Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure says next year’s World Cup will be a “big mess” if it is marred by racism and discrimination.

Toure, 34, was the subject of racist chants when City played CSKA Moscow in the Champions League in Russia in 2013.

He wants to help Fifa and the Russian government tackle the problem in the build-up to next summer’s tournament.

“We have to see change because people have been talking but nothing has really been taken care of,” he added.

Last month, Liverpool complained to Uefa about alleged racist abuse directed at winger Bobby Adekanye during a Uefa Youth League match at Spartak Moscow.

In 2015, former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong was sent off while playing for Russian side FC Ufa after he gestured to the crowd with his middle finger in response to alleged monkey chants.

Ex-Zenit St Petersburg striker Hulk, meanwhile, claimed he was racially abused in “almost every game” he played in Russia.

Toure has taken part in a short film supporting a campaign tackling discrimination in football.

And the former Ivory Coast international sees the 2018 World Cup as a watershed moment for Fifa in its battle to curb discrimination.

Asked in the film about his hopes for the tournament, Toure said: “If racism situations are going to be involved then it is going to be a big mess.

“Everyone is talking about Russia maybe being a little bit difficult. But I hope that Russia surprises everybody by trying to make something very nice.”

Toure, who speaks Russian, added: “I want to say to Fifa and to the government in Russia as well that if you need me I can help.

“I don’t want to be involved in only talking.

“I want to see action and people be real. These things are very important for the future of football.”

Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.

Between 1904-1908 German colonial forces wiped out over 80% of the Nama and Herero people’s population in what historians now call “the forgotten genocide”.

A class action suit is being brought against the German government for reparations. Hear descendants of the Herero victims tell their story.

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Image copyright Reuters

Kenya’s government has banned demonstrations in three major Kenyan cities – the capital Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i said the ban was aimed at protecting Kenyans and their property.

Opposition supporters have been holding regular protests in the three cities, which have resulted in looting and violent clashes with police.

They are pushing for electoral changes before a fresh election is held.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga pulled out of the 26 October poll earlier this week.

The Supreme Court had annulled President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win in the August election, after it found that the election commission had not followed the constitution and the electoral laws.

• Africa Live: More on this and other stories
• What next in Kenya election crisis?

Mr Matiang’i said the ban was not meant to curtail the constitutional right to demonstrate but that it was agreed on after security authorities found that there was “imminent danger”.

He told a press briefing that he had received complaints from the business community about the negative effects the protests were having on their businesses.

“We cannot go on this way. It is unfortunate to see people’s cars being smashed, property being destroyed in the guise of a peaceful demonstrations. We must respect the law,” he said.

He also said that a top official of the opposition coalition, Nasa, would be held responsible for damages caused during Wednesday’s protests.

Mr Odinga withdrew his participation in the re-run election because he said the election commission had refused to implement changes to correct the problems he blames for the bungled election.

Nasa has called on its supporters to hold regular street protects to pressure the commission to agree to its demands.

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Image copyright AFP

Partial results from Liberia’s presidential election show former football star George Weah has taken an early lead.

Figures from the National Elections Commission (NEC) put Mr Weah ahead in 11 out of 15 counties, although most votes have yet to be counted.

His main rival, incumbent Vice-President Joseph Boakai, leads in one county and is second in most others.

A candidate needs more than 50% of the votes for outright victory.

If no-one achieves that, a second round will be held in November.

The election is to choose a successor to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Africa’s first elected female president and a Nobel Peace laureate.

As the results came in, the manager of Arsenal Football Club, Arsene Wenger, was apparently duped by false reports that Mr Weah had won.

“I would like to congratulate one of my former players, who became president of Liberia,” Mr Wenger told reporters.

“It’s not often you have a former player who becomes president of a country. So well done, Georgie.

• Is ex-warlord pulling Liberia’s election strings from UK prison?
• Find out more about Liberia

NEC Chairman Jerome Korkoya hit out at false reports and said his officials were doing their best to get accurate official results out as quickly as possible.

“This commission has not declared any winner,” he stressed.

International election observers said they had not identified any major problems with Tuesday’s voting.

However, parties supporting three of the 20 candidates have alleged irregularities and said they would contest the result, Reuters reported.

Ms Sirleaf, 78, who is stepping down at the end of two terms, hailed the election as a success.

“We believe that all Liberians are ready for this process. I thank them for participating in this process,” she said.

Liberia, which was founded by freed US slaves in the 19th Century, has not had a smooth transfer of power in 73 years.

Ms Sirleaf took office in 2006, after her predecessor, Charles Taylor, was forced out of office by rebels in 2003, ending a long civil war.

Taylor is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence in the UK for war crimes related to the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Mr Weah, 51, has chosen Taylor’s ex-wife Jewel Howard Taylor as his running mate.

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Image copyright Anthony Jean/SOS Méditerranée

A rescue ship has docked in Sicily with 606 migrants picked up in less than two days off the Libyan coast.

They are from about 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Aid group SOS Méditerranée says they include 241 children and 11 pregnant women.

Many of the women from sub-Saharan Africa said they had suffered sexual abuse. Some of the migrants are malnourished, the group reports.

Fifty had fled to Libya from war-torn Syria. But violence also plagues Libya.

The flow of irregular migrants to southern Europe via the Mediterranean is well below the 2016 level. But Italy is struggling to cope, as most migrants now take the perilous central Mediterranean route from Libya.

The Syrians taken aboard the Aquarius rescue ship include entire families and two women in the ninth month of pregnancy.

The ship is now in Palermo, where the migrants face a long screening process, to determine who among them can legitimately claim asylum.

The migrants’ countries of origin include Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia and Yemen.

SOS Méditerranée said the proportion of children rescued – about four in every 10 migrants – was the highest to date.

“They are fleeing the chaos, and general climate of insecurity and violence in Libya,” said the aid group’s chairman, Francis Vallat.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR says the total of migrants arriving by sea this year is 142,180, of whom 107,982 reached Italy.

The figure for Greece, previously the main entry point to the EU, is 20,931.

Non-profit aid groups – NGOs – complain that EU governments are not properly resourcing the rescue effort, as people-smuggling gangs exploit migrants in Libya. Sexual abuse of female migrants and other assaults are reported to be rife there.

A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.

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South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma must face charges of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering, the Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled.

It agreed with a lower court ruling last year that prosecutors could bring back 783 counts of corruption relating to a 1999 arms deal.

The charges had been set aside eight years ago, enabling Mr Zuma to become president.

The president has always maintained his innocence.

• Africa Live: Updates on this and other stories

• Jacob Zuma – a born survivor?

The charges relate to Mr Zuma’s relationship with a businessman, Shabir Shaik, who was tried and found guilty in 2005 of soliciting bribes from a French arms company “for the benefit of Zuma”.

Mr Zuma and other government officials have been accused of taking kickbacks from the purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and other arms.

Charges were first brought against Mr Zuma in 2005 but dropped by prosecutors in 2009.

Last year, the High Court in the capital, Pretoria, ruled in a case brought by the opposition Democratic Alliance that he should face the accusations.

Mr Zuma went on to lodge a challenge with the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The president’s legal team admitted in September that a previous decision to drop the charges was “irrational”.

Analysis: ‘Spy tapes’ appeal

By Andrew Harding, BBC News, Johannesburg

It is the corruption case that will not go away.

President Zuma has battled for years to avoid going on trial for 783 counts of corruption, linked to a politically charged bribery scandal that stretches back to the 1990s.

The case against him was dropped in controversial circumstances in 2009, when the security services produced recordings of phone conversations that apparently show there was “political meddling” by prosecutors.

Weeks later, Mr Zuma became president of the country.

But the so-called “spy tapes” have never been made public, and opposition parties have fought in the courts to have the corruption charges reinstated.

After this appeals court ruling, that could now happen – in theory.

In practice, many believe South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority is unlikely to proceed, at least not without further delays.

Mr Zuma’s presidential term ends in 2019, when he will not be eligible to stand in another election having already served two terms in office.

His eventful presidency has seen him survive eight votes of no-confidence, making him the most colourful and controversial president South Africa has had since white-minority rule ended in 1994.

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