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 to send your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo from Instagram showing the divinities and football stars used to decorate a bicycle in Liberia's capital, Monrovia.

A picket line blocked the entrance to the offices of Nigeria’s largest airline, Arik Air, today in Lagos, reports the BBC’s Umar Shehu Elleman:

Workers are on strike demanding that the company pay them seven months’ arrears in salary:

It comes as the airline announced it was suspending 55% of its domestic flights because of a fuel shortage - see earlier entry.

Nigeria will close the airport in the capital, Abuja, for six weeks from February to repair its badly damaged runway, Reuters news agency quotes the the government as saying.

Flights to Abuja will be diverted to Kaduna, a small airport for domestic flights where airlines use handwritten boarding passes, it reports.

Kaduna lies about 160km (100 miles) to the north of the capital and a train service recently opened between the two cities.

A BBC reporter in Zimbabwe, which has a population of some 13 million, says the country is facing a shortage of psychiatrists:

Read more: Using talk to tackle Zimbabwe's mental health crisis

Image source, Getty Images

Egypt's embassy in London has received a limestone carving that had been stolen from Queen Hatshepsut's temple in Luxor, the Ministry of Antiquities told AP news agency.

The relief, which is carved in limestone and engraved with hieroglyphic symbols, was stolen from the temple in 1975 and smuggled out of the country, AP adds.

It was put on show in an auction hall in Spain and a British antiquities dealer bought it, the statement from the ministry said.

Image source, Rex Features

Newcastle United footballer Jonjo Shelvey has been banned for five games after he was found guilty of using racially abusive language against Moroccan Wolverhampton player Romain Saiss.

The British player has also been fined £100,000 ($123,000) and ordered to attend a Football Association education course.  

Newcastle were losing to Wolves in their Championship match in September, when in the 87th minute Shelvey insulted Saiss.

Newcastle went on to lose 2-0.

Read more on BBC Sport

Alex Duval Smith
BBC News, Abidjan

Image source, AFP

President Alassane Ouattara's coalition in Ivory Coast has maintained its control of the parliament, according to the country's independent electoral commission.

However the RHDP's majority was reduced amid successes for several independent candidates, most of whom were dissidents of the party.

But the outcome of Sunday's parliamentary election was even worse for the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) - the party of former President Laurent Gbagbo.

It secured only three MPs in the 255-seat National Assembly.

The electoral commission president is due to make a speech soon and we are expect him to reveal the turnout figure.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Image source, Getty Images

China has signed a deal with Mozambique's army to provide training and equipment valued at roughly $11.5m (£9.3m).

Chinese ambassador Su Jian said at the ceremony that military co-operation between the two countries dated back to Mozambique’s national liberation struggle when China provided training and other assistance for the fighters of the liberation movement.

The liberation struggle was between 1962 and 1974. It was followed by a brutal civil war that ended in 1992.

Umaru Fofana
BBC Africa, Banjul

The Gambia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry says 90% of businesses in the tourism sector have been affected by the uncertainty caused by the current political stalemate.

It says they're experiencing cancellations and a decline in tourist numbers for the Christmas season.

This has affected craft vendors, like Auntie Marie de Mama, who told me: "It is very sad. There is no business; there is no business here for me to make something for my children. There is nothing going on."

President Yahya Jammeh, in power since 1994, is challenging the result of a presidential poll earlier this month in which he initially accepted defeat. 

Earlier we tweeted:

And we were asked this:

So we had a look into the report to see if the World Health Organization (WHO) had pin-pointed the cause.

The report says the lifestyle choices that can affect blood pressure do include food, especially salt, but can also be alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and obesity.

It recommends two things:

• Initiatives to get people to eat less salt
• Blood pressure screening services, as it says most people who have high blood pressure are not even aware that they do.

Andrew Jackson Oryada
BBC Africa sport, Kampala

Uganda’s football boss, Moses Magogo, has been summoned to help the police with an investigation into match-fixing at a national and league level.

The BBC has seen the police letter requesting that the football association president’s come in for questioning.

Mr Magogo opted to hand over investigations into alleged match-fixing to the police after an outcry when the national team lost a game to Guinea last year.

Earlier this year the Uganda FA's accounts were frozen as investigations continued.

And two players from the Ugandan premier league side Police Football Club were sacked for match-fixing two weeks ago.

Image source, Reuters

As the UN says 20 civilians have been killed on the streets of the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, Kinshasa, protesters have been telling the BBC why they are out on the streets.

One man says nearly 16 years is enough for President Joseph Kabila:

Another suspects violent protesters may be playing into Mr Kabila's hands:

Image source, AFP

Human Rights Watch has welcomed the arrest of Guinean army officer Toumba Diakite, who has been arrested in Senegal (see earlier entry).

He had been on the run since 2009, and is still wanted in connection with a massacre of people opposed to the junta.

Corinne Dufka from Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division, said in a statement:

At the time of the 2009 massacre, HRW says Mr Diakite commanded the Presidential Guard, or Red Berets, and was a close confident of then-coup leader

A spokesman for Guinea's government, Albert Damantang, has told BBC Afrique that the Guinean authorities are liaising with Senegalese officials over the extradition process.

Read more: Rape horror at Guinea stadium

Angola's oil boss Isabel dos Santos has told the UK's Financial Times newspaper that she is going to open up the sale of oil into Angola to more competitors to reduce costs.

Her father, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, appointed her as the boss of the state oil company Sonangol earlier this year. 

But the article indicates she has had a tough time.

Even though Angola is Africa's biggest oil producer, it imports 80% of its fuel because the country doesn't have enough refineries, the FT adds. 

That means Sonangol has to find about $170m (£138m) a month to buy the refined oil. 

But, to make things worse, the government is reportedly struggling to pay because it can't get hold of enough foreign currency.

The FT says the commodity trader Trafigura has a "near monopoly" on selling oil to Angola.

Ms Dos Santos told the newspaper she is looking to change this situation:

"My vision is to make Sonangol very profitable... For that we have to make sure... that we acquire products at the most competitive prices." 

Image source, Reuters

The UN human rights director for the Democratic Republic of Congo has told Reuters that there were "solid" reports that 20 civilians had been killed in confrontations with security forces in the capital Kinshasa. 

"On the issue of deaths, it looks bad," Jose Maria Aranaz told Reuters. 

The Politico news website reported earlier that three demonstrators had been killed by soldiers in Kinshasa.

President Joseph Kabila's term officially ended on Monday but elections have been postponed to April 2018 - something demonstrators are protesting against.

An empty dock is a familiar scene for journalists reporting on the on-going trial of Simone Gbagbo, Ivory Coast's former first lady facing charges of crimes against humanity:

The case was supposed to resume this morning in Abidjan, but the BBC's Alex Duval Smith says when the courtroom opened there was no sign of the defendant, who has been in custody since April 2011.

An exasperated journalist told our reporter: 

One security guard fell sleep as he waited for the former first lady:

Mrs Gbgabo's trial has been beset by incidents which has caused several postponements. 

Human Rights group Lidho, who was representing victims, pulled out of the trial citing a lack of thoroughness in the preparation. 

Proceedings have now got under way - without Mrs Gbagbo.

Last year she was sentenced in a separate case to 20 years in jail for her role in the violence which followed the refusal of her husband to stand down after elections in 2010.  

Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa, Kampala

One of Uganda’s most powerful generals has been removed from his position following allegations that he was involved in a fake arms deal.

Brigadier General Leopald Kyanda was chief of staff for land forces and before that commanded the presidential guard and military intelligence office.

He is not officially under investigation and has denied involvement in a scam to allegedly defraud a Polish arms company of about $500,000 (£405,400).

Gen Kyanda was seen as a rising star in Uganda’s army and has been close to the first family. But he has now been moved from his senior position in the military and sent on a year’s course to India.

The defence spokesman says there’s no guarantee he will take up the same role on his return.

In recent years President Yoweri Museveni, who seized power in 1986 and is now serving his fifth presidential term, has phased out the old guard in the military in favour of a new generation of officers like Mr Kyanda.

They have risen through the ranks quickly and are considered loyal to the president’s son, a commander in the army.

Image source, AFP

Here's a story of serendipity.

In 2005 Judy Webb closed down the private girls' school her family had run in the English countryside for nearly 60 years. 

But a few years later she met Joyce Aruga at a conference of the 100 women chosen to be profiled by the BBC.

At the age of 14 Ms Aruga was forced to become the third wife of a much older man, but - determined to get an education - she ran away from her husband and later trained as a teacher.

Ms Aruga and Ms Webb hit it off at the conference and when she Ms Aruga visited Ms Webb's house she found the uniforms from her school.

She travelled home with two suitcases crammed full of the uniforms. 

Skip forward a few years and those uniforms are now being worn in a school Ms Aruga opened in Nairobi - which also has the same name as Ms Webb's school.

Read more: The English girls' school reborn in a Nairobi slum

BBC sports reporter John Bennett tweets the latest about the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament which kicks of on 14 January:

Those turning down the opportunity to play for the Indomitable Lions are:

• Andre Onana, who plays for Dutch club Ajax
• Guy Rolland N'Dy Assembe, who plays for French club Nancy  
• Joel Matip, who plays for English club Liverpool
• Allan Nyom, who plays for English club West Bromich
• Maxime Poundje, who plays for French team Bordeaux
• Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, who plays for French club Marseille  
• Ibrahim Amadou, who plays for French team Lille  

BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe

Image source, AFP

Three demonstrators have been killed by soldiers in DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa,  the private news website Politico.cd reports, external.

Five others were also injured, two of them seriously, in a shooting which occurred in the east of the capital earlier in the day, it says.

Eyewitnesses are quoted as saying the victims were shot at "close range" by the Republican Guard deployed in the suburb of N’djili, one of the city's most populated districts.

Gunfire can still be heard in various parts of Kinshasa, even though opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi has called for peaceful resistance, the report adds.