Africa highlights: Vote counting after Uganda election, Ghana crash kills 71

The polling stations where voting was extended in Uganda have now closed and vote counting is well under way in many parts of the country.

Some media organisations are announcing provisional results as they're being tallied at the polling stations.

Reuters news agency has sent these pictures of the counting process in one place in the capital, Kampala.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Former Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins has become the latest high-profile signing to join the Chinese Super League.

Martins, 31, has left Major League Soccer side the Seattle Sounders to join Shanghai Greenland Shenhua.

"For me it's now time for a new challenge [in China]," Martins said after announcing the move.

"I've grown to appreciate the feeling I get when entering environments where I'm not a proven footballer."

Neither side has confirmed the move, but the Nigeria striker announced his departure from Seattle on his Twitter page:

Uganda's main opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has been taken home, a police spokesperson has told the BBC.

Earlier, he was picked up by police as he was demanding access to a property where he alleged vote rigging had been taking place, Mr Besigye's party said.

The US Ambassador in Uganda has criticised the blocking of access to social media on election day:

President Yoweri Museveni said earlier it was necessary for security reasons.

A spokesman for Uganda's opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has told the BBC that his party's presidential candidate was arrested by police at a house where the opposition claims vote rigging was taking place. 

FDC members demanded to search the house and access was denied. 

Mr Besigye was then arrested and removed from the scene in a police vehicle, his party says.

Some local media are reporting that Kizza Besigye is being held at Kasangati police station just north of the capital Kampala, though this has not been confirmed.

Three men in Ivory Coast gave been found guilty and given life sentences for the 2002 murder of former military ruler Gen Robert Guei, his wife and their body guards.

Two of the three were army officers:

• General Dogbo Be - former commander of the Republican guard
• Anselme Seka Yapo - ex-head of former first lady Simone Gbagbo’s bodyguards

Six others were sentenced to 10 years in prison, while 13 were acquitted.

Gen Guei ruled Ivory Coast from 1999 to 2000, and was killed as the civil was broke out.

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There are unconfirmed reports that Ugandan opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has been arrested in the capital, Kampala.

A journalist for Al Jazeera at the scene has posted a series of tweets indicating that the arrest was made after Mr Besigye and his supporters argued with police over access to a house in which they alleged vote rigging was taking place: 

The independent Daily Monitor newspaper has also tweeted the story, although the BBC cannot independently confirm the arrest.

While voting has been extended in some parts of Uganda because of delays in delivering the ballot papers, votes are actually being counted elsewhere.

Ugandan TV stations, including NBS, are broadcasting live updates of the count from around the country, including from Rushere, President Yoweri Museveni's home area.

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Nigeria's former president and Commonwealth election observer Olusegun Obasanjo has said the delays in delivering ballot papers in Uganda to polling stations were "absolutely inexcusable", the AFP news agency reports.

Mr Obasanjo said the delays "do not inspire trust and confidence in the system and the process".

At some polling stations voters were waiting for five hours before election materials arrived.

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Athletics Kenya (AK), which governs the sport in the country, says any ban on Kenyan athletes participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics over a doping scandal will be a big blow.

Sebastian Coe, head of athletics' world governing body, the IAAF, said Kenya’s entire track and field team could be barred from the games, if AK is found not to be complying with World Anti-doping Agency (Wada) requirements. 

But Barnabas Kipkorir, an executive member of AK, says they are taking the threats seriously and are doing all they can to comply with Wada regulations.  

Kenya has already missed a crucial deadline when it was meant to prove to Wada that it is doing enough to tackle cheating in athletics. 

There are 15 Kenyans currently banned for doping by the IAAF, including three-time Boston Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo. 

AFPCopyright: AFP

Nigerian Afro-pop singer Yemi Alade, whose hit song Jonny dominated charts across Africa two years ago, won MTV's best female African artist for 2015.

One of the songs on her new album, Mama Africa, is a Swahili version of the track Na Gode, which means thank you in Hausa and had lyrics in a mixture of Nigerian languages.

She spoke to BBC Africa's Sophie Ikenye:

Google has announced that three new African languages can now be translated in its Google Translate web application.

Amharic, Shona and Xhosa have been added to the roster of languages available, which includes Afrikaans, Hausa, Somali and Swahili.

GoogleCopyright: Google

Medical Director of Ghana's Kintampo government hospital Bismark Owusu Fosu has said the death toll from Wednesday night's bus crash has now risen to 71.

Fifty-eight were dead on arrival at the hospital, 10 died after admission and three died in a a nearby hospital.

Investigators say that the bus, which crashed into a lorry transporting tomatoes, was overloaded with more than 70 passengers - it should have had a maximum of 63.

A transport official has told me that the driver picked up other passengers on the way home from work because their vehicle had been involved in an accident.

Albert AzongoCopyright: Albert Azongo

Lord Coe is ready to ban Kenya's track and field team from the Olympics if the country's athletics federation is declared non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code.

Kenya missed a deadline last week to prove to Wada it was tackling cheating.

It comes after a spate of positive drugs tests among some of the country's athletes and allegations of corruption.

"We have to be much more proactive," said Coe, president of the sport's world governing body the IAAF.

Lord Coe said he would impose serious sanctions on any nation guilty of attempting to cover up drug-taking.

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Read more here.

Meanwhile, polls have closed and vote counting has begun in several parts of the country, including the districts of Kibale, Ibanda and Luweero, local media report. 

Counting has also started in some areas of the capital Kampala, as one BBC producer tweets:

The Ugandan government has tweeted to confirm that voting will be extended for three hours until 19:00 local (16:00 GMT) in some polling stations. 

A BBC reporter on the ground says this extension will only apply to certain areas of the capital Kampala and surrounding Wakiso district:

That's 16:00 GMT, but it's not yet clear which polling stations will be granted the additional time.