Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- As women in other parts of the world prepare to mark World Women's Day on Saturday, Botswana is reeling in shock over a series of murders involving young women reportedly killed by their estranged lovers. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The South African government Thursday expressed "regret and outright condemnation" of the suicide bombing in Haifa and the Israeli retaliatory military operation in Gaza, both resulting in many deaths and injuries. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Two persons were feared dead and 20 others injured Wednesday in Urhonigbe, in Nigeria's mid-western Edo state where youths attacked the campaign convoy of state governor Lucky Igbinedion, the local press reported Thursday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A France-based NGO, Afrique-Conseil, has been providing assistance to several dozen African immigrant women victims of domestic violence every year, one of the NGO's officials, Kabangu Muanza, said on Tuesday in Paris. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- One out of eight Congolese women is brutalised by her husband or companion in the home, a member of the National Council for Women (CNF) said in Kinshasa on Monday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Militia and vigilante violence continues to pose a real threat to security in Nigeria, especially in the period leading up to the April general elections in the country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned in a report Friday. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- An armed Islamic group in Algeria's Tipasa prefecture has murdered 12 people, the police announced here Thursday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo Tuesday condemned the political killings in Owerri, capital of the south-eastern Imo State, as he took his campaign for re-election to the south-east zone of the country. Full text...

Lilongwe- Malawi (PANA) -- A group of Malawi's ruling party (UDF) Tuesday injured a 20-year-old man who reportdely chanted slogans against proposed constitional amendments to enable President Bakili Muluzi to seek a third mandate after 2004. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- One person was killed and three others injured Sunday in politically motivated violence that erupted in Owo, in Nigeria's south-western Ondo State, according to local press reports. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- One person was killed and seven others were injured Tuesday in a petrol bomb attack on a house used as a campaign base by ruling party supporters in Harare, police said. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- Violence perpetrated against women is increasing in the Maghreb countries, said experts who met this weekend in Algiers to assess the experience of the legal and psychological monitoring centres in Algiers and Tunis. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- A 20-man gang of gunmen invaded the Oyo State office of the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in Ibadan, 120 km north of Lagos on Monday, injuring four people and kidnapping two others. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Six people were killed and seven others injured during violent clashes Saturday between two ethnic groups in Ethiopia's Gambella State, the Federal Affairs Ministry said Tuesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Gunmen said to be loyal to a wealthy Somali businessman Friday night seized a leading radio and television station known as Hornafrik in the capital Mogadishu. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Three mass graves have been discovered in the eastern Congolese town of Mambassa, which was the scene of the latest fighting between the rebel factions, the UN Observer Mission in DR Congo (MONUC) reported Friday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Lagos governor Bola Tinubu and some of his commissioners were held hostage and two policemen bathed with acid as violence marred Thursday's primaries of the Lagos chapter of Nigerian opposition party Alliance for Democracy (AD). Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- Five people were killed and another was seriously injured by suspected armed Islamists Tuesday night in the commune of Oued-Sly, prefecture of Chlef, 230 km west of Algiers, according to a statement from the security services Wednesday. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- The mayor of Chetaibi in the district of Annaba (500 km east of Algiers) was killed Sunday evening by unidentified gunmen, sources confirmed Monday. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Fifteen Congolese opposition parties and political associations have urged authorities in Brazzaville to convene a roundtable so that various political actors could formulate proposals on how to pull the country out of the current crisis, the state-owned radio reported Saturday. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Congo Brazzaville President Denis Sassou Nguesso has urged his compatriots to end violence and hatred, and embrace peace. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- At least two civilians were killed and household property looted last Monday in a suspected rebel raid on Musaga, south of Bujumbura, sources said. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Voting in Gachoka constituency, Embu district, the home turf of former State Minister Joseph Nyagah started on a sour note with incidents of violence pitting ruling Kanu parliamentary candidates and those of the mainstream opposition party, Narc. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- With two days to go before Kenyans go to the polls, cases of political violence are on the increase. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Scores of people were injured Sunday in Nakuru, western Kenya, after supporters of parliamentary aspirants clashed during a campaign rally. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Amnesty International (AI) is angered over the shooting of two Kenyan high school students and their consequent arrest while undergoing treatment in hospital. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Suspected rebels set up two ambushes on a road north-west of Burundi Thursday, killing a government soldier and wounding eight civilians, according to the Burundi News Agency (ABP). Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya, has challenged adults to resist all forms of misconduct and abuse against women and children and the elderly in their communities, where they must network to ensure safer living environments. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian Christians have alleged that more than 50 soldiers from neighbouring Chad and Niger were involved in the recent religious clash in the northern State of Kaduna, which left more than 250 people dead and property worth millions of naira destroyed. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Congo's information minister and government spokesman Alain Akouala on Friday invited the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) to visit the country to have an idea of the real situation prevailing in the troubled Pool region. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Sallah celebrations were marred in Nigeria Wednesday when some residents of mid-western Benin city clashed following a disagreement over road maintenance, leaving 15 persons injured, the local press reported Thursday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Civil servants in Nigeria's central Plateau state Monday beat a senior government official to death during a protest over non-payment of their salaries in the past four months, according to local press accounts. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The death toll from the recent sectarian violence in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state increased this weekend with the death of a 78-year-old Catholic priest who was attacked during the riots, the local press reported. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Some 16,660 residents from Pool Regions in southern Congo, fleeing violence perpetrated by the Ninja militiamen of Pastor Frederic Bitsangou, have sought refuge in Brazzaville's southern suburbs. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Fresh sectarian violence broke out Friday in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja, one week after the city erupted in unprecedented religious violence, according to local media reports. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo is under increasing pressure to find a lasting solution to the recurring sectarian and ethnic violence in the country, following the latest deadly clashes in the northern city of Kaduna. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Christians in Nigeria have warned that further attacks on their members nationwide will henceforth attract reprisal. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- An armed group Tuesday evening killed four people, including two policemen in Berrouaghia, in the Medea Prefecture, 100-km south of Algiers, the Algerian capital, security sources said Wednesday. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's federal government Tuesday ordered the immediate release of relief materials worth more than 48 million Naira (about 385,000 US dollars) to victims of last week's sectarian riots in the northern city of Kaduna. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's northern state of Zamfara has passed a "fatwa" (death sentence) on the journalist whose article on the botched Miss World pageant triggered days of riot that left over 200 people dead in the northern city of Kaduna, the private Tribune newspaper reported. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- For the fifth time in its eight years as a democracy, South Africa on Monday took part in the global campaign to combat the scourge of women and child abuse. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- About 1,000 suspects arrested in connection with last week's bloody violence in Nigeria's northern city of Kaduna were scheduled to appear in court Monday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Organisers of the Miss World Beauty Pageant have cancelled the 2002 edition of the annual contest slated to be held in Abuja, Nigeria's federal capital on 7 December, following days of deadly riots by Muslims opposed to the contest. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Thursday's bloody riots in Nigeria's northern city of Kaduna, which claimed more than 100 lives and left over 500 injured, made headlines in the country's newspapers Friday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Uneasy calm Friday enveloped Nigeria's northern city of Kaduna, where scores of people were killed and hundreds were injured following Wednesday's violence by Muslim youths protesting a newspaper article linking the Holy Prophet Mohammed with the Miss World Beauty Pageant, to be hosted in Abuja 7 December. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- A group of soldiers has killed nine fishermen in Moutampa, in the southern Pool region of Congo Brazzaville, the Catholic weekly, 'La Semaine Africaine' has reported. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The protest by Muslims in Nigeria's northern Kaduna city over an offensive newspaper article, degenerated into a bloody sectarian violence Thursday, leading to several deaths and injuries, witnesses said. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Two persons were killed in separate incidents of violence in Pointe Noire, in southern Congo, police sources in Brazzaville said Monday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- At least five people were feared killed in several parts of Lagos at the weekend during local government chairmanship primaries of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the private Punch newspaper reported. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Security operatives deployed to keep the peace in Nigeria's troubled central State of Plateau have killed seven people, the private Channel Television reported Wednesday. Full text...