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:

And we leave you with this photo Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with Kenyan children who sang at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh today: 

Image source, PA

US oil company ExxonMobil says it has made a "significant discovery" of oil off the coast of Nigeria.

In a tweet it says it could yield up to one billion barrels of oil.

ExxonMobil operates the Owowo oil field, where the discovery was made, and owns just over a quarter of it, the AP news agency reports.

It adds that Nigeria's state oil company holds the majority share. 

Image source, AFP

Rebels have carried out a spate of attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria to demand that poor communities benefit from the oil wealth. 

Joab Frank Chakhaza
BBC Africa

The Malawi Council of Churches (MCC) has told BBC Focus on Africa that it is backing an amendment of the country's abortion law in Malawi so that a termination can be allowed in certain circumstances.

They include a threat to a woman’s health, a pregnancy resulting from rape, incest or defilement or where there is severe malformation of the foetus.  

The MCC, the country's largest grouping of churches representing Catholics and Protestants, said it was supporting the change because of the high number of Malawian women dying in an attempt to abort a pregnancy using unsafe procedures. 

Secretary General Gilford Matonga said the MCC remained opposed to abortion on demand.

The MCC has, however, received criticism from some religious institutions which remain strongly opposed to the amendment.

The changes await parliamentary approval. 

Currently, abortion is punishable by law and attracts a maximum of 14 years imprisonment.

Image source, Getty Images

British Nigerian Tom Ilube has just been named Britain's most influential black person, external by a panel of British experts of African and Caribbean heritage.

He's a cyber security expert, philanthropist and educator who set up the Gifted Foundation to help change the lives of children. 

In Ghana he opened the African Science Academy - a science and technology school for girls only.

He told BBC Focus On Africa's Audrey Brown how he reacted when he won the award - ahead of people like the Olympian Mo Farah and Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton  

Image source, AP

Kenyan police are investigating whether the knife-wielding man shot dead by a guard outside the US embassy in the capital, Nairobi, had accomplices, local police chief Vitalis Otieno has said, AFP news agency reports.

Mr Otieno said the man was a 24-year-old Kenyan, but he did not name him. 

He had stabbed a Kenyan officer and was then shot in the head by another officer, Mr Otieno said, AFP reports. 

Five US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers were at the scene of the shooting, along with about a dozen Kenyan officers, the news agency adds.

Kenyan police spokesman George Kinoti had described the man as a "lone criminal", but said investigations were continuing. 

See earlier post for more details. 

Many people, from all over Africa, have emigrated to the United States and now live across the country.

BBC News takes a look at where they came from, and where they live now.

A group of around 150 armed rebels have abducted at least 30 children after they attacked two schools in South Sudan's Amadi state, the state governor Joseph Ngere has told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

He said the men were part of the SPLM-IO group of ousted Vice-President Riek Machar.

Mr Ngere said around 300 children were at the two schools and many fled into the bushes.

The attack happened on Monday, but the governor said he only learnt of the incident on Wednesday.

There has been no comment from Mr Machar.

Image source, AFP

The knife-wielding man shot dead outside the US embassy in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, was a "loan criminal", police spokesman George Kinoti has said, Reuters news agency reports. 

A Kenyan police officer shot him dead after he came under attack, he added.

The motive for the attack in unclear and investigations are under way, Mr Kinoti said, Reuters reports. 

See earlier posts for more details

A letter to the Queen of England from British musician John Lennon explaining that he was returning his MBE award because of Britain's involvement in Nigeria's Biafra conflict has been valued at $73,000 (£60,000).

The letter, believed to be a draft of the one that was actually sent in 1969, was discovered in an old record sleeve.

Lennon was one of the four members of The Beatles, who all received the MBE in 1965.

The letter reads: "I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts."  

Talking to the press in 1969 Lennon was more specific:

He said the return of the MBE was:

From 1967 the British government gave support to the Nigerian government in its fight against the Biafran separatist rebels.

It's thought that a million Biafrans died during the conflict from 1967 to 1970 mostly from starvation.

The man shot dead outside the US embassy in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, was a Kenyan, local police chief Vitalis Otieno is quoted by the Associated Press news agency reports.

Police knew the identity of the man and he came from the north-eastern Wajir region, Mr Otieno said, AP reports.

 The embassy is in Nairobi's upmarket Gigiri suburb, opposite the main UN complex. 

A member of Kenya's paramilitary General Services Unit (GSU) shot dead a man near the US embassy in the capital, Narrobi, after he came under attack, local police chief Vitalis Otieno has said, AFP news agency is reporting. 

He added that the GSU officer, who was guarding the embassy, had sustained stab wounds. 

Mr Otieno said the dead man had been walking towards the embassy and was close to the entrance to the visa section when he attempted to grab a gun from one of the officers, AFP reports.

One local newspaper is sharing a picture from the scene that some may find upsetting:

The US embassy in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, has tweeted about the shooting near its building:

Journalists are reporting that someone was shot dead.

The man shot dead outside the US embassy in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, had stabbed an officer, forcing police to open fire, police are quoted by AFP news agency as saying. 

See earlier post for more details

A man has been shot dead outside the US embassy in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, following a "confrontation" with officers guarding the building, AFP news agency is quoting policce as saying.

Heavily armed policemen have been deployed to the scene and part of the road has been sealed off, Kenya's privately owned Capital News reports on its site, external. 

It quotes its reporter Joseph Muraya as saying that a man with a bullet wound to the head is lying outside the entrance of the embassy's visa section. 

We will bring you more details as they come in.

Image source, AFP

Officials in Senegal have inaugurated a bakery in a prison to provide inmates with fresh bread and the opportunity of a future career in baking, BBC Afrique reports.

The facility in the Liberte 6 prison in Dakar, the capital, is branded as the Rehabilitation Bakery and is meant to help prisoners return to a normal life at the end of their sentence

One prisoner hailed the initiative, telling BBC Afrique: 

South Sudanese religious leaders are saying that Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to visit their country to preach peace, the Reuters news agency is reporting.

Along with Catholic leaders, Rev Peter Gai Lual Marrow from South Sudan's Presbyterian Church held talks with the Pope and told Reuters that "in principle he really wants to come".

It adds that Pope Francis now needs a formal invitation from the government.

South Sudan has been embroiled in a civil war since December 2013, which has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.

Lat year's peace deal fell apart after clashes between rival factions in the capital, Juba, in July.

Image source, afp

Stephanie Hegarty
BBC Africa, Lagos

Lagos Fashion & Design Week, external is in town and has set up shop in a long, dark, ice-cool tunnel on the ever-chic Victoria Island. The buzz last night was as palpable as the long line of traffic queuing up to get inside.

Like any good fashion week they made the fashion gang wait and like any good event in Lagos the wait wasn’t brief. 

Three hours after kick-off the crowd was flagging but they perked up pretty quickly as the music blasted and beautiful elk-like beings began stalking the catwalk. 

They murmured in approval to sheer dresses, draping collars and plunging necklines that would be as at home in London as in Lagos, considering them studiously.

But then the crowd broke out in wild shrieks as soon as plus-size models hit the catwalk. 

Three designers had dressed them, in association with website #AboutThatCurvyLife, external, and the crowd loved it. 

They hurled whoops of encouragement at the models. But these ladies didn’t need it. They stormed down the catwalk flaunting not only the clothes but the curves beneath them.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Designer Aisha Abubakar Achonu told the AFP news agency:

The show was inspired by Latasha Ngwube, a former journalist who became tired of seeing skinny girls on the Lagos catwalk. 

It started with a hashtag and now she runs a website that supports and encourages plus-size women - and men too.   

Outgoing ministers in Ghana could be forcibly evicted from their official residences if they fail to move out in time, under new laws.

Ministers and other government officials are being given a three-month deadline to hand over state-owned homes and vehicles, from the date of the new president's inauguration.

The law targets presidential appointees who try to cling on to the perks of office after a new leader is elected.

Ghana is due told presidential and parliamentary elections on 7 December.

After previous transfers of power, some officials have had to be forcibly evicted and had their state-owned vehicles seized after failing to hand them back.

The law does not apply to presidents and vice-presidents as we earlier reported.

 Ghana's current leader John Mahama is standing for re-election and his main opponent is Nana Akufo-Addo. The winner is expected to be inaugurated on 7 January.  

Image source, AFP

A Muslim cleric in Senegal has escaped a custodial sentence after being found guilty in connection with posting a video on Facebook which condemned elders of the powerful Mouride sect. 

Cheikh Mbacke Sakho was given a six-month suspended sentence for what prosecutors called an "insult against a whole community, through electronic means”.

The Mouride sect, which belongs to the Sufi branch of Islam, has a huge following in Senegal, giving it political and economic clout in the mostly Muslim country. 

Mr Sakho belongs to the sect, and the AFP news agency reports that he caused anger last month when he alleged in a video that Mouride elders "swindled" their followers, and took money from Muslims to advance their business interests.   

The leaders of the Mouride community denied the allegations and warned that his comments could cause public unrest. 

Those who defended him, mostly online and anonymously, said Mr Sakho had only exercised his right to freedom of speech. 

Mr Sakho was not in court in the capital, Dakar, when the sentence was given.  His lawyer said he feared being physically attacked.

Image source, AFP

Read: Islam's mystical entrepreneurs

In pictures: Senegal's Mouride Islamic sect

Image source, AFP

Chad could become a federal state if proposed constitutional reforms are introduced, BBC Afrique reports.

Chad is currently a unitary state, but President Idriss Deby ordered a commission to move quickly towards implementing reforms that will introduce a new form of government.

A coalition of political parties under the leadership of Chad's veteran opposition leader Ngarledji Yorongar has long been vocal in demanding a federal system. 

He has argued that Chad, which is a geographically vast country, cannot be governed from the capital, N'Djamena, alone.

But the commission in charge of pushing through the reforms has not given a role to any known opposition figure.

The reforms will re-introduce presidential term limits which were removed by Mr Deby in a previous constitutional amendment.