Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Italian Company Guerrato will invest CFAF 107 millio n to upgrade the Cosmos Hotel in Brazzaville, the Congolese capital, which was d a maged by the 5 June 1997 war, a source close to the Congolese Environment and To u rism ministry said here Monday. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) – The Zambian government ear-ned over 2. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The third and last block of the Aksum Obelisk was succes sfully mounted by UNESCO Thursday in its original location in Aksum, northern Et h iopia, the world body said in a statement, received by PANA here Friday. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) --The Pan African Federation (FEPACI) of filmmakers will on Thursday host a two-day curriculum symposium to boost training capacities in film making and television programmes production withing the Southern Africa Dev e lopment Commission (SADC). Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Egyptian police raided the Cairo office of an Iranian tele vision network allegedly involved in the making of a controversial film about as s assinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) - – Egypt has banned a book critical of Egyptian President Hos ni Mubarak's government. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Egypt's Parliament has issued a strong condemnation of Iran over a film that insults late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and praised his assassins. Full text...

Nairobi- KENYA (PANA) -- The Kenyan government will commission a heroes square here to honour Kenyans who have made personal sacrifices for the sake of the country, President Mwai Kibaki said Monday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The World Heritage Committee has called for “reinforced monitoring” of four of its properties on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in additio n to the seven for which the surveillance mechanism is already in place. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) – The World Heritage Committ-ee, at its 32nd session meetin g on Tuesday, inscribed 19 new cultural sites and eight natural sites to UNESCO’ s World Heritage List. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Writers from Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have committed themselves to using literature as a tool to bring their peoples closer, in addition to promoting deeper insights into the literary heritage of the two countries. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) – The World Heritage Committ-ee, meeting in Quebec, Canada, Monday added eight new cultural sites to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, accordin g to a UNESCO statement received by PANA here. Full text...

Lome- Togo (PANA) -- A music and dance festival for Africans in diaspora, dubbed "Africarythms", will be held here from Thursday to Saturday, organisers of the e v ent, Association "Integraale", said Monday. Full text...

Sharm El-Sheikh- Egypt (PANA) -- The heads of state and government of the African Union (AU), gathered here for the AU summit, were expected Tuesday to pay tribute to the late Aimé Césaire, a poet and humanist from Martin ique, who died on 17 April last at the age of 94, official sources told PANA. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Or ganization (UNESCO) is teaming up with its newly-named Artist for Peace and Brit i sh writer Lauren Child to support children in need around the world. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- The European Union (EU) has donated 6. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Barely two months after Nigeria lost three key music pra ctitioners, another legend, Oliver De Coque, died Friday here, the Punch newspap e r reported Sunday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- An exhibition on the life and career of famous Egyptian s inger, Oum Kalsoum, opened here Monday. Full text...

Kara- Togo (PANA) -- The Libyan leader Mouammar Kadhafi said on Saturday that "th e victory" of Islam in Togo and its peaceful propagation showed that the religio n was not spread through the sword and wars as claimed. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) – Leading candidate for the UN-ESCO top position, Egyptian Mi nister of Culture, Farouq Hosni, reversed an earlier stance, telling an Israeli n ewspaper that he would indeed travel to the Jewish state if invited. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Renowned Spanish viola da gambist, conductor and compose r Jordi Savall and his wife Soprano Montserrat Figueras have been named UNESCO A r tists for Peace, according to a UNESCO statement issued in Paris, France, and ma d e available to PANA here Friday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Heads of State of the South-East Europe, meeting in Athe ns, Greece, Friday say they will use their common waterway to foster the cultura l diversity and dialogue among member states. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- UNESCO and the Hellenic Republic, in cooperation with th e Council of Europe, will Friday organise the sixth summit of the Heads of State of South-East Europe in Athens, Greece, according to a UNESCO press communique, i ssued in Paris, France, and made available to PANA here Wednesday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegalese writer and filmmaker Sembene Ousmane, who die d a year ago, has been registered in the pantheon of the men of culture. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Musician Odile Ngaska was Sunday elected chairperson of the Board of Directors of Cameroon's Musical Art Corporation (SOCAM) during a n extraordinary meeting of the corporation here. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- The prize of the African film festival in the Moroccan c ity of Khouribga, 173 kilometres from Rabat, has been named after Senegalese fil m -maker Ousmane Semb, a year after his death. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria has eamarked an initial take off grant of US$ 50 0,000, under the Nigeria/UNESCO memorandum of understanding self-benefiting gran t , for the establishment of the Centre for Black Culture and International Unders t anding in Osogbo, Nigeria's South West Osun State. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal ( PANA) -- Gambia President Yahya Jammeh has urged Africans to hav e faith in themselves and drop their “inferiority complex” resulting from “colon i alism and slavery”, according national broadcaster Gambia Radio and Television S e rvices (GRTS) radio monitored here. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- A recent report by the United Nations World Tourism Organi sation has said tourism was rising in Egypt and also that investing in property i n the North African nation "could be good news. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The return of the Obelisk of Axoum in Ethiopia will contr ibute to the settlement of the dispute that existed between Addis Ababa and Rome , the Ambassador of Ethiopia in France, Mrs Tadelech Hail Michael, said in an int e rview with PANA. Full text...

Lomé- Togo (PANA) -- Banking executives in member countries of the West African E conomic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) on Thursday began a seminar in Lome to discus s the economic and financial analysis of the risks inherent in cultural undertaki n gs and projects. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) – Egypt's chief of antiquities- on Thursday welcomed a Britis h museum's decision to cover its mummies collection. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The Obelisk of Axoum will be moved back to its original s ite in Ethiopia on 4 June, the Director of UNESCO's world heritage, Francesco Ba n darin, announced here Thursday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Several African story tellers will feature in a three-day International Tale and Words festival opening Thursday in Bobigny, a city in th e Paris region of France, sources close to the organisers told PANA here. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Several African story tellers will feature in a three-day International Tale and Words festival opening Thursday in Bobigny, a city in th e Paris region of France, an sources close to the organisers told PANA here. Full text...

Dakar- Sénégal (PANA) -- UNESCO and the African cultural community will pay tribute to Martinique poet Aimé Césaire during a ceremony to be held in his honour at the UN Agency's headquarters in Paris on Thursday. Full text...

Lomé- Togo (PANA) -- Togolese academic, Robert Dussey, on Tuesday outdoored to th e press in Lome his new book, "Africa ill of its politicians", a critique of pol i tical and economic governance, ethnic conflicts, balkanisation of the continent a nd dependence of African countries on their former colonial powers. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The first edition of a drama competition among Francophone African nations will hold 11-14 December in Cotonou, Benin's economic capital, organisers said here Sunday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) – Artists from about 10 Afri-can, European and Asian countr ies have made a wall painting of about 200 metres dubbed "The Wall of Nations" a t the Dakar Arts Village where the 8th Biennial festival of contemporary arts is c urrently taking place. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The preview of an international design show will take place Saturday at the Dakar-based Léopold Sédar Senghor French Institute (IFLSS), a news release issued Thursday said. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The 475-page book, entitled "Africa Retorts to Sarkozy", signed by 23 African authors, in response to the controversial speech delivered by the French president here last July, was Thursday presented at Dakar-based Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD). Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Arab actors are worried that they may be out of work in Eg ypt after the head of the actors' union Ashraf Zaki said in Cairo that non-Egypt i an actors would be allowed to star in only one film or television serial a year. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- The National Tourist Board of DR Congo (ONT) has sig ned an agreement with the Canadian Tourist Board aimed at fostering cooperation b etween the two countries in the area of tourism. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Former French tennis champion, who has switched to music, Yannick Noah, is to perform a concert on Friday evening at Swami Vivekananda International Center, in Pailles, in the Mauritian capital, sources close to the singer's staff told PANA. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The second edition of the Goree international story-telling and words festival will hold in Senegal from Friday to Sunday, and continue in France 22-25 May, the festival's art director, Ben Zimet, said here Monday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday affirmed "the whole France was in grief" over the death in Fort-de-France (Martinique), of Martinique's writer and politician Aimé Césaire, aged 94. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Koïchiro Matsuura, has paid tribu t e to Aimé Césaire, a writer, poet and proponent of Negritude, who died on Thursd a y in Fort-de-France, Martinique, saying UNESCO has lost a great friend. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Martinique's poet and political figure, Aimé Césaire, 94, died Thursday, at the Fort-de- France University Medical Center where he had been admitted for several days for heart problems, French authorities have announced. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) – The Director--General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, Wedne sday decried the fire damage to the Castello di Moncalieri, in the Italian Provi n ce of Turin, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1997, according to a s t atement from the world body which was made available to PANA here. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- More than 300 artistes from the Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Near-east and Europe are featuring in this year's edition of the Mauritanian International nomad music festival which entered its third day here Wednesday. Full text...