Image source, Simon Annand

Producers have announced the casting for the new Harry Potter stage show and Hermione Granger will be played by a black actress.

While many people are pleased Swaziland-born Noma Dumezweni is taking on the role, others suggest they have a problem with Hermione "changing race".

Emma Watson portrayed the character in the films, while covers of the books have shown Hermione as white.

Fans say JK Rowling never explicitly referred to Hermione's race.

Read the full BBC story here.

Carole Walker
UK political correspondent

UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has announced an increase in support to the Nigerian military to tackle militant Islamist group Boko Haram. 

It will include a specialist team to help deal with improvised explosive devices and more medical training.  

Image source, Boko Haram video

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has praised last week's constitutional referendum which allows him to run for a controversial third term, the AFP news agency reports.

The "yes" vote in favour of the constitutional change garnered 98.4%, according to official results, AFP reports. 

"No individual is forever, but there is no term limit on values, institutions, or progress," Mr Kagame is quoted as saying in his annual State of the Nation address, it reports. 

"When the time comes to transfer responsibility, Rwandans already have confidence that it will be done," he added. 

Image source, Reuters

Mr Kagame has not yet said whether he intends to contest the 2017 election, and has told Western powers not to interfere in Rwanda's affairs. 

The US has urged him to step down at the end of his term. 

Mr Kagame has ruled Rwanda since the end of the 1994 genocide. 

Neighbouring Burundi has been hit by unrest over President Pierre Nkuruniza's decision to seek a third term. 

The opposition leader in Seychelles says he will appeal to the Constitutional Court to overturn President James Michel's narrow victory in a run-off vote, saying the result did not reflect the will of the people.

The electoral commission said on Saturday that Mr Michel, 71, had secured a third term after winning by just 193 votes, or  50.15% compared with the 49.85%, against rival Wavel Ramkalawan, an Anglican priest and five-time candidate.  

"We will take all steps to ensure the elections respect the will of the Seychellois people," Ramkalawan said at a press conference, alongside other opposition leaders who had backed him in the 5 December run-off against Mr Michel, AFP reports.  

Image source, AFP

A court has granted bail to Nigeria's former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, local media reports say.  

Mr Dasuki is among a group of people accused of stealing $2bn (£1.3bn) by awarding phantom contracts to buy 12 helicopters, four fighter jets and ammunition. He and his co-accused strongly deny the allegation.  

Punch Newspaper reports, external the bail was 500m Naira ($2.5m; £1.7m).

The Premium Times adds, external that the others in the group, including a finance director and a former state governor, were also granted bail.

Image source, Reuters

A BBC team used thermal imaging to get this image of gorillas sleeping in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in Democratic Republic of Congo:

The filming showed the gorillas making nests in trees by weaving branches and leaves together.

They had to be well made - one was as high as 15m above the ground:

It is believed to be the first time the bedtime rituals of the endangered Grauer’s gorillas has been filmed.

Read more on BBC Earth.

Bashkas Jugsooday
BBC Africa, Nairobi

A group of Muslims travelling on a bus attacked by militant Islamist gunmen in north-eastern Kenya protected Christian passengers by refusing to be split into groups, eyewitnesses told me.

At least two people were killed when suspected al-Shabab militants targeted the bus on the road between the capital, Nairobi, and the northern town of Mandera. 

An employee of the Makkah bus company, who had spoken to the driver involved in the attack, confirmed to the BBC that Muslims had refused to be separated from their fellow Christian passengers.  

When al-Shabab killed 148 people in an attack on Garissa University College in April, the militants reportedly singled out Christians and shot them, while freeing many Muslims.  

Last November, al-Shabab killed 28 people in an attack on a bus targeting non-Muslims in the same area.  

Image source, AFP

Image source, Getty Images

Egyptian champions Zamalek have quit the current Premier League season, the club has announced on its website.

Zamalek's board met after a 3-2 loss to El-Gaish on Sunday evening and decided not to complete the competition.

The board are due to meet again on Monday to discuss the matter further.

The Egypt Football Association says it is yet to receive any official communication from Zamalek and has defended the standard of officiating in the league.

Zamalek's request for Mahmoud Al Banna to be replaced as the referee for the match against El-Gaish was rejected in the build up to the game.

Read the full BBC story here

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame is making a state of the nation speech.

It comes after the country overwhelmingly voted in favour of a change in the constitution which allows Mr Kagame to run for a third term.  

The vote took place despite criticism of such an amendment by the US and other Western donors.    

A journalist has tweeted this picture:

The presidency has been tweeting details of the speech:

Police in Paris have detained two people who were on an Air France flight forced to make an emergency landing in Kenya when a fake bomb was found on board, reports say.

The couple were reportedly taken into custody by border police on their return to France.

One of those in police custody was an ex-police officer on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, Europe 1, external radio said.

Image source, EPA

The New York Times newspaper asks if US money around homosexuality is making life worse for homosexuals in Nigeria. 

It reports that since 2012, the American government has put more than $350m (£230m) into supporting gay rights groups in sub-Saharan Africa.  

It says the US work has made gay men and lesbians more visible - and more vulnerable to violence.

The newspaper says the final passage of Nigeria’s 2014 law against homosexuality - which makes same-sex relationships punishable by 14 years in prison - is widely regarded as a reaction to US pressure on Nigeria to embrace gay rights.    

Read the full article in the New York Times, external.

Image source, Getty Images

Burundi's parliament is debating the plan by the African Union to send 5,000 peacekeepers to the country to protect civilians in Burundi. 

The parliament is expected to back the government's rejection of the force, which it has described as an "invasion force". 

On Thursday the AU said it would not allow genocide to take place in Burundi.

At least 400 people have been killed, nearly 3,500 arrested and at least 220,000 people have fled Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April that he would run for a third term, the UN says. 

He survived a coup attempt in May, and secured a third term in disputed elections in  July. 

Image source, Reuters

The US rapper Nicki Minaj has posted a video on her Instagram account to say thank you to her fans in Angola.

The concert she performed on Saturday night was controversial because a human rights group had asked her not to perform.

Human Rights Foundation was against her performing in a show for Unitel - a mobile phone company part owned by the president's daughter Isabel Dos Santos. 

She posted this photo with Ms dos Santos:

Minaj wrote:

"Oh no big deal... she's just the 8th richest woman in the world. (At least that's what I was told by someone b4 we took this photo) Lol. Yikes!!!!! GIRL POWER!!!!! This motivates me soooooooooo much!!!!" 

Read more on the BBC News website.

Image source, Reuters

A convicted king in South Africa should be given clemency by President Jacob Zuma or preferential treatment in prison, an influential traditional leaders body has said, the local News24 site reports. 

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo - a monarch of Nelson Mandela's Thembu ethnic group - is due to report to police on Wednesday to start a 12-year jail sentence after a court convicted him of kidnapping, assault and arson. 

The Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA (Contralesa) would meet today to finalise a petition asking Mr Zuma to give the king clemency, or his own prison cell, said Chief Mwelo Nonkonyane, the organisation's chairman in Eastern Cape province, News24 reports. 

"The fact is that he is the king - you can't just mix him with other criminals and his subjects," Chief Nonkonyane said. 

Image source, AFP

King Dalindyebo is the first monarch to be given a jail term since South Africa became a democracy in 1994.

The case was related to a dispute he had with some of his subjects more than two decades ago. 

"His [the monarch's] behaviour was all the more deplorable because the victims of his reign of terror were the vulnerable rural poor, who were dependent upon him. Our constitution does not countenance such behaviour," the Supreme Court of Appeal said in a judgement in October. 

"We are a constitutional democracy in which everyone is accountable and where the most vulnerable are entitled to protection," it added. 

The Malawian government's announcement that it will impose a moratorium on charging people accused of homosexual acts has caused an uproar in the southern African nation, the local Nyasa Times newspaper reports. 

Justice MInister Samuel Tembenu had ordered the release of two young men charged with having sex "against the order of nature", it reports. 

Mr Tembenu said Malawi was a signatory to international laws which allowed homosexuality, the Nyasa Times reports. 

Religious leaders were opposed to the moratorium, and had urged the government last week not to relent to pressure from Western donors by allowing same-sex relationships 

Image source, AFP

Both the Catholic Church and Muslim leaders had in the past described homosexuality as un-Godly. 

Leading Malawi law expert Edge Kanyongolo said the government should be decisive by either scrapping or enforcing anti-homosexuality legislation. 

"If we want the law, let us enforce it. If we don't want it, remove it. We should move on,"  Nyasa Times quotes him as saying.

The government announced a similar suspension on anti-homosexuality laws in 2012 pending a decision on whether to repeal the legislation.   

Welcome to the BBC Africa Live page where we will keep you up-to-date with the latest news and views from across the continent. 

Our African proverb of the day: "A chicken's prayer doesn't affect a hawk." A Swahili proverb sent by Joseph Blatz in the US. 

Click here to send your African proverbs.