BBC Africa

Pope Francis names 17 new cardinals from around the world, many of whom will help name his successor.

The head of the journalists' union in Egypt gets a two-year prison term for "harbouring fugitives".

Top African writers at Nigeria's Ake Arts festival give the BBC their take on what stories need to be told.

A selection of the best photos from across Africa this week.

An HIV-positive Malawian man is found guilty for having unprotected sex with newly bereaved widows as part of an outlawed cultural practice.

In Zambia, fuel subsidies have been cut and the cost of transport has risen by 25%.

At least 56 people die and 108 are injured as a fuel tanker explodes in Mozambique near the border with Malawi.

Vasectomy operations on men in Kenya are live streamed from a theatre in the capital as part a campaign to promote the sterilisation procedure.

ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda tells the BBC the war crimes court will survive despite a wave of defections.

Farmers in Nigeria are taking full advantage of the growing demand for giant African land snails.

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis is charged with ball tampering in the second Test win over Australia in Hobart.

Will Nigeria's first police complaints unit reduce corruption?

Could strong local forces who know the territory be the answer Somalia's security crisis?

A man with HIV who says he had ritual sex with 104 women and girls faces up to five years in jail, if convicted. But some ask why the children's parents are not in the dock too.

As the BBC launches a service in Pidgin to target West African audiences, we look at what the language entails.

In Kenya Chinese companies are investing heavily in some of the country's poorest communities, yet as Chinese investment increases, so too do tensions between foreign contractors and local workers.

Kenya's November deadline to close the world's biggest refugee camp has created panic and uncertainty, reports the BBC's Alastair Leithead.

People in three African countries are optimistic despite economic woes and corruption, a survey says.

Clashes between Nigerian Shia pilgrims and the police in Kano state kill nine people, police say.

Jailed athlete Oscar Pistorius moves to a "better adapted" prison, South Africa's government says.