Zambia
Zambia held a church service on Wednesday as it prepared to bury its founding president Kenneth Kaunda who died last month.
The ceremony at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the capital Lusaka was attended by President Edgar Lungu and former head of state Rupiah Banda.
The high court in Lusaka dismissed a late application filed by the family, challenging Kaunda's burial at a site reserved for former presidents.
"The late Dr. Kenneth Kaunda was not an ordinary person," argued Judge Wilfred Kopa Muma in his ruling.
The family had argued that Kaunda wished to be interred at his private residence.
The hero of the struggle against white rule in southern Africa, who died on June 17 was due to be buried on Wednesday following a state memorial held last week at the city's 60,000-seat National Heroes Stadium.
President Lungu declared April 28 a public holiday in honor of Kaunda, who died at a military hospital in June after being admitted with Pneumonia.
“I, President of the Republic of Zambia now declare April 28, the birthday of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda as a public holiday. One Zambia One Nation,” he said during the funeral service.
Kaunda was born on April 28, 1924.
Go to video
Bomb attack in northern Kenya kills 5 people near the border with Somalia
00:50
Kenya: 44 people die due to flooding
Go to video
British police charge two men after Channel migrant deaths
01:42
Gaza doctors deliver baby girl from mother killed in Israeli airstrike
01:12
Rising Palestinian casualties in Gaza
00:44
Three Tanzanian soldiers killed in Democratic Republic of Congo