BBC news with Jerry Smit.

Following days of rumors, Uzbekistan has announced the death of its president, Islam Karimov aged at 78. He was previously said to be critically ill. The funeral will take place on Saturday in his home city of Samarkand.

A bomb explosion in the southern Philippines appears to have killed at least 12 people and injured many more. The blast took place in a busy night market in Davao, the hometown of president Rodrigo Duterte.

Hungarian police have recruited 3,000 officers that it described as border hunters to be deployed along to the southern frontier with Serbia. They will help bolster the 10,000-strong force already guarding the razor-wire fence to keep out migrants.

A delegation from the United Nations Security Council is in South Sudan to discuss a UN resolution to send 4,000 extra peacekeepers to the country. The South Sudanese government has described the decision as neo-colonialist.

Opposition leaders in Gabon who have been tried for 3 days in their party headquarters, have been allowed to leave. Troops surrounded the building after opponents of president Ali Bongo set the national assembly on fire.

An MP in Kenya has asked parliament to pass a law recognizing a third gender. Isaac Mwaura said this would help end discrimination against intersex people, who were born with both male and female characteristics.

A serving British marine has been charged with terrorism offenses following a police investigation into dissident Irish republican activity in Northern Ireland. Ciarán Maxwell has been remanded in custody until his next court appearance on Monday.

A Church of England bishop has become the first to publicly declare that he is gay and in a relationship, although celibate. The revelation by the Right Reverend Nicholas Chamberlain, is likely to be embraced by campaigners for equality and alarm conservatives.

BBC news.