Lome- Togo (PANA) -- Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema left Lome Thursday morning for Durban, South Africa, for the UN World Conference Against Racism, which opens Friday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzania has deplored threats by the US to pull out of the forthcoming UN racism conference in the port city of Durban, South Africa. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Slave traders took commercial licences to conduct their trade in millions of Africa's vibrant sons and daughters forcefully transported across the Atlantic in the 15th century to work plantations of the Americas and the Antilles, a UNESCO official said Wednesday in Paris. Full text...

Durban- South Africa (PANA) -- Most South Africans regard racism as a serious problem, but they do not feel that it is an immediate crisis in their lives. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- French NGOs have deplored the US government decision not to send a high-level delegation to the World Conference against racism to be held in Durban, South Africa from 31 August to 7 September. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Several anti- sexual and racial discrimination organisations have reacted angrily against Michel Houellebecq's book, "Plate-forme" published by Flammarion in Paris, on the eve of the world conference against racism (WCAR). Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- Morocco's association for the support of the Palestinian struggle, or AMSLP, has called on countries taking part in the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, to condemn "Zionist racism". Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritian youths have said that slavery should be declared as a crime against humanity. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Campaign groups from Europe and Southern Africa are to issue a demand Thursday that specifically calls for the cancellation of debts incurred by countries close to South Africa over their fight against the apartheid regime. Full text...

Durban- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), Wednesday expressed disappointment that President Thabo Mbeki did not celebrate the country's successful transition to non-racial democracy in his opening speech at Tuesday's NGO Forum in Durban. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Amara Essy, the secretary general of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), said Tuesday in Dakar that he supported demands for compensation for the slave trade and colonisation. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Freedom Front political party, which has been calling for an Afrikaner homeland, has opened its stall at the venue of the World Conference Against Racism in Durban. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Ahead of the Durban World Conference against Racism, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in South Africa Tuesday held a march in Petersburg to decry racism in small towns, rural areas and farms. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- UN secretary general Kofi Annan is expected in South Africa Wednesday ahead of the World Conference against Racism that opens in Durban on Friday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- An African economist has highlighted the contribution of African sailors to modern day navigational scientific knowledge long before Christopher Columbus appeared on the scene to "discover America". Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- For many, South Africa represents a nation of miracles, a land rich in culture, a country wealthy beyond belief. Full text...

Durban- South Africa (PANA) -- Ahead of the World Conference against Racism set to begin on Friday, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa Tuesday affirmed at an NGO forum that sweeping changes to injustices around the world could be made through conscious intervention. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Ahead of the racism conference opening in Durban on Friday, UNESCO has announced it would at the forum organise three roundtables focusing on new forms of discrimination, notably those linked to genetic progress, the consequences of the slave trade and the role of the media in the fight against racism. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- An official Zambian delegation to the world conference against racism which starts Friday in the South African city of Durban left Lusaka Tuesday, armed with papers on the Zambian experience to be presented to the meeting. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The UN-sponsored World Conference Against Racism opening Friday in Durban, South Africa, should lead to concrete programmes at combating racial discrimination around the world, Human Rights Watch urged Tuesday. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The Israeli Prime Minister's diplomatic adviser, Ouadia Soffer, has appealed to President Mathieu Kerekou for Benin's support against the possible condemnation of Israel at the World Conference against racism, to hold 31 August to 7 September in Durban, South Africa. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- Human Rights Watch has urged the forthcoming Conference against racism in Durban, South Africa to condemn the government of Cote d'Ivoire for allegedly inciting hatred based on ethnic and religious differences. Full text...

Durban- South Africa (PANA) -- The US government has come under fire after confirming that it will not be sending its Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to the World Conference against Racism because of concerns it has about anti-Israel statements contained in the agenda. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Israeli youths Tuesday stormed out of a UN Youth Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, in protest against anti-Zionism sentiment. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- After escaping from a shattering episode that still makes front-page news, survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide have more than a legal battle in mind. Full text...

Lome- Togo (PANA) -- The president of Togo's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) Komi Gnondoli, has expressed the hope that the Durban World Conference against Racism (WCAR) would help sustain the spirit of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Co-operation and Francophonie Affairs Minister Charles Josselin, is leading the French government delegation to the World Conference Against Racism, which opens Thursday in Durban, South Africa, Foreign Ministry sources said in Paris Monday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Ahead of the World Conference against Racism in Durban, the New York based Human Rights Watch has released a report indicting the authorities in Cote d'Ivoire for condoning and even inciting xenophobia. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Given its tremendous influence on international relations, America's threat to boycott the forthcoming third World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, over agenda disagreement has the dangerous potential of undermining a UN effort at combating a serious evil plaguing human kind. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Malawian Chimaimba Banda has been living in South Africa for the past 18 years but he says he still feels like a foreigner in this land of gold. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A leading African lawyer and human rights advocate has lauded aspects of the French legal system which pay due attention to the interests of domestic workers, most of whom are Africans. Full text...

Lome- Togo (PANA) -- Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema on Friday received a message from the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in connection with the World Conference Against Racism scheduled to be held in Durban, South Africa from 31 August to 7 September. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Several members of the African Diaspora in France, meeting Friday in Paris, lashed out at President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal for his stance against calls for reparations on the abuses of slavery and colonisation. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Three international NGOs expressing solidarity with countries of the South are pushing for World Bank and IMF reform programmes to be featured at the forthcoming World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambique wanted the developed world to apologise for the evils of slavery and colonialism, but was not pushing for reparations for the years of the slave trade and of colonial rule. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A group of French NGOs says delegates appointed by the Paris government to the forthcoming World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, are not representative of the entire civil society. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Guadaloupian-born French professional footballer, Lilian Thuram, is expected to attend the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) to be held in Durban, South Africa later this month. Full text...

Paris- France (France) -- A number of French non-governmental organisations have adopted a common platform of demands to be presented at the World Conference Against Racism which opens next week in Durban, South Africa. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The African National Congress Women's League on Wednesday mobilised hundreds of community members and women in support of a march called by the Ministers Fraternal in the Southern Cape town of George. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The South African government is failing to adequately protect residents of commercial farming areas from violent crime, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released Wednesday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Amnesty International has expressed fears that conflicts of interest likely to emerge at the forthcoming World Conference against Racism in Durban could throw victims of racism into oblivion. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A growing number of African groups are calling on the French government to include their leaders in the country's official delegation to the World Conference Against Racism, starting 31 August in Durban, South Africa. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- As postulated by History Professor Daniel Abwa of Cameroonian nationality, the major consequence of the Slave Trade for Africa was its being stripped of its manpower. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- An estimated 30,000 Muslims marched through the streets of Cape Town on Tuesday protesting against Israel's oppression of Palestinians. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- In the run up to the Durban conference on racism, an African sociologist has asserted that even if pecuniary reparations were paid to African by the West for slavery and colonisation, these might not necessarily be the ultimate solution to the continent's developmental problems. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Advocates of racism against Blacks actually held the outrageous view that the Negro was sub human. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Deputy leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk of the opposition Democratic Alliance has called on Pretoria to ensure that ongoing violence and "racism against white Zimbabweans" feature on the agenda at the forthcoming World Conference Against Racism in Durban. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan historian, Ali Mazrui, has reiterated the view that Africans cannot make a strong case against their enslavement by Arabs in the past centuries because it was not a commercial venture. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South African Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said Sunday that the contentious issues of Zionism being equated to racism and that of reparations for slavery, were still on the agenda of the UN World Conference Against Racism. Full text...