay, which is in the ANC's heartland of Eastern Cape. 

In President Zuma's home province of KwaZulu-Natal, the EFF would side with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Mr Malema has said.

Our reporter is tweeting from his press conference:

The leader of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters has ruled out a coalition with the governing African National Congress or the main opposition Democratic Alliance, after no single party won an outright majority in the economic hub of Johannesburg and Pretoria in local government elections on 3 August. 

A BBC reporter is tweeting from Julius Malema's press conference: 

When Caster Semenya walks into Rio's Olympic Stadium today for the heats of the women's 800m, she will do so into a scientific and ethical storm that could once again sweep her away.

If she runs as well as she can, destroying the field, mangling that old record, it could end her career. Read the full article

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

Efforts by South Africa's two main opposition parties to form a coalition to run two key cities have failed, despite the fact that they inflicted heavy losses on the governing African National Congress (ANC) in local government elections earlier this month, one of the parties has said. 

Democratic Alliance (DA) chairman James Selfe was quoted, external by local media as saying that "ideological differences" stood in the way of the party's efforts to form a coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the economic hub of Johannesburg and Tshwane, which includes the capital, Pretoria. 

For the first time, the DA emerged as the biggest party in Tshwane but fell short of an outright majority to take control of the council on in its own. 

In Johannesburg, the DA trailed the ANC but could gain an overall majority in coalition with the EFF, led by the firebrand Julius Malema. 

Mr Selfe told AFP news agency: 

The elections saw the ANC recording worst performance since taking power at the end of apartheid in 1994, as voters punished it for corruption in government and high levels of unemployment.  

Image source, Reuters

Read: End of racial politics?

South Africa's Caster Semenya will take to the tracks today in the most anticipated appearance in the women's 800m qualification race. 

Controversy has dogged Semenya's career since she underwent a gender test in 2009 and was found to have high levels of testosterone. 

In the lead up to the Rio Games opinion has been divided on whether she should be allowed to compete in the women's race. 

She is favourite to win and is tipped to break a 33-year-old world record. 

South Africans have taken to social media to push back on the negative press that Semenya has been getting, especially in the West.  

This poem seems to be resonating with the tweeters: 

About 100 people marched through the streets of the capital Harare towards the central bank before riot police broke up the demonstration, Reuters news agency reports. 

Many Zimbabweans fear that the central bank's plan to introduce banknotes, or "bond notes", in October to ease the dollar shortage could lead to rampant money printing and hyper-inflation. 

Read: what is behind the protests?

Police in Zimbabwe have fired tear gas and water canons to break up a protest against the central bank's new currency rules, Reuters news agency quotes a witness as saying. 

We'll bring you more details as they come in. 

Ferdinand Omondi
BBC Africa, Mombasa

Image source, AFP

Authorities in Kenya's coastal region of Mombasa have banned night weddings for security reasons. 

The county's commissioner Maalim Mohammed says the move is to protect residents against attacks from knife- wielding gangs which have been terrorising locals. 

Organised gangs have been a problem in Mombasa lately, with some residential areas reporting brazen daylight robberies. 

Police have been carrying out security operations and several suspected gangsters have been shot dead. 

The coastal people usually hold wedding ceremonies that go on for as long as five days, which include night parties. 

Image source, Getty Images

Faith Kipyegon has won Kenya's third Olympic gold medal in the women's 1500m final at Rio 2016. 

Kipyegon's time of four minutes 08.92 seconds meant she finished ahead of Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba (4:10.27) and American Jennifer Simpson (4:10.53). 

In boxing, Nigeria’s Efe Ajagba lost to Kazakstan’s Ivan Dychko in the quarter-finals of the super heavyweight category. 

Angola lost to Russia 27 - 31 in the women's handball team. 

Image source, Reuters

The freed Chibok girl says she is unhappy to be separated from the man - identified by the military as a militant Islamist - who fathered her four-month-old child while she was held captive by Nigeria's Boko Haram group, Reuters news agency reports. 

In her first interview since being rescued in May, Amina Ali, 21,  told Reuters: 

Ms Ali is the only Chibok girl to have escaped since the high-profile abduction of more than 200 of them from a boarding school in north-eastern Nigeria in 2014. 

She was found by local people in a forest with the suspected militant who identified himself as her husband and their child. 

The Nigerian government kept her and the child in a safe house for a "restoration process", while the whereabouts of the child's father are unknown. 

Ms Ali told Reuters:

Image source, Nigeria military

Our African proverb of the day: 

Click here to send us your African proverb

Welcome to BBC Africa Live page where we will bring you the latest news from around the continent.