Thousands of supporters of the party of veteran opposition leader, the late Etienne Tshisekedi, are in the capital Kinshasa to show their support for his son and their current leader Félix Tshisekedi.

A journalist for France24 says Mr Tshisekedi has so far appealed for a minute's silence to remember victims of recent violence in the country and discussed concerns over the possible use of 100,000 new and untested electronic voting machines in long-awaited awaited elections.

He also says Mr Tshisekedi addressed the row over the repatriation of his father's body from Belgium, which authorities have refused to allow.

It's the first time the opposition has been allowed to hold a mass rally in two years.

Our colleague Poly Muzalia sent these photos from the scene earlier:

Image source, Poly Muzalia/ BBC

Image source, Poly Muzalia/ BBC

The rally marks the 28th anniversary of multi-party politics in the country.

Tensions are growing over President Joseph Kabila's refusal to quit even though his mandate expired in December 2016.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned an attack on a Catholic church which local officials say left 14 members of the congregation and two priests dead.

President Buhari described the attack as vile and satanic and said it aimed to stoke religious conflict.

The gunmen targeted Saint Ignatius Church in Mbalom village, which is not far from areas where there have been recent clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

There are reports of dozens of homes being set ablaze.

Several states across Nigeria are witnessing frequent outbreaks of violence and Nigeria's military and police appear overstretched.

Image source, Getty Images

The Israeli government has told the Supreme Court that it no longer plans to forcibly deport thousands of migrants to a third country, reports Reuters news agency.

The country's previous plan which was to deport thousands of mostly Eritrean and Sudanese men to a third country against their will.

The fate of more than 30,000 migrants, who entered the country illegally, has long been a hugely contentious issue.

Most of the African migrants in Israel are from Eritrea and Sudan who entered from Egypt several years ago, before a new fence was built along the desert border.

They say they fled danger at home and that it is not safe to return to another African country, but Israel considers the majority of African asylum seekers to be economic migrants.

Image source, Getty Images

Protesters have hit the streets in Madagascar for the fourth day in a row, reports AFP news agency.

The agency says hundreds of opposition activists gathered at a square in front of the capital Antananarivo's town hall asking President Hery Rajaonarimampianina to resign.

The opposition accuses the regime of trying to keep them out of the election in seven months' time by bringing in new electoral laws.

They say the new laws benefit the incumbent and could ban some candidates from standing in the presidential election.

The president has denounced the protests as an attempted coup.

Nick Cavell
BBC Africa Sport

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Bryan Habana, who announced his retirement today, burst onto the rugby scene in an era when questions were being asked about whether South African rugby was doing enough to integrate black players at the highest level.

He was a player whose credentials no-one could question and he quickly became a role model for a generation of young South African rugby players regardless of their background.

His rise into the international game was speedy.

Less than a year after first playing at provincial level in South Africa he was scoring on his international debut as a 21-year-old.

That electric pace was matched on the field. He once raced a cheetah to raise awareness of their plight.

He had an ability to create tries from the most difficult of positions. This saw him cement his place in the Springbok team and in 2007 he was the top try scorer as South Africa were crowned World Champions. That also earned him the International Rugby Board’s Player of the Year award.

He retires as South Africa’s all-time leading try scorer with 67 and joint record holder for most tries at the World Cup with 15 – equal with the great New Zealand winger Jonah Lomu.

Image source, Science Photo Library

Kenya's coffee farmers are increasingly abandoning the crop in favour of macadamia nuts, Bloomberg news agency reports, external, because of huge demand from China.

Prices for macadamia nuts have more than doubled so far this year, and China is now the second-biggest market for the nuts after the US.

Kenya is renowned for its Arabica coffee but Bloomberg reports that production has dwindled after years of mismanagement by the industry regulator.

The production of macadamia nuts overtook that of coffee beans by weight for the first time in 2017, according to Kenya's Agriculture and Food Authority.

Kenya is the world's third-largest producer of macadamia nuts, according to the International Nut & Dried Fruit Council, external, which coffee farmers used to grow to shade their coffee beans.

“Wherever coffee is grown, macadamia also grows and farmers are now aware of the opportunity with macadamia," Bloomberg quotes Loise Maina of agriculture processor Nawiri Agribusiness as saying.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC Africa, Harare

Image source, Getty Images

A high court has dismissed an urgent court application attempting to ban a politician from using the opposition party's logo and slogan.

Nelson Chamisa wanted the court to ban Thokozani Khupe from using the Movement for Democratic Change's logo.

Mr Chamisa and Mr Khupe both claim to be the rightful leaders of the party. They have been fighting over the leadership since Morgan Tsvangirai died in February.

The judgment is yet to be released, so it's not clear whether the judge dismissed the case because he disagreed with the matter being characterised as urgent or whether he ruled on the substance of the arguments about legitimacy.

There has been a decrease in riots at a Kenyan prison after an experiment in so-called mindfulness, the assistant commissioner in charge of Naivasha prison has told the BBC.

Matthew Mutisya told our colleague Mercy Juma that the the prison has become easier to manage.

"We have fewer riots and attempted escapes. I can walk inside the prison without being armed. Many of them are less aggressive," he said.

Mindfulness - focusing on the present while calmly accepting your feelings, thoughts and sensations - is said to change the way people deal with their experiences. Its proponents say it can reduce stress and anxiety, help people to let go of what cannot be changed, and better manage their emotions.

One of the exercises our reporter saw involved participants - prisoners and guards - write down the emotion they would like to release, then come forward to set alight their papers and throw them in a metal bowl.

Dr Inmaculada Adarves-Yorno, a lecturer in leadership studies at the University of Exeter, pioneered the Naivasha programme. She says acceptance is one of the most important and difficult challenges.

"Accepting one's circumstances is not the same as not wanting change. Individuals can still work towards change even as they settle into an acceptance of who and where they are".

• Read the whole story on the BBC News website.

Image source, Bild

A Tunisian man who once allegedly protected Osama Bin Laden has lived in Germany since 1997 and gets €1,168 ($1,428; £1,022) a month in welfare payments.

The figure was revealed by a regional government, after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) asked about the man, known as Sami A.

According to witness testimony from a German anti-terror trial in 2005, Sami A served for several months in 2000 as one of Bin Laden's bodyguards in Afghanistan. He denies that, but judges in Düsseldorf believed the witness.

Deportation to Tunisia was ruled out because of fears that he could be tortured there.

• Read more on the BBC News website.

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

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The South African government says it is carrying out an audit of all schools as it tries to eradicate the use of pit latrines following the deaths of at least two children who had fallen into such toilets.

President Cyril Ramaphosa wants pit toilets at schools eradicated within the next few months.

On Monday, a court in Limpopo ordered a school to remove all its pit toilets but it refused to give financial compensation to the parents of a boy who died by drowning in a toilet four years ago.

Human rights groups say the use of pit latrines is a violation of a child's right to dignity and have called on the government to urgently build safe facilities.

Image source, AFP

Angola's first satellite is going to be scrapped and replaced with another in 2020, Angolan and Russian officials announced today, Reuters news agency reports.

Launched on 26 December from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Angosat-1 was intended to improve TV, radio and internet communications in Angola.

The development and launch of the satellite cost more than 286m euros ($349m, £253m) and it was expected to have a working life of about 15 years.

But it has been plagued with problems.

Just a few days after it was launched the Russian Energia rocket and space corporation lost contact with the satellite for two days.

It is now considered a write-off and Russia has promised to build another satellite to be launched in 2020, Reuters adds.

South African rugby player Bryan Habana has announced on Instagram that he is retiring after struggling with a knee injury.

"The inevitable moment has come knocking on my door and I’ve welcomed it in for a drink," he posted.

The 34-year-old was part of the South Africa team that won the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

He had knee surgery last year and has struggled since, reports Sky Sports, external.

He touched on this in his post:

Kenyan news channel NTV have shared this aerial footage showing the extent of damage caused by flooding to a major road close to the capital, Nairobi.

Police are advising motorists on the Narok Mai Mahiu road to drive with caution and obey instructions from traffic police on the ground.

There have been heavy rains across Kenya, displacing thousands of people and causing damage to roads and property.

At least five people in eastern Kenya have been killed since the weekend following heavy flooding.

Image source, AFP

Saudi authorities are threatening to bar Nigerians from attending this year's pilgrimage to Mecca over fears they could spread Lassa fever, Nigeria's National Hajj Commission has said.

Since the start of the year the disease has killed at least 90 people in Nigeria, external and more than 1,000 cases have been reported across the country.

Symptoms of Lassa fever can include fever, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, abdominal pains, sore throat and facial swelling.

The virus is passed to people who eat infected rats, or if food is contaminated by rat droppings or urine. It can also be transmitted through contact with body fluids of an infected person.

A spokesman for Nigeria's Hajj commission, Mousa Ubandawaki, says they are responding to the threat by holding "an expanded meeting" on Wednesday with "all officials from the 36 states, the commission and officials of the federal government to discuss the matter".

The Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will take place in August this year.

• Read more: The killer disease with no vaccine

Image source, Getty Images

An Egyptian military court has sentenced a former anti-corruption chief, Hisham Geneina, to five years in jail, charged with spreading news that harms the army.

The military detained Geneina in February following an interview he gave to Huffpost Arabi, the Arabic version of the US news site.

In the interview he said former armed forces chief General Sami Anan possessed documents that were damning of senior Egyptian officials. He gave no details.

Geneina, a qualified judge, was sacked by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as head of the Central Auditing Authority in 2016 after he was accused of exaggerating the cost of corruption in Egypt.

His lawyers told news agencies that he is filing an appeal.

Supporters have begun to arrive at the first opposition rally allowed in Kinshasa for two years.

Tweeters are posting pictures, including this one showing people starting to congregate near the stage where the Union for Democracy and Social Progress leader Félix Tshisekedi will be speaking:

Previously Congolese activists, campaigning for President Joseph Kabila to stand down, had defied the protest ban and police used live ammunition, killing protesters.

Image source, Oussouby Sacko

Oussouby Sacko, who was appointed dean of Japan's Kyoto Seika University earlier this month, has shared his experience as one of the few foreign nationals in Japan to reach a high post with BBC Newsday.

He says Japan and his native Mali share a culture of respect for elders, but says Japan with its low immigration numbers, is relatively closed society to outsiders:

The architecture professor contrasts his experience of living in China in the 1980s with his time in Japan:

The professor likes to inject elements of his own culture into university life, even addressing students at a welcoming ceremony this month in his native Bamanankan, external.

He says the biggest difference between West African and Japanese cultures is in non-verbal communication.

“People in Japan expect to others to immediately respond to that. It’s a big code of communication for them.”

Japan's birth rate has reached record lows, external and more than 20% of the population is over 65. Much has been said about Japan's need to widen immigration to mitigate this so-called demographic time bomb.

Prof Sacko believes this will be a big challenge:

Image source, Getty Images

French police have taken billionaire Vincent Bolloré into custody as part of an investigation into how his company won the contracts to operate two container ports in West Africa in 2010.

His group denies any irregular activity in Africa.

Investigators are looking into why Guinea's president Alpha Condé terminated a contract with an existing operator and gave it to the Bolloré group after he was elected to office.

They are also investigating another contract which gave the group the rights to run the Lomé container port in Togo.

Former France, Morocco, Cameroon, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea coach Henri Michel has died aged 70.

The Frenchman went to three World Cups with African teams - Cameroon in 1994, Morocco in 1998, and Ivory Coast in 2006.

France's football union has tweeted these photos of Henri Michel, calling him a towering figure in French football:

Image source, Getty Images

Africa was the most expensive region to send money to last year, the World Bank says, external.

It costs an average of 9% to send $200 (£143) to sub-Saharan Africa as of the start of 2018, while the global average cost is 7%. Both fall short of the UN's sustainable development goal of 3%.

"While remittances are growing, countries, institutions, and development agencies must continue to chip away at high costs of remitting so that families receive more of the money," says World Bank report author Dilip Ratha.

The World Bank says $466bn was sent worldwide in 2017.

That's an increase of 8.5% since 2016.

The report says this was driven by economic growth in Europe, Russia and the US.

The body expects growth of at least 4% this year.

Nigeria and Egypt - two of Africa's most populous nations with large diasporas - are among the world's top remittance recipients, totalling $22bn and $20bn respectively last year.