The BBC's Milton Nkosi now has a copy of the summons issued to Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa’s radical EFF party (see earlier entries).

The charges relate to comments he made around 16 December 2014 and 26 June 2016, in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Free State respectively. The summons reads that on those dates:

Image source, AFP

The #BringBackOurGirls group has put out an official statement on its Facebook page, external welcoming the release of the 21 Chibok schoolgirls:

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, Getty Images

More details are coming in of the summons issued to South Africa's opposition EFF leader Julius Malema (see previous entry).

The summons is related to charges under the Riotous Assemblies Act when he allegedly urged his supporters to grab land in 2014.

He reportedly told his supporters:

The advocacy group AfriForum, which mainly campaigns for the rights of Afrikaners, laid criminal charges against him at the time. 

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa's radical opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, has been served with a summons by the police to appear in court.

It is for a crime he allegedly committed at the University of Free State in 2014.

Details of the contents of the summons are to follow.

Image source, AFP

Sources in Nigeria have been giving the AFP news agency more details about how the prisoner swap was organised to secure the release of the Chibok girls.

Nigeria’s presidential spokesman said the Swiss government and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were behind the negotiations.

It seems that it was the ICRC that helped in the physical swap.

One AFP source said the girls were brought in Red Cross vehicles to Kumshe, which is about 15km (nine miles) from a military base in Banki, a town that borders Cameroon.

"The four Boko Haram militants were brought to Banki from Maiduguri in a military helicopter from where they were driven to Kumshe in ICRC vehicles," the source said.

Another source added: "The 21 girls arrived [in] Banki around 3:00 (0:200 GMT) where they found a military helicopter waiting.”

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News, Kigali

Image source, Getty Images

Cooling chemicals that play a key role in refrigeration and air conditioning are likely to be rapidly phased out if delegates can reach agreement in Rwanda this week.

Around 150 countries are meeting in the capital, Kigali, to try and agree a speedy ban on hydrofluorocarbon, external (HFC) gases.

HFCs were introduced to limit damage to the ozone layer, but cause much greater levels of global warming than CO2.

However nations are divided over the speed and timing of any phase-out.

Around 100 nations including the US, European and African countries and island states are pushing for a peak in their use by 2021. India, a large manufacturer of the gases, favours a much later date of 2031.  

Concern over a growing hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica saw the Montreal Protocol, external agreed back in 1987.

For more read Matt McGrath's full article

Nigeria news website Sahara Reporters, which first reported the news today about the release of the Chibok girls, has been tweeting more details a prisoner swap that secured their freedom.

The details are yet to be confirmed, but the site says 18 of the girls have babies and they were swapped for four high-profile Boko Haram commanders:

It also reports that the girls are on their way to the capital, Abuja:

Oby Ezekwesili, founder of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign and former government minister, has been tweeting about her feelings at news of the release of 21 Chibok girls: 

Image source, AFP

The Boko Haram group based in north-eastern Nigeria has been waging an insurgency for last seven years in its quest to establish an Islamic state.

When the Chibok girls were abducted in April 2014, the militants were at the height of their strength - capturing huge swathes of territory.

Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language.

One of the Chibok schoolgirls who managed to escape in the first few hours of their abduction told the BBC Hausa Service that the militants had said to them: "You're only coming to school for prostitution. Boko [Western education] is haram [forbidden] so what are you doing in school?"

Many thousands of people have been taken captive over the years by the insurgents.

Captives from the villages they were taking over were generally put to work, the boys as fighters while women and girls were often forced to become wives of men in the group.

But it was the abduction of the girls from Chibok that gained international attention through the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

With news of release of the group of girls today, negotiated by the International Red Cross and Swiss government, it means that 197 of the Chibok girls are still missing.

President spokesman Garba Shehu says negotiations with Boko Harm to release them will continue.

The Nigerian presidential spokesman is tweeting more details about the release of 21 Chibok girls from captivity, saying negotiations were brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Swiss government:

Mr Shehu adds details about the girls' condition given to the president by the head of the country's intelligence agency: 

The spokesman for Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has tweeted confirmation of the Chibok girls' release: 

Image source, AFP

In the Central African Republic, at least 23 people were killed in an attack on a UN refugee camp in the north of the country, the Reuters news agency reports. 

The attack was carried out overnight on Wednesday by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group, according to UN officials quoted by Reuters.

The militiamen reportedly killed 13 refugees before 10 of them were gunned down when soldiers from the UN mission in the country, Minusca, intervened.

Hundreds of panicked villagers, already disaplced by earlier violence, then fled in the direction of the UN base. 

These violent incidents were the latest in the Central African Republic which has been in chaos since early 2013 when the Seleka toppled then-President Francois Bozize.

CAR has been torn by sectarian violence since Seleka rebels seized power in March 2013.

A band of mostly Christian militias, called the anti-Balaka, then took up arms against the Seleka.

Image source, AFP

The official who spoke to the BBC confirming the release of the 21 Chibok girls wanted to remain anonymous and the government has not issued a statement.

Previous reports of the girls' release have turned out not to be true.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Lagos says if it is true that a group of girls has been rescued it will be seen as a major success for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. 

It is been under intense pressure to do more to secure their freedom, he says.

Mr Buhari took office in May 2015 with a promise to defeat Boko Haram, and gave the military a deadline of the end of the year to end their insurgency.  

Over the last 20 months, Nigeria's army and its regional allies have recaptured much of the territory the militant group controlled, but the militants are still active.

Last month, Mr Buhari called for the UN to mediate with Boko Haram to secure the release of schoolgirls, saying he was prepared to swap militants who are in custody for the girls.

But the problem has always been finding a credible leader to negotiate with - not helped by the fact that in August the group split into two factions.

Image source, AP

The kidnapping of the Chibok girls in Nigeria sparked one of the biggest global social media campaigns, with tweeters using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, external.

They were abducted on 14 April 2014:

• 276 girls were loaded on to lorries by militants at the secondary school in Chibok at night
• In total 219 girls were taken away as some managed to escape within hours of their kidnapping, mostly by jumping off the lorries and running off into the bushes
• One girl,  Amina Ali Nkeki, was found in May as she was collecting firewood in the  huge Sambisa Forest, close to the border with Cameroon
• A Boko Haram video in August 2016 said some of the girls had died in army air strikes
• The video showed about 50 girls with a gunman demanding the release of fighters in return for their return
• Today a government spokesman told the BBC that 21 girls had been released (see earlier entry)
• This would bring the total of girls released to 22.

Read more: What we know about the missing girls

The Sambisa forest in north-eastern Nigeria is a stronghold of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. 

The only girl who had been rescued before today was found in the forest and said that the rest of the girls were also being held there. 

BBC Hausa's Jimeh Saleh was granted exclusive access to the area last December, travelling with the Nigerian army: 

Read more: The town that lost its girls

Martin Patience
BBC News, Nigeria correspondent

A senior government official in Nigeria has told the BBC that 21 of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants have been freed.

It is understood the girls are being held by the security services in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

It is not yet clear how the girls were rescued, but the Nigerian military is currently carrying out a large-scale operation in the Sambisa forest, Boko Haram’s stronghold.

The Islamist militant group kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school in Chibok in April 2014.

Until now only one girl had been rescued.

A vigilante group found Amina Ali Nkeki in May with her suspected militant husband and her new baby.

Image source, Boko Haram video

Image source, S.QUINN/CIP

Four scientists have been awarded the 2016 World Food Prize for enriching sweet potatoes, which resulted in health benefits for millions of people.

They won the prize for "the single most example of biofortification", resulting in Vitamin A-boosted crops.

The $250,000 (£203,000) prize recognises efforts to increase the quality and quantity of available food.

Among the winners are three scientists who worked on developing the vitamin-enriched orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP).  

Vitamin A deficiency (vad) is considered to be one of the most harmful forms of malnutrition in the developing world. It can cause blindness, limits growth, weakens immunity and increases mortality.

The condition affects more than 140 million pre-school children in 118 nations, and more than seven million pregnant women.

It is said to be the leading cause of child blindness in developing countries.

Image source, S.QUINN/CIP

Read the full BBC story

Image source, AFP

The international community has been accused of dragging its heels in establishing a special court to try alleged war crimes in South Sudan.

Amnesty International says, external that a promise, agreed by the warring parties and backed up by US Secretary of State John Kerry and regional leaders to set up a so-called hybrid court, has stalled. 

It follows an upsurge in violence in recent months and increased tensions in the capital Juba, despite a peace deal signed last year.

South Sudan is not a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

And the ICC does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed during the ongoing conflict, the rights group adds. 

Image source, AFP

Senior staff at South Africa’s distance-learning university Unisa are donating some of their bonuses to a bursary scheme to help deserving poor students.

The announcement comes amid nationwide student protests calling for free education.

Unisa’s vice-chancellor, Professor Mandla Makhanya, said $696,300 (£572,000) would be donated to the scheme.

South Africa’s News24 website quotes Mr Makhanya as saying:

The protests began last year and President Jacob Zuma ordered a freeze on tuition fees for a year.

They began again last month when the government proposed an 8% fee increase for next year.

Read more: Why are South African students protesting?