as a western perception that the african female is a downtrodden wretch . but when you look around the african continent today girls abducted in nigeria, polygamy re introduced in kenya, child marriages and the prevalence of gender based violence how much is there to celebrate about being female in africa? ama ata aidoo, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much, zainab. there s a lot of political issues and social affairs in your writings. how much do you see yourself as a writer with a mission? well, now, in retrospect, i suppose i could describe myself as a writer with a mission. but i never was aware that i had a mission when i started to write, you see. it didn t work it doesn t work like that. i maen, i don t sit at my desk and say, now i ve got to depict this, and depict that. no. first of all, i was rather young when i started writing, so i didn t even have any notion of where my would be read, or how, and stuff like that. so it wasn t a conscious decision, but
dangerous situation in sudan. it is deeply sad. we are seeing great human suffering. the temporary ceasefire is due to end tomorrow. more than 20,000 new police recruits in england and wales the government says it has fulfilled its election pledge labour says they re just playing catch up. we entrust our ancestral home to you. battling it out for the future of gaming surprise as microsoft s 55 billion pound bid to buy the company behind world of warcraft and call of duty is suddenly blocked. and the king and queen consort set foot on liverpool s eurovision stage as it s revealed for the first time. 0n bbc london, countdown to the coronation. with just ten days to go, will the celebrations bring a good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. the first plane bringing british nationals back from sudan has landed in the uk with around 100 people on board. they began their long journey from an airbase about 20 miles outside the sudanese capital khartoum but they had
those weather seems tomorrow. this feature running in off the near continent will be the fly in the ointment because most of the country will have another dry and sunny day, with fresh breezes again. there is the cloud, outbreaks of rain getting in to east anglia and the south east through the afternoon period. a bit of a disappointment for part two of the day. the wind is quite gusty for many areas, especially southern and eastern parts of england. it will be cooler along north sea coasts. temperatures, nine, ten, maybe 11. elsewhere, the low to mid teens with western scotland faring best, high teens are 20 degrees or so. with the dry and sunny weather this time of year, tree pollen will be high or very high, particularfor england and wales. high pressure holds on for the north of the uk for friday but then we start to see these weather fronts get going friday at the weekend. low pressure starts to move in, so it will turn more unsettled with outbreaks of rain and as that lo
as he meets president xijinping for the first time since the invasion. and one of the all time tennis greats, roger federer, announces his retirement. welcome to the programme. with shaun ley in westminster and me, ros atkins, in the bbc news room. tens of thousands of people are waiting for their turn to pay their respects to queen elizabeth ii at westminster hall where she is lying in state. these are live pictures from westminster, where the queue is currently stretching over some five km. some people have waited for more than eight hours to get here, inside westminster hall, where the closed coffin is being guarded by soldiers from units that serve the royal household. that process will continue, 2a hours a day, until monday morning at 6.30am. for the latest, we can nowjoin shaun ley in westminster. hello and thank you very much. hello to all of you watching, whether you re in the uk or around the world. here in westminster is the opportunity for members of the public, as