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Live Reporting

Clare Spencer and Damian Zane

All times stated are UK

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  1. Scroll down for Friday's stories

    We'll be back on Monday

    That wraps the week up for us at BBC Africa Live, but while we're off you can keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website.  

    A reminder of today's wise words:

    Quote Message: Birds agree when flying down but they do not agree when flying up." from A Kikuyu proverb sent by Kamau Wachira, Kiambu, Kenya
    A Kikuyu proverb sent by Kamau Wachira, Kiambu, Kenya

    Click here to send us your Africa proverbs.

    And we leave you with an image from our selection of the best pictures from Africa this week.

    It shows a young girl saving her prized possessions from a building in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, which had been earmarked for demolition.

    Girl holding a toy polar bear
  2. British prosecutors accused of cover up over jailed Nigerian governor

    James Ibori
    Image caption: James Ibori pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2012

    The British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is being accused of covering up police corruption during the case of jailed Nigerian governor James Ibori.  

    Ibori was jailed in the UK for laundering millions by buying properties, a fleet of armoured Range Rovers and a £120,000 Bentley. 

    Before Ibori was sentenced, there were claims that police investigating him had received thousands of pounds from private detectives hired by the Nigerian fraudster. 

    Prosecutors had previously denied defence accusations that they had not handed over all the key evidence of this alleged police malpractice.

    But the CPS has now admitted it does possess intelligence which “supports the assertion” that a Scotland Yard officer received payment in return for information about the Ibori case in 2007.       

    Defence lawyers have claimed that the CPS “wilfully misled” judges about the existence of this evidence.  

    If the defense case were to be accepted, Ibori’s legal team would seek to have their client’s conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal.

    Read more about James Ibori in How a thief almost became Nigeria's president.

  3. Rescued Nigerian girl is 'not among 219 Chibok girls', campaigners say.

    A spokesman from Nigeria's #BringBackOurGirls campaign says that a girl who the army rescued on Thursday from Boko Haram and said she was part of the 219 kidnapped from Chibok in 2014, was not one of those taken at the time, the AFP new agency reports.

    The girl was among 97 people the army rescued.

    The confusion appears to be that she was a student at the Chibok school, but was "abducted by the insurgents in her home in Madagali", AFP quotes campaign spokesman Sesugh Akume.

    Thousands of people have been kidnapped by Boko Haram and their whereabouts remain unknown.

  4. Why Tanzania has a sugar shortage

    Sugar
    Image caption: More rice than sugar on the shelves

    Over the last month there’s been a sugar shortage in Tanzania.

    It started after the president put restrictions on importing the sweet stuff.

    They said the imports failed to protect local growers while importers grew rich.

    But now local sugar cane growers have even been accused of hoarding stock to justify price hikes.

    And to get over the price doubling, the government has decided to, well, import sugar

    Read about the whole saga in Sammy Awami’s article on theBBC News website.

  5. Protests greet South African university celebration

    We've been posting about the centenary celebrations at South Africa's Fort Hare university (see 15.59 entry).

    The university counts many African liberation heroes including Nelson Mandela among its graduates.

    But the day has also been marked by student protests:

    Protesters at Fort Hare
    Protesters at Fort Hare

    The AFP news agency reports that at one point police used water cannon to stop the protesters reaching the venue where the celebrations were taking place.

    South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe both spoke at the main event.

  6. What does today's proverb mean?

    Birds
    Image caption: Are they arguing or colluding?

    Everyday we pick an African proverb sent in by a reader to start off our day. But some days it isn't entirely clear what the lesson of the words are.

    Take today's proverb:

    Quote Message: Birds agree when flying down but they do not agree when flying up." from A Kikuyu proverb sent by Kamau Wachira, Kiambu, Kenya
    A Kikuyu proverb sent by Kamau Wachira, Kiambu, Kenya

    In this instance, we turn to our readers on Facebook to explain.

    Diko Alinaitwe from Uganda’s capital, Kampala, says: 

    Quote Message: Thieves plan together to steel but they can’t help each other to escape.”

    Joseph Otieno from Nairobi in Kenya has one suggestion:

    Quote Message: “It means you may strike a deal and when it matures the other partner is allowed to run away with it."

    Sipho Mudenda from Livingstone in Zambia suggests a slightly less dramatic interpretation:

    Quote Message: When people want to be in partnership they sit down and agree with each other, when they want to stop communication breaks down little-by-little."

    And finally Patrick Nwokolo from Port Harcourt in Nigeria just says: 

    Quote Message: That's corruption."

    Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to send in your proverb.

  7. A new Uber service in South Africa?

    The cartoonists behind South Africa's satirical Madam & Eve strip have imagined that there is an Uber-like service for homework:

    View more on twitter

    The Uber taxi service has been in the news in South Africa this week as Uber drivers have been attacked near one of the big stations in Johannesburg.

    Eyewitness News is reporting that Uber services will not, for time being, be working near the Sandton Gautrain station.

  8. Human remains found by EgyptAir search team

    Search teams looking for the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean have discovered human remains. 

    Egyptian officials say navy crews also managed to find seats and passengers's belongings. 

    Meanwhile, satellite pictures of the sea's surface have shown what could be a fuel slick from the plane. 

    The aircraft was en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board when it disappeared from radar screens on Thursday.

    Ship in Mediterranean
    Image caption: Search teams are looking for the wreckage
  9. What will rescued Chibok girl be returning to?

    In the week that the first girl so-called Chibok girl was rescued, the BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar asks what her community is like now.

    The girls were abducted from their dormitory in Chibok secondary school in Nigeria over two years ago. 

    Our correspondent has been to the freed girl's village and met many of the parents there. 

    He told the BBC's Fifth Floor that this news will give many of the parents that he met hope about their own daughters.

    But he said the girl will be returning to a divided community:

    Quote Message: They are Muslims and Christians who were all living happily together until this abduction. This abduction was carried out by people who professed to be Muslims, who say they are carrying out a jihad. They abducted these girls, most of them were Christian. The news that they were forced to convert to Islam made their parents have ill feelings."

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  10. Congolese Crystal Palace player wears boots for his mother

    Yanick Bolassie after scoring

    Congolese Crystal Palace winger Yannick Bolasie could be one of the key players as his side challenges Manchester United in Saturday's FA Cup final at Wembley.

    Bolassie grew up in London and says, in a profile piece in the Guardian newspaper, that he could see Wembley stadium from his bedroom.

    He also reveals that tomorrow is his mother's birthday and he will be wearing a specially-designed pair of boots in her honour.

    He says:

    Quote Message: The way I’ve grown up, the manner I am today, reflects on my mother. I’ve seen other people grow up and not have respect for human beings."

    Senegal's Pape Souare, Togo's Emmanuel Adebayor, Mali's Bakary Sako and Morocco's Marouane Chamakh are also part of the Crystal Palace squad.

  11. Fort Hare: 'One of the most important universities in Africa'

    View more on twitter

    South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has called Nelson Mandela's university Fort Hare one of the most important universities in Africa:

    View more on twitter

    He was talking at the ceremony celebrating the centenary of the university.

    Eye Witness News has picked out some keys parts of his speech:

    View more on twitter
    View more on twitter
    View more on twitter

    We reported in our 10:57 post that this comes after two days of violent protests at the campus.

    One of the grievances was the cost of the ceremony, while students have been campaigning for the last year for financial help. 

  12. Ghana's law courts shut following nationwide strike

    Thomas Naadi

    BBC Africa, Accra

    Ghana's law courts have shut because of an indefinite nationwide strike by court workers called today over poor conditions of service. 

    They want the government to implement a deal over new salaries which was approved last year.

    Last month, members of the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana met a presidential committee that was set up to address their concerns. 

    But this did not yield any fruitful results. 

  13. Dangerous Zika virus strain reaches Africa 'for first time'

    The World Health Organization says that the Zika virus strain linked to neurological defects in new-born babies in South America has been detected in Africa for the first time. 

    It was found in a sample taken from Cape Verde.

    The WHO has been tweeting:

    View more on twitter

    The name of the virus in fact comes from a Ugandan forest where it was first identified.

    But the strain prevalent in Africa caused flu-like symptoms without the other complications.

    Read more: Inside Uganda's forest where the disease originates

  14. The 20 people abducted in northern Uganda thought to be in South Sudan

    Uganda's Daily Monitor has more details of a raid in the north of the country earlier this week in which 20 people were abducted (see 12.23 entry).

    It says that the authorities do not know the whereabouts of those who were taken, but a local official says that it is likely that they are now over the border in South Sudan.

    It is thought that the attackers themselves are from South Sudan.

    The Daily Monitor quotes local army official Lt Andrew Kandiho as saying that the attackers took goats and other provisions.

    “We are also working jointly with security operatives in South Sudan to ensure those people are returned,” he added.

  15. Families hold 'symbolic' funerals for loved ones in EgyptAir crash

    The BBC's Middle East correspondent, Lina Sinjab, who is in Cairo, says some families have already carried out funerals with empty coffins for their loved ones.

    She said: "The rituals here are they have to bury the dead as soon as they die, but they are in a really difficult position because they don't know if the bodies would ever arrive, so they're still waiting at the moment. 

    "They did this as a symbolic move to commemorate their lost ones."  

  16. Kenya reassures UN over treatment of refugees

    Anne Soy

    BBC Africa, Nairobi

    The UN Security Council says it has received assurances from the Kenyan government that it will respect its international obligations to refugees, despite announcing that it will close the Dadaab refugee camp, home to more than 300,000 Somalis.

    UN ambassadors have been talking about the proposed closure with Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta.

    Britain's Ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, told the BBC that the fate of the refugees will be determined jointly by the Security Council and the Somali and Kenyan governments. 

    Kenya said it wanted to close the camp because of security concerns. 

    The government says several militant attacks on Kenyan soil were planned in the camp. 

    President Kenyatta has been tweeting pictures of him at the meeting:

    View more on twitter
  17. Nigeria black market fuel sellers switch to kerosene

    Ishaq Khalid

    BBC Africa, Bauchi

    Young men who sell petrol in jerrycans by the roadside in Nigeria, known as black maketers, have switched over from the petrol business to selling kerosene in the northern city of Bauchi. 

    They say they have switched because there are no more petrol shortages since the official pump price rose 67% last week, so motorists no longer need to get petrol on the black market.

    Black Marketers in Bauchi

    Umar, one of the black marketers, told me that now kerosene is more scarce than petrol.

    Most families in Nigeria rely on kerosene for cooking. 

    The black marketers say the government should provide more job opportunities so they don't have to resort to selling fuel on the streets.  

  18. Prosecutors to give Haile Selassie's $1m watch back to mystery owner

    Geneva's chief prosecutors will release a watch which the family of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie insist was stolen, reports Bloomberg.

    The watch was confiscated by prosecutors who have now told Bloomberg they have found no criminal wrongdoing.  

    The family say the watch was stolen from the Imperial Palace by soldiers in the wake of a 1974 Marxist coup that deposed the Ethiopian monarch, or was taken from a safety deposit box shortly thereafter.  

    Bloomberg say the 18-carat gold Patek Phillipe watch is expected to get £1m (£690,000) in auction.

    Christie's Auction House is not revealing the owner's name.

    Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie (1892-1975) review troops 17 January 1973 in Addis Ababa upon Pompidou's arrival for a 3-day state visit to Ethiopia, the last stage of his trip to the Horn of Africa
  19. Cairo filmmaker posts tribute to four family members

    Osman Abu Laban, a Cairo-based Lebanese film director, has posted on his Facebook page to say that he lost four members of his family in the crash - his uncle, aunt, cousin and his cousin's wife.  

    He posted pictures of the family members and a message praying that they would find peace.

    BBC
  20. Angolan activist freed

    Human Rights Watch campaigner Zenaida Machado has tweeted that an Angolan activist has just been freed:

    View more on twitter

    She adds more detail:

    View more on twitter

    Jornal de Angola reports that the Supreme Court made the decision yesterday. 

    He was arrested in March after helping organise a demonstration against bad governance in the oil-rich Cabinda region, where there has been a decades-long separatist insurgency.

    In March he was sentenced to six years in prison.

    Maka Angola reported that the UN had called for his immediate release in January saying everyone should have freedom of expression.