That's it from us today. We've been following the presidential and parliamentary election in Ghana all day. The polls are closed and we expect the result on Saturday.
We'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website.
A reminder of today's wise words:
Quote Message: Puppies open their eyes at different times after they are born." from A Shona proverb sent by Basil, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Puppies open their eyes at different times after they are born."
And we leave you with this picture from the Bole district in of Ghana:
AFPCopyright: AFP
Apology for no payment to Nigerian champions
BBCCopyright: BBC
Nigeria's football boss has apologised for not paying the national women's team for winning the Women's Africa Cup of Nations.
Nigeria Football Federation's secretary general Mohamed Sanussi told BBC Focus on Africa TV that it was “impossible” to access the money in their bank account.
He added that he has asked the central bank to help them track the money.
“While we were in the euphoria of the victory, this issue came up. We are not happy that we are not able to pay them what they are entitled to,” Mr Sanussi added.
Kenyan court rules in dispute over declaring HIV status
BBC World Service
AFPCopyright: AFP
A Kenyan high court has ruled against a presidential directive compelling schoolchildren and expectant mothers with HIV to declare it to the authorities.
The court said the presidential order was a violation of the rights, freedoms and privacy of those with the virus.
It was issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta in February 2015. Lawyers representing a home for the destitute in Nairobi brought the court case.
Is there a sex revolution in Nigeria's bedrooms?
BBC Focus on Africa radio presenter Bola Mosuro has travelled to her home country, Nigeria, to look at people's attitudes towards intimacy, sexual fulfillment, lust and love - in and outside marriage.
And, she spent time with the woman who set up Nigeria's first online sex-aids shop, despite getting death threats.
Listen to Bola's report:
Video content
This content is currently not available
Polls close in Ghana
Polls have officially closed at all of Ghana's 275 constituencies except one - Jaman North, an election commission spokesman says.
Here are some shots from the day, as people voted in presidential and parliamentary elections:
AFPCopyright: AFP
APCopyright: AP
AFPCopyright: AFP
EPACopyright: EPA
EPACopyright: EPA
AFPCopyright: AFP
Egyptian lawyer arrested
Egyptian police have arrested prominent human rights lawyer and activist Azza Soliman after banning her from travel, a relative and a security official have said.
Amnesty International said this was a "clear sign that Egyptian authorities are intensifying the crackdown on human rights activists".
Change Namibian town's name to ǃNamiǂNûs
In colonial times in what is now Namibia, Germans forced Herero and Nama people to build the town of Luderitz.
Now residents are in a dispute over whether to replace the colonial-era name with a Nama name - ǃNamiǂNûs.
The BBC's Pumza Fihlani spoke to residents and tourists about the issue.
Video content
Video caption: Luderitz: Should Namibian town scrap German colonial name?Luderitz: Should Namibian town scrap German colonial name?
Military patrol amid peaceful vote in northern Ghana
Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra
BBCCopyright: BBC
In Ghana's northern Tamale city the voting process has been peaceful.
There have been no incidents of political violence.
That may be because of the presence of the military and police who have been patrolling the city.
Court refuses to block trial of Equatorial Guinea's VP
AFPCopyright: AFP
Teodorin Obiang Nguema is the vice-president in his father's governmentImage caption: Teodorin Obiang Nguema is the vice-president in his father's government
Prosecutors in France can proceed next month with the corruption trial of the son of Equatorial Guinea's president after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) refused to stop it, the AP news agency reports.
Equatorial Guinea resorted to the United Nations' highest court, hoping it would order France to halt the prosecution.
It argued that Teodorin Obiang Nguema has immunity from prosecution in France because of his position as vice president of the oil-rich West African state.
However, the ICJ said it did not have jurisdiction over the case and would not make a ruling, AP reports.
Mr Obiang's trial is due to start in Paris on 2 January.
He faces charges of corruption, money laundering and embezzlement.
He denies the charges, but is not expected to appear in court to defend himself.
BBC man lets slip full name in Ghana vote
The BBC's Akwasi Sarpong revealed his full name when he was reporting for a radio about the process to vote in Ghana's election.
He was asking the voting official to find him on the list when he said "no-one knows this but my name is Daniel, Sshh, don't tell anyone".
Listen to the whole report:
Video content
Video caption: Ghana Presidential election underwayGhana Presidential election underway
Somali forces 'seize' IS-held town
APCopyright: AP
Abdiqadir Mumin leads IS in SomaliaImage caption: Abdiqadir Mumin leads IS in Somalia
The authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they have recaptured a key town from jihadists who have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group.
Regional governor Yusuf Mohamed told the BBC that the militants had been chased out of Qandala, a port which they took over in October.
The militants are led by Abdiqadir Mumin, who used to be a commander in the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group until he switched to IS.
Under the constitution, President Joseph Kabila must step down on 19 DecemberImage caption: Under the constitution, President Joseph Kabila must step down on 19 December
The influential Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo has held talks with the ruling party and the opposition in an attempt to diffuse the crisis following the postponement of presidential elections, AFP news agency reports.
President Joseph Kabila was due to step down on 19 December, but will now stay in office until 2018.
Bishops held separate talks with the two sides in an attempt to avert possible bloodshed as the 19 December deadline approaches.
The opposition coalition, Etienne Tshisekedi, have vowed to step up their campaign to force Mr Kabila, in power since 2001, to step down.
The courts have ruled he can remain remain in office until elections, now scheduled for 2018, are held.
The election commission says it needs more time to organise the poll in a country that has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence in 1960.
South Africa tightens border controls
AFPCopyright: AFP
South Africa has a huge number of immigrants, especially from other African countriesImage caption: South Africa has a huge number of immigrants, especially from other African countries
South Africa's immigration officials will take fingerprints of all visitors to the country in an attempt to curb crime, the government-run news site SA News reports.
Speaking in the capital, Pretoria, Home Affairs department director-general Mkhuseli Apleni said:
Quote Message: Capturing of fingerprints of foreign nationals helps identify them when a crime has been committed. We also want to know every individual who is in the country."
Capturing of fingerprints of foreign nationals helps identify them when a crime has been committed. We also want to know every individual who is in the country."
Queuing Ghana-style to vote
We reported earlier that people in northern Ghana had reserved their place in the queue to vote for their new president by using stones.
Here's why people were so determined to vote early in the morning:
Video content
Video caption: Ghana elections: Unique way to hold your place in the queueGhana elections: Unique way to hold your place in the queue
Do smoke-free stoves really save lives?
Victoria GillCopyright: Victoria Gill
A big clinical trial in Malawi was expected to show children are less likely to die of pneumonia if they live in a home where food is cooked on a smoke-free stove rather than an open fire.
The surprise finding was only found out at the last minute because researchers deliberately kept hidden whether a given set of medical records were from a family who had been given a stove, or from a family in the control group.
The BBC's Victoria Gill says this raises questions about the major international efforts to provide clean cookstoves and fuels in 100 million households.
Courtesy: Dr Muffazal LakdawalaCopyright: Courtesy: Dr Muffazal Lakdawala
An Egyptian woman, believed to be the world's heaviest woman at 500kg (1,102lb), will soon be flown to India for weight reduction surgery.
Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, 36, will be flown on a chartered plane to Mumbai where surgeon Dr Muffazal Lakdawala plans to operate.
The Indian embassy in Cairo initially denied her visa request as she was unable to travel there in person.
After the surgeon tweeted to India's foreign minister that changed.
Ms Abd El Aty's family says she hasn't been able to leave home for 25 years.
If the claim about her weight is true, then that would make her the world's heaviest woman alive as the current Guinness record holder is Pauline Potter of the United States who weighed 292kg (643lb) in 2010.
Ansar Dine's fighters have pledged allegiance to al-QaedaImage caption: Ansar Dine's fighters have pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda
The al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group Ansar Dine has said it was behind Monday's raid on a jail in southern Mali, saying it released all of the prisoners located at the facility.
All its jailed members, numbering more than 100, had been freed during the assault on the prison in Niono by its southern Mali-based Macina Battalion, Ansar Dine added.
Local media reported that 93 prisoners escaped and two guards were wounded during the attack.
In early November, Ansar Dine claimed its Macina Battalion, also known as the Macina Liberation Front (MLF), was behind a prison break in Banamba in southern Mali.
New call to solve UN air crash mystery
APCopyright: AP
Dag Hammarskjold was trying to mediate between Congo's Soviet-backed government and a breakaway provinceImage caption: Dag Hammarskjold was trying to mediate between Congo's Soviet-backed government and a breakaway province
A resolution is being presented to the UN General Assembly asking for a special investigator to look into the 1961 plane crash that killed then UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.
The UN resolution would seek to compel countries to hand over documents and radio intercepts to a special investigator, which might nail down the truth of what really happened, the BBC's Karen Allen says.
The plane went down over what is now Zambia during a diplomatic mission to help broker a ceasefire in the Congolese civil war.
APCopyright: AP
Pilot error was initially suspected.
However, new evidence has emerged which sceptics say could add weight to suspicions of foul play.
Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has ordered wildlife officials to immediately return a rare black rhino to the famous Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the state-owned paper Daily News reports.
The rhino, named John, was moved three months ago under dubious circumstances to a private lodge on the pretext that it could breed there, it quotes Mr Majaliwa as saying.
Mr Majaliwa, on a visit to the state-run park of Ngorongoro, said that officials had “colluded” to sell the animal for 200m Tanzanian shillings ($92,000, £73,000), the paper reports.
One official in the audience, who was asked to respond to the allegations, said that proper procedures had been followed to move the rhino and the accusations that they had pocketed money were “pure lies”, the Daily News says.
Eastern black rhinos are the rarest of Africa's three rhino subspecies - and are threatened by poachers driven by a demand in Asia for rhino horns for their purported medicinal properties.
APCopyright: AP
The eastern black rhino population stands at about 700Image caption: The eastern black rhino population stands at about 700
African women's champions Nigeria demand full bonus payments
Darius MekeCopyright: Darius Meke
Nigeria's women's team are continuing to refuse to leave a hotel in Abuja until they are paid allowances and bonuses for winning the Women's Africa Cup of Nations.
The Super Falcons' protest began on Tuesday.
The team, who clinched their eighth African title on Saturday with a 1-0 win over hosts Cameroon, are protesting over the Nigeria Football Federation's (NFF) failure to pay them $17,150 (£13,607) per player for their success.
One of the players told BBC Sport that their sit-in at the Agura hotel in the capital would not end until they received all bonuses.
However, the NFF has said it can't afford to pay.
"The NFF is not happy owing players and coaches, but present severe economic challenges inform that it can only continue to seek the understanding of these persons, as well as hoteliers, travel agents, management and staff until the situation improves," general secretary Mohammed Sanusi said in a statement.
Live Reporting
Farouk Chothia, Clare Spencer and Lamine Konkobo
All times stated are UK
Get involved
AFPCopyright: AFP 
BBCCopyright: BBC 
AFPCopyright: AFP 
AFPCopyright: AFP 
APCopyright: AP 
AFPCopyright: AFP 
EPACopyright: EPA 
EPACopyright: EPA 
AFPCopyright: AFP Video caption: Luderitz: Should Namibian town scrap German colonial name?Luderitz: Should Namibian town scrap German colonial name? 
BBCCopyright: BBC 
AFPCopyright: AFP Teodorin Obiang Nguema is the vice-president in his father's governmentImage caption: Teodorin Obiang Nguema is the vice-president in his father's government Video caption: Ghana Presidential election underwayGhana Presidential election underway 
APCopyright: AP Abdiqadir Mumin leads IS in SomaliaImage caption: Abdiqadir Mumin leads IS in Somalia 
AFPCopyright: AFP Under the constitution, President Joseph Kabila must step down on 19 DecemberImage caption: Under the constitution, President Joseph Kabila must step down on 19 December 
AFPCopyright: AFP South Africa has a huge number of immigrants, especially from other African countriesImage caption: South Africa has a huge number of immigrants, especially from other African countries Video caption: Ghana elections: Unique way to hold your place in the queueGhana elections: Unique way to hold your place in the queue 
Victoria GillCopyright: Victoria Gill 
Courtesy: Dr Muffazal LakdawalaCopyright: Courtesy: Dr Muffazal Lakdawala 
ACopyright: A Ansar Dine's fighters have pledged allegiance to al-QaedaImage caption: Ansar Dine's fighters have pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda 
APCopyright: AP Dag Hammarskjold was trying to mediate between Congo's Soviet-backed government and a breakaway provinceImage caption: Dag Hammarskjold was trying to mediate between Congo's Soviet-backed government and a breakaway province 
APCopyright: AP 
APCopyright: AP The eastern black rhino population stands at about 700Image caption: The eastern black rhino population stands at about 700 
Darius MekeCopyright: Darius Meke
Latest PostScroll down for Wednesday's stories
We'll be back tomorrow
That's it from us today. We've been following the presidential and parliamentary election in Ghana all day. The polls are closed and we expect the result on Saturday.
We'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website.
A reminder of today's wise words:
Click here to send your African proverbs.
And we leave you with this picture from the Bole district in of Ghana:
Apology for no payment to Nigerian champions
Nigeria's football boss has apologised for not paying the national women's team for winning the Women's Africa Cup of Nations.
Nigeria Football Federation's secretary general Mohamed Sanussi told BBC Focus on Africa TV that it was “impossible” to access the money in their bank account.
He added that he has asked the central bank to help them track the money.
“While we were in the euphoria of the victory, this issue came up. We are not happy that we are not able to pay them what they are entitled to,” Mr Sanussi added.
Read more on the BBC Sport website.
Kenyan court rules in dispute over declaring HIV status
BBC World Service
A Kenyan high court has ruled against a presidential directive compelling schoolchildren and expectant mothers with HIV to declare it to the authorities.
The court said the presidential order was a violation of the rights, freedoms and privacy of those with the virus.
It was issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta in February 2015. Lawyers representing a home for the destitute in Nairobi brought the court case.
Is there a sex revolution in Nigeria's bedrooms?
BBC Focus on Africa radio presenter Bola Mosuro has travelled to her home country, Nigeria, to look at people's attitudes towards intimacy, sexual fulfillment, lust and love - in and outside marriage.
And, she spent time with the woman who set up Nigeria's first online sex-aids shop, despite getting death threats.
Listen to Bola's report:
Video content
Polls close in Ghana
Polls have officially closed at all of Ghana's 275 constituencies except one - Jaman North, an election commission spokesman says.
Here are some shots from the day, as people voted in presidential and parliamentary elections:
Egyptian lawyer arrested
Egyptian police have arrested prominent human rights lawyer and activist Azza Soliman after banning her from travel, a relative and a security official have said.
Amnesty International said this was a "clear sign that Egyptian authorities are intensifying the crackdown on human rights activists".
Change Namibian town's name to ǃNamiǂNûs
In colonial times in what is now Namibia, Germans forced Herero and Nama people to build the town of Luderitz.
Now residents are in a dispute over whether to replace the colonial-era name with a Nama name - ǃNamiǂNûs.
The BBC's Pumza Fihlani spoke to residents and tourists about the issue.
Video content
Military patrol amid peaceful vote in northern Ghana
Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra
In Ghana's northern Tamale city the voting process has been peaceful.
There have been no incidents of political violence.
That may be because of the presence of the military and police who have been patrolling the city.
Court refuses to block trial of Equatorial Guinea's VP
Prosecutors in France can proceed next month with the corruption trial of the son of Equatorial Guinea's president after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) refused to stop it, the AP news agency reports.
Equatorial Guinea resorted to the United Nations' highest court, hoping it would order France to halt the prosecution.
It argued that Teodorin Obiang Nguema has immunity from prosecution in France because of his position as vice president of the oil-rich West African state.
However, the ICJ said it did not have jurisdiction over the case and would not make a ruling, AP reports.
Mr Obiang's trial is due to start in Paris on 2 January.
He faces charges of corruption, money laundering and embezzlement.
He denies the charges, but is not expected to appear in court to defend himself.
BBC man lets slip full name in Ghana vote
The BBC's Akwasi Sarpong revealed his full name when he was reporting for a radio about the process to vote in Ghana's election.
He was asking the voting official to find him on the list when he said "no-one knows this but my name is Daniel, Sshh, don't tell anyone".
Listen to the whole report:
Video content
Somali forces 'seize' IS-held town
The authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they have recaptured a key town from jihadists who have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group.
Regional governor Yusuf Mohamed told the BBC that the militants had been chased out of Qandala, a port which they took over in October.
The militants are led by Abdiqadir Mumin, who used to be a commander in the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group until he switched to IS.
Read more: Al-Shabab v IS in Somalia
Church mediates in DR Congo crisis
The influential Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo has held talks with the ruling party and the opposition in an attempt to diffuse the crisis following the postponement of presidential elections, AFP news agency reports.
President Joseph Kabila was due to step down on 19 December, but will now stay in office until 2018.
Bishops held separate talks with the two sides in an attempt to avert possible bloodshed as the 19 December deadline approaches.
The opposition coalition, Etienne Tshisekedi, have vowed to step up their campaign to force Mr Kabila, in power since 2001, to step down.
The courts have ruled he can remain remain in office until elections, now scheduled for 2018, are held.
The election commission says it needs more time to organise the poll in a country that has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence in 1960.
South Africa tightens border controls
South Africa's immigration officials will take fingerprints of all visitors to the country in an attempt to curb crime, the government-run news site SA News reports.
Speaking in the capital, Pretoria, Home Affairs department director-general Mkhuseli Apleni said:
Queuing Ghana-style to vote
We reported earlier that people in northern Ghana had reserved their place in the queue to vote for their new president by using stones.
Here's why people were so determined to vote early in the morning:
Video content
Do smoke-free stoves really save lives?
A big clinical trial in Malawi was expected to show children are less likely to die of pneumonia if they live in a home where food is cooked on a smoke-free stove rather than an open fire.
Instead it suggests the stove makes no difference.
The surprise finding was only found out at the last minute because researchers deliberately kept hidden whether a given set of medical records were from a family who had been given a stove, or from a family in the control group.
The BBC's Victoria Gill says this raises questions about the major international efforts to provide clean cookstoves and fuels in 100 million households.
Read more on the BBC News website.
India doctor to operate on '500kg' woman
An Egyptian woman, believed to be the world's heaviest woman at 500kg (1,102lb), will soon be flown to India for weight reduction surgery.
Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, 36, will be flown on a chartered plane to Mumbai where surgeon Dr Muffazal Lakdawala plans to operate.
The Indian embassy in Cairo initially denied her visa request as she was unable to travel there in person.
After the surgeon tweeted to India's foreign minister that changed.
Ms Abd El Aty's family says she hasn't been able to leave home for 25 years.
If the claim about her weight is true, then that would make her the world's heaviest woman alive as the current Guinness record holder is Pauline Potter of the United States who weighed 292kg (643lb) in 2010.
Read more on the BBC News website.
Al-Qaeda affiliate 'carried out Mali prison raid'
BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe
The al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group Ansar Dine has said it was behind Monday's raid on a jail in southern Mali, saying it released all of the prisoners located at the facility.
All its jailed members, numbering more than 100, had been freed during the assault on the prison in Niono by its southern Mali-based Macina Battalion, Ansar Dine added.
Local media reported that 93 prisoners escaped and two guards were wounded during the attack.
In early November, Ansar Dine claimed its Macina Battalion, also known as the Macina Liberation Front (MLF), was behind a prison break in Banamba in southern Mali.
New call to solve UN air crash mystery
A resolution is being presented to the UN General Assembly asking for a special investigator to look into the 1961 plane crash that killed then UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.
The UN resolution would seek to compel countries to hand over documents and radio intercepts to a special investigator, which might nail down the truth of what really happened, the BBC's Karen Allen says.
The plane went down over what is now Zambia during a diplomatic mission to help broker a ceasefire in the Congolese civil war.
Pilot error was initially suspected.
However, new evidence has emerged which sceptics say could add weight to suspicions of foul play.
Read more on the BBC News website.
Tanzania PM 'demands return of rhino called John'
Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has ordered wildlife officials to immediately return a rare black rhino to the famous Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the state-owned paper Daily News reports.
The rhino, named John, was moved three months ago under dubious circumstances to a private lodge on the pretext that it could breed there, it quotes Mr Majaliwa as saying.
Mr Majaliwa, on a visit to the state-run park of Ngorongoro, said that officials had “colluded” to sell the animal for 200m Tanzanian shillings ($92,000, £73,000), the paper reports.
One official in the audience, who was asked to respond to the allegations, said that proper procedures had been followed to move the rhino and the accusations that they had pocketed money were “pure lies”, the Daily News says.
Eastern black rhinos are the rarest of Africa's three rhino subspecies - and are threatened by poachers driven by a demand in Asia for rhino horns for their purported medicinal properties.
African women's champions Nigeria demand full bonus payments
Nigeria's women's team are continuing to refuse to leave a hotel in Abuja until they are paid allowances and bonuses for winning the Women's Africa Cup of Nations.
The Super Falcons' protest began on Tuesday.
The team, who clinched their eighth African title on Saturday with a 1-0 win over hosts Cameroon, are protesting over the Nigeria Football Federation's (NFF) failure to pay them $17,150 (£13,607) per player for their success.
One of the players told BBC Sport that their sit-in at the Agura hotel in the capital would not end until they received all bonuses.
However, the NFF has said it can't afford to pay.
"The NFF is not happy owing players and coaches, but present severe economic challenges inform that it can only continue to seek the understanding of these persons, as well as hoteliers, travel agents, management and staff until the situation improves," general secretary Mohammed Sanusi said in a statement.
Read more on the BBC Sport website.