That's all from the BBC Africa Live page today. 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:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo of children in South Africa wearing T-shirts with an image of Nkosi Johnson, one of the youngest victims of the HIV epidemic, ahead of next week's the AIDS2016 International Conference:

Image source, Reuters

Haruna Shehu Tangaza
BBC Africa, Abuja

The US ambassador to Nigeria has snubbed Nigeria's parliament, refusing to appear before a panel investigating his allegation that three lawmakers were involved in sexual misconduct during a visit to the US in April.

House of Representatives spokesman  Abdurrazak Namdaz  told the BBC that James Entwhistle  did not give any reason for failing to appear before the panel of lawmakers. 

The panel was set up after Mr Entwhistle wrote to Nigeria parliament speaker, Yakubu Dogara, alleging that three of  a 10-man delegation to a good governance exchange programme had allegedly been involved in behaviour that "left a very negative impression of Nigeria".

Image source, Getty Images

He wrote that  Mohammed Garba Gololo "allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex", while Mark Terseer Gbillah and Samuel Ikon "allegedly requested hotel parking attendants assist them to solicit prostitutes".

All three strongly denied the allegation, and threatened to sue to clear their names. 

The panel  postponed the hearing to 20 July following Mr Entwhistle's failure to attend, Mr Namdaz said. 

Mr Entwhistle has not yet commented.  

It seems our earlier story about the initiative by police in Tanzania's main city Dar es Salaam to stop drivers flouting traffic laws has been very popular with our Facebook , externalusers.

Here's a sample of their views: 

Farai Sevenzo
Zimbabwean journalist

Newly appointed UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is a consummate politician, whose appetites are as varied as his wit. He is a favourite of the press for the colourful copy his life and personality consistently deliver.

But there is the whiff of a 1940s colonial district administrator about his utterances when it comes to people and cultures from beyond his social circles (see earlier posts).

Born in 1964, his attitude is full of the arrogance of empire and the condescension of so-called “civilisers".

He needs to up his diplomatic game despite his full Brexit in-tray – no part of modern Africa will stand much of what are essentially obnoxious out-of-date views of a continent many see as a rising market, whose citizens are well read and tech savvy and whose writers, black and white, have won five Nobel prizes for literature.  

Many Africans will be hoping the Foreign Office has a suitable diplomacy class for the new minister, which, if anything, can remove the foot from his mouth.  

Read more: Viewpoint - Boris Johnson and his 'colonial views' on Africa

Image source, PA

Abdinoor Aden
BBC Africa, Nairobi

A confidential police report  leaked to me says that a guard at the police station in north-western Kenya's  Kapenguria was behind today's shooting spree. 

It says PC Abdihakim Maslah killed six policeman at the station. A seventh policeman was killed during the operation to "retake" the police station. 

Maslah was also killed in the shootout, the report adds. 

Image source, Getty Images

Egypt's all-time leading scorer Hossam Hassan has been spared a possible prison sentence after a police photographer dropped his case against the striker.

The Al Masry coach had been due to appear in court on Saturday charged with assaulting the photographer after an Egyptian league match last Friday.

The incident happened as players and officials from Al Masry and Ghazl Al Mahalla clashed after the two sides drew 2-2.

 "I decided to end the case as I love city of Port Said [where Al Masry is based] and let me tell you that I love Hossam Hassan and his twin Ibrahim as they made the Egyptians happy," the police photographer Reda Abdelmaged said to reporters.  

Read the full story here:

Abdinoor Aden
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Security officers and local leaders are now saying that a disgruntled policeman killed at least four of his colleagues at a police station in Kenya's north-western Kapenguria town.

The policeman went on a shooting spree after his request to leave the force was denied by his superiors, they added.

Heavy blasts and gunfire was heard  for several hours around the station as police commandos - sent from the capital, Nairobi -  tried to neutralize the shooter.

He is reported to have been killed. 

Earlier, the security officers and local leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said militant Islamic group al-Shabab was suspected to be behind the attack.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has rejected the idea of greater foreign military intervention in his country, saying he would not accept a single soldier. 

The regional development body Igad had proposed reinforcing the UN peacekeeping mission already in South Sudan, after troops loyal to Mr Kiir clashed with the forces of Vice-President Riek Machar.

Mr Machar's side has called for a UN buffer force between the warring parties. 

Image source, AFP

Abdinoor Aden
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Italian sports agent Federico Rosa, who managed former Kenyan Olympic athlete Rita Jeptoo, has been charged in court over the  alleged use of prohibited performance enhancing substances on local athletes.

Rosa denied six counts of doping when he appeared in court in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

He was remanded in police custody, until the court rules on his bail application on Monday. 

It will also decide whether should be given back his passport so that he can travel with his athletes to Europe and Latin America. 

Jeptoo, winner of  the Boston and Chicago marathons,was banned for two years in 2014 after failing a drugs test.      

"Hoodlums" have blown up a state-owned gas pipeline with dynamite  in south-western NIgeria, police have said, the Associated Press news agency is reporting. 

The attackers posed as repairmen, before carrying out the attack on the gas pipeline of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in Ogun state, Deputy Superintendent Olumuyiwa Adejobi is quoted as saying. 

AP says it is the first such attack in the state. 

It is unclear who was behind it. 

The Niger Delta Avengers group has carried out a spate of attacks on oil and gas installations in other areas, saying it wants poor communities to benefit more from Nigeria's oil wealth. 

Read: Who are the Niger Delta Avengers? 

Image source, AFP

Mark Doyle
International development journalist

Image source, Internews

More details have emerged about the killing of South Sudanese journalist John Gatluak. Reliable sources said Mr Gatluak was deliberately shot in the head on Monday after soldiers had broken into a residential compound in the capital Juba. 

A photo of Mr Gatluak’s dead body, taken where he was killed in the compound, shows his arms outstretched on the ground above his head – indicating that he may have had his hands up in submission when he was shot. 

It is not clear whether the killer of Mr Gatluak was with government or opposition forces. But government forces were in the area of the residential compound after earlier mounting an offensive on the nearby headquarters of Riek Machar, the opposition leader and deputy president. 

Mr Machar is from the Nuer ethnic group; government forces are mainly ethnic Dinka. Mr Gatluak was recognisably Nuer, with traditional Nuer scarifications on his face.

He was an intensely thoughtful man. I was with him in May this year when he recorded an interview with a senior government official. He was polite, but accurate and probing – the sort of journalist South Sudan so badly needs. 

South African golfer Louis Oosthuizen hits a spectacular hole-in-one on the 14th hole during the first day of The Open at Royal Troon in Ayrshire, Scotland.  

South Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar's spokesman has shared a post on social media in which he says attempts have been made to arrest ministers allied with his boss.

Image source, James Gatdet Dak

Mr Machar left Juba after heaving fighting between forces loyal to him and those of Mr Kiir. 

The two leaders have been involved in a power struggle since 2013, with various peace initiatives aimed at ending the conflict collapsing.

See earlier post for Kiir's latest olive branch

Image source, AFP

An elephant has crushed to death a wildlife official  at a popular game reserve in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province after she tripped while running away from the animal, the local IOL news site reports, external. 

 Thembisile Mchunu, 47, was on her way out of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, where she had been inspecting alien plants, when the incident happened, it adds. 

The news site quotes colleague Amon Sitholehe as saying:

 KwaZulu-Natal wildlife spokesman Musa Mntambo added: 

The most dangerous waters in the world are no longer off the coast of Somalia, but off Nigeria, in the Gulf of Guinea.

Vessels there are more likely to have their crews kidnapped than their cargoes taken, and the tactic is on the rise.

BBC Africa Security correspondent Tomi Oladipo explains why.

Stanley Kwenda
BBC Africa

Zimbabwe has deported Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford and her camera person, putting them on a flight to neighbouring South Africa. 

A source told me the two, who had sneaked into the country to cover the protests organised by #ThisFlag pastor Evan Mawarire, were traced to a lodge in the capital, Harare, yesterday evening.

The two were immediately driven to the international airport where they spent the night in detention. 

They have arrived safely in South Africa's main city, Johannesburg, after flying out of Harare this morning.

Read: Zimbabwe's flag fury

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir called on rival Riek Machar on Thursday to meet for talks to salvage peace after days of intense gun battles in the capital Juba, reported the AFP news agency.

Speaking in public for the first time since fighting erupted on Friday Mr Kiir said "I don't want any more bloodshed in South Sudan.

"I want Dr Riek Machar, the first vice-president of the republic, to be near me, so we can chart the way forward."

Image source, AFP

Police in Tanzania's main city Dar es Salaam have found a novel way of stopping motorists from flouting traffic laws, by naming and shaming them.

Motorists have been taking shortcuts by crossing into new lanes reserved for fast buses, causing a rise in accidents..

Instead of charging drivers, traffic officers are  ordering them to stand by their car and hold a display board with their personal details - including name, age and religion - and the traffic law they violated.

The police say this punishment is working and is helping to make sure the courts don't get clogged up.

Zimbabwe's Pastor Evan Mawarire has turned into a hero on Twitter for standing up to President Robert Mugabe's government. 

He was freed last night after a court in the capital, Harare, threw out subversion charges brought against him by prosecutors. 

The pastor incurred the wrath for spearheading a campaign on social  media, under the hastag #ThisFlag, against the deteriorating economic situation in a country ruled by Mr Mugabe, 92, since 1980.  

His supporters on Twitter have been celebrating his release: 

Foreign governments are continuing to airlift foreigners from South Sudan after deadly heavy fighting in the capital, Juba, between rival government force leftat least 270 people dead. 

A Ugandan radio station is tweeting about the latest arrivals at the country's international airport: