Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, AFP

Zambian authorities have deported top Zimbabwe opposition politician Tendai Biti in defiance of a court order, his lawyer says.

Zimbabwe police have been searching for Mr Biti for allegedly inciting post-election violence, and he fled to Zambia on Wednesday.

His lawyer Gilbert Phiri says authorities defied the court order and have handed him over to Zimbabwe police. Mr Phiri told the BBC:

Mr Biti, a prominent human rights lawyer and former finance minister, is now expected to answer to charges of inciting violence and announcing false election results.

At least six people were killed in an army crackdown on protests against the results.

The main opposition MDC Alliance are disputing as fraudulent, President Emmerson Mnangangwa’s narrow win in last week’s election.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Reuters

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has given a blanket amnesty to rebels, including his rival Riek Machar, state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) reports.

The announcement comes days after the government and rebel groups signed a power-sharing deal in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, aimed at ending a nearly five-year civil war that has killed tens of thousands and forced millions of people from their homes.

A presidential decree, read out on state TV, said President Kiir had granted a general amnesty to "the leader of SPLM-IO [Sudan People's Liberation Movement - in Opposition], Dr Riek Machar Teny, and other estranged groups that waged war against the government of the Republic of South Sudan from 2013 to date".

Fighting broke out in December 2013 after President Kiir accused his sacked deputy Mr Machar of plotting a coup.

Mr Machar denied the charges, but then mobilised a rebel force to fight the government.

South Sudan's warring parties have also signed security arrangement deals as part of an ongoing peace process, mediated and brokered by the regional bloc Igad.

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

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Farouk Chothia

That's all from the BBC Africa Live page for now but keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website.

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About 300 Zimbabwean travellers blocked their government's security officers from arresting prominent opposition politician Tendai Biti at the border with Zambia, according to a document circulating on social media that appears to have been drafted by Zambia's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The document states that Zambian officials then intervened and threatened to arrest the Zimbabwean officers for "executing their mandate on Zambian soil".

A team of Zambian paratroopers, armed with AK-47 rifles, later arrived at the Chirundu border post and took Mr Biti away, the document says.

Image source, Getty Images

Zambia's Foreign Minister Joe Malanji told the BBC Mr Biti's asylum request has been turned down.

Mr Biti fled to Zambia after Zimbabwean police issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him of "unlawfully" announcing that his party's leader, Nelson Chamisa, defeated President Emmerson Mnangagwa in last Monday's presidential election.

He is also accused of inciting the violence last Wednesday when MDC Alliance supporters clashed with security forces, leaving six people dead.

The MDC denies causing violence, and accuses the security forces of brutally cracking down on its leaders and activists.

See earlier post

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Anti-corruption officers in Kenya have arrested former Nairobi governor Evans Kidero over alleged crimes committed during his term in office, the chief prosecutor's office has said.

Mr Kidero, who is a senior member of the opposition, was among 11 government officials and businesspeople who were "criminally culpable" for mismanaging and embezzling public funds, it added on its Twitter feed.

Lawyers for Mr Kidero and the other accused have not yet commented.

He was the governor of Nairobi County from 2013 to 2017, and is close to Kenya's main opposition leader Raila Odinga.

BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Scottish football club Hibernian have completed the loan signing of Ghana winger Thomas Agyepong from Manchester City.

The 21-year-old must now await the outcome of a visa application before being able to make his Hibs debut.

Agyepong joined City in 2015 and has spent most of his time on loan in the Netherlands with Twente and NAC Breda.

The winger has been signed to fill a void left by his former City colleague Brandon Barker, who spent last season on loan at Easter Road.

Barker, 21, joined Preston on a temporary deal on Tuesday.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, Reuters

Zambia has denied asylum to senior Zimbabwean opposition politician Tendai Biti, Foreign Minister Joe Malanji has told the BBC.

Mr Biti arrived in Zambia this morning, the minister said.

“He wanted to seek asylum but his grounds are not meritorious. As it is, we are just keeping him for safe custody before he heads back to Harare," Mr Malanji told the BBC.

“It is not up to us to tell when he’s going back; it’s up to the Zimbabwean authorities,” he added.

Mr Biti is a member of the opposition MDC Alliance, which lost Zimbabwe's elections last week.

He preempted the official announcement of the results by saying MDC Alliance candidate Nelson Chamisa had defeated President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the poll.

Circus Zambia works with young people from the Chibolya slum settlement in the capital, Lusaka.

It equips its members with circus skills as well as other valuable life skills, giving them a safe space to learn.

BBC What's New went to meet Charles on a recent trip to the UK, raising funds for the circus.

Video producers: Lara Joannides and Ali Farahani

Pakistan is set to have its first ever lawmaker of African descent, raising the profile of a small and mostly poor community that has been in the region for centuries.

Tanzeela Qambrani, 39, was nominated by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to a women's reserved seat in the regional parliament of southern Sindh province.

She hopes her nomination after last month's election will help wash away the stigma attached to the Sidi community, the local name for the ethnic African population concentrated in the coastal regions of Makran and Sindh.

"As a tiny minority lost in the midst of local populations, we have struggled to preserve our African roots and cultural expression, but I look forward to the day when the name Sidi will evoke respect, not contempt," Ms Qambrani, whose ancestors came from Tanzania, told the BBC.

Read the full story here

Image source, EPA

Hundreds of mostly African farm labourers have marched from fields in southern Italy chanting "we are not slaves, no to exploitation" in a protest against the working conditions of tomato pickers, AFP news agency reports.

The protest came after 16 migrant workers died in two road accidents within 48 hours, highlighting the plight of farm workers around the city of Foggia in the Puglia region.

Both accidents happened when lorries transporting tomatoes crashed into vans carrying farm workers returning from their day's work.

Their pay is as low as one euro ($1.16) for picking 100kg (221lb) of tomatoes.

The workers are sometimes recruited by people linked to the mafia, and the deaths have caused much public anger, AFP reports.

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini visited the region on Tuesday, promising to fight the "mafia" in and around Foggia and to destroy it "street by street, town by town", the agency reports.

BBC World Service

The governing party in the Democratic Republic of Congo has named Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary as its candidate for the presidential election in December.

Mr Shadary, a former vice-president and interior minister in Joseph Kabila's government, has been targeted by European Union sanctions and accused of a ruthless crackdown on activists.

Mr Kabila's mandate expired two years ago and although he is constitutionally barred from standing for a further term, there had been widespread speculation he would seek to extend his years in office.

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Shadary will face at least eight other contenders, including the former vice-president and ex-warlord, Jean Pierre Bemba, who returned to DR Congo last week after being acquitted of war crimes at the International Criminal Court.

Image source, AFP

The former first lady of Ivory Coast, Simone Gbagbo, has been freed from prison after President Alassane Ouattara granted her amnesty in what he said was a move to foster reconciliation, reports BBC Afrique's Lilianne Nyatcha.

She returned to her home in the upmarket suburb of Cocody in the main city, Abidjan, where a crowd was waiting to welcome her.

In 2015, Mrs Gbagbo was sentenced to 20 years for her role in the violence that followed the 2010 elections in which more than 3,000 people died.

Her husband, Laurent Gbagbo, is on trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Mrs Gbagbo was among around 800 people that President Alassane Ouattara pardoned.

The 34-year-old winner of a R145m ($10.8m; £8.4m) lottery in South Africa says he kept his lucky ticket in his sock, the local Times Lives news site reports, external.

The man, who has preferred to remain anonymous, told Times Live that he felt the ticket would be safest in his sock in case robbers broke into his home at night.

He also kept the ticket in his sock when he went to work.

"I kept on thinking that what if I was involved in a car accident. You know how people lose their wallets in accidents‚ so it was safer there‚" he told Times Live.

The 34-year-old married man is an engineer in the small mining town of Secunda in South Africa's eastern Mpumalanga province.

The new multi-millionaire and his wife collected the money on Tuesday after he won the lottery on Friday. He spent R20 on his winning ticket, according to the local eNCA news site, external.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, Getty Images

Two maids and a gardener in Zambia have pleaded guilty to stealing clothes and beer belonging to the widow of former President Michael Sata.

Christine Kaseba took maids Stella Michelo and Eusibia Malambo and gardener Zachariah Mulama to court for stealing seven blouses, a dress and a pack of Heineken valued at $500 (£390) from her home in the capital, Lusaka, on 20 July.

Michelo admitted that she stole three tops while Malambo confessed to stealing four. The duo said they did not know what influenced them to steal.

Mulama explained that the beer was given to him by one of the maids, and he just took the pack.

The court ordered that even though he had pleaded guilty, his explanation warranted a trial to establish whether he was really guilty.

Sentencing for the two maids is set for Thursday.

Mr Sata ruled Zambia from 2011 to 2014. He died in office while receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness at a hospital in London at the age of 77.

Ms Kaseba is due to become Zambia's ambassador to France, following her appointment to the post by the government of President Edgar Lungu.

The chief correspondent of Zimbabwe's state broadcaster, ZBC, says reports that senior opposition politician Tendai Biti has been detained are fake news, while police say they have no information about any arrest.

Earlier, his lawyer said he was arrested at the Zambian border.

The BBC's reporter in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, has been tweeting about the latest developments:

Russell Padmore
Business correspondent, BBC News

London-based energy company Tullow Oil has reached a deal with the Kenyan government to allow the resumption of oil exports from the north of the country.

Work at the oil fields in Turkana has been suspended for a month following disruption caused by protests by the local community.

Kenya's fledgling energy industry took an important step in June when oil was exported for the first time, as Tullow Oil developed the reserves in the Turkana region.

Image source, AFP

The oil has to be transported by truck because it will be at least four years before a pipeline is built.

The scheme to use trucks aims to transport 2,000 barrels a day, but it was disrupted by protests from activists who want the regional authority to get a bigger share of the revenues, fearing the local economy will miss out if the government in Nairobi has tight control over the money.

The government has agreed to set up a mechanism that gives local communities and Tullow Oil a forum to resolve issues.

The company and its partners Total and Africa Oil are targeting production in Kenya of at least 100,000 barrels of oil a day by 2022.

It's reported some of the protests were aimed at getting the deployment of more security forces to a region, which has long been plagued by banditry and cattle rustling.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

People in eastern Ethiopia say the internet has been cut off for the past three days.

They say it has been shut down in the vast Somali region and neighbouring areas, including the city of Harar.

This is the first time internet access has been cut in Ethiopia since the state of emergency was lifted in June.

There have been days of deadly clashes in the Somali region during a power struggle between the regional and federal authorities.

The regional president, Abdi Mahamoud Omar, resigned on Monday.

He has since been arrested and taken to the capital, Addis Ababa.

A Kenyan man who was caught on video beating and kicking his wife has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Daudi Nzomo pleaded guilty to the charge of grievous bodily harm, but urged the magistrate to give him a lenient sentence as he is the sole breadwinner in his family.

Magistrate James Mwaniki said Nzomo hads been violent in the past, and he was therefore sentencing him to 12 years in prison, two of which were suspended, Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper reports.

The video of Nzomo assaulting his wife was widely circulated on social media last week, causing outrage.

She is receiving medical treatment at a hospital in the capital, Nairobi, following the assault on 30 July at Kyaaka village in eastern Makueni County, Kenya's Standard newspaper reports.