New York- US (PANA) -- The UN will next week convene a high-level meeting to prom ote inter-cultural understanding and religious tolerance. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Imams in Libya have strongly condemned the plan, now she lved, by an American Pastor to publicly burn the Koran, calling it a provocation likely to degenerate into conf rontation and threaten peace in the world. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Muslim faithful in Benin, most of them gaily dressed, Fr iday celebrated the end of the month-long fasting period - Eid-El-Fitr. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritians Muslims Friday celebrated the Eid-El-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Full text...

Ago-Iwoye- Nigeria (PANA) -- Muslims in the largely agrarian community of Ago-Iwo ye, in Nigeria's South-west Ogun state, Friday joined their counterparts across Nigeria and beyond to celebrate the end of the Ramadan fasting as signified by the Eid-el-Fitr festival. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Eid El Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, will be celebrated on Friday in Cote d'Ivoire, leaders of Ivorian Muslim Associations announced Wednesday evening on national television. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Eid El Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim f asting month of Ramadan, will be celebrated Friday in Mauritania, according to a statement from the National Commission for the Observation of the Moon. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Libyans will on Thursday celebrate Eid El-Fitr, which ma rks the end of Ramadan, with prayers, feasts and merry-making. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The Ivorian government has pegged the cost of th is year's Hadj at CFA F 1. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- Moroccan Muslims began observing the month-long Ramadan fasting Thursday PANA reported here. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- US President Barack Obama has sent Americaâ?s best wishes to Muslims around the world on the advent of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- US President Barack Obama has sent Americaâ?s best wishes to Muslims around the world on the advent of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Most Senegalese Muslims began Ramadan fasting Thursday, following the recommendation of the country's relevant commission on the sighting of moon, CONACOC. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) - â" Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills has sent a messa ge of goodwill to Muslims who began their fast of Ramadan on Wednesday. Full text...

Conakry- Guinea (PANA) -- Muslims in Guinea began the month-long Ramadan fasting on Wednesday after Dr. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Mauritanian Muslims will begin their Ramadan fas ting on Thursday, according to a statement from the National Commission of the C r escent Moon. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- In observance of the month-long Ramadan, Ivorian Muslims on Wednesday started observing the fasting period following the siting o f the crescent moon in the northern part of the country. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Muslim faithful in Nigeria Wednesday joined their counte rparts from the rest of the world to begin a month-long Ramadan fasting period, during which they are to abstain from food, drink and 'worldly' things from dawn till sunset. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- The Ramadan, the month-long fasting by Muslim faithful, will begin this year on Wednesday 11 August, the Libyan Centre of remote sensing and space sciences announced Saturday. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, on Thursday announced that he would retire from public duties later this year. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- A German jurist on Wednesday called for dialogue between Islam and the West for better understanding of each other to break all barriers between them. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- A group of over 100 members of a conservative religious sect is barricaded in a building in the southern Malawi district of Mulanje, to avoid a measles vaccination campaign. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- The Libyan revolutionary leader, Mouamar Kadhafi, has called on Muslims in Europe to unite to face 'tyrants' who massacre Muslims. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- An American collector and philanthropist has returned a 100-year-old prayer book, which belonged to Ethiopia's former ruler, Emperor Menelik II, believed to be among a collection of missing manuscripts which disappeared from European libraries over the decades. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The new Vatican Ambassador to Angola, Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, arrived in Luanda on Friday to replace dom Angelo Becciu, who was pos t ed to Cuba last September at the end of his mission in Angola. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The spokesman of the French Foreign Ministry, Bernard Val ero, Thursday described the demise of Sayyed Tantaoui as a major loss to the int e r-religious dialogue and peace process in the Near East. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambiaâ?s Home Affairs Deputy Minister Misheck Bonshe i s dead. Full text...

Benghazi- Libya (PANA) -- The Libyan leader, Mouammar Kadhafi has promised to mak e the Islamic world a strong political, security, economic and social power. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- In his pastoral lecture to mark the 2010 lenten p eriod in Mauritius, the Catholic Bishop of Port-Louis, Monsignor Maurice Piat, o n Tuesday expressed concern over the falling standard of education in that countr y . Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Bishop Stephen Brislin will be installed the ne w Catholic Archbishop of Cape Town on Sunday, according to the Archdiocese. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan Christians, increasingly wary of introduction of extremist sharia doctrine in the country, here Monday strongly opposed the inclu s ion of Kadhi's courts in the draft constitution, accusing Muslims of seeking to â ?create a-state-within-a-stateâ?. Full text...

Douala- Cameroon (PANA) -- Monsignor Piero Pioppo, Director of the Vatican bank, has been appointed papal nuncio (papal ambassador) to Cameroon and Equatorial Gu i nea by Pope Benedict XVI, PANA learnt from the archdiocese of Douala, the econom i c capital of Cameroon. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- A meeting on Islam and tolerance opened here Tue sday, attended by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, government officials and se v eral other personalities, PANA reported. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Christmas, which marks the commemoration of the birth of Jesus, was an opportunity for the Ivorian clergy to urge Ivorians to pr o mote peace for a peaceful exit from the crisis facing their country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The President of Gambia Moslem Islamic Council, Muhammed Lamin Touray, said the traditional 'Ashura Feast' falls on 26 and 27 December, r eminding Islamic faithfuls of the significance of fasting on those days as pract i sed by Prophet Muhammed, PANA reported Friday. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- In a new twist to the riveting soap opera of maverick Ca tholic cleric Emmanuel Milingo of Zambia, Pope Benedict XVI has allegedly stripped the wayward and excommunicated Roman Ca tholic Archbishop off all his priestly and clerical functions, including the ordination of new priests. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Two Gambian pilgrims died during the 2009 Muslim hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the deputy director of Gambia Radio and Television Service s , Modo Joof, the only journalist who travelled with the pilgrims, told PANA here . Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- The general secretariat of the World Islamic Peoples' Commandments (CPIM) on Tuesday strongly condemned the decision of Switzerland to ban the building of minarets, the iconic mosque towers, in the country's Muslim community. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- The Fifth General Conference of the world Islamic People s' Commandments (CPIM) opened on Thursday in Tripoli under the topic: â?May you be a nation which appeals for good!â? The participants at the four-day meeting will look into the setting up of a working plan for the world Islamic peoples' commandments for the next four years . Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Some 3,600 Beninese Muslims will undertake the annual pi lgrimage this year to Saudi Arabia, sources at the Home Affairs and Public secur i ty ministry said in Cotonou on Wednesday. Full text...

Tunis- Tunisia (PANA) - â" The Tunisian government decided on Tuesday it would no t to authorize any pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, this year because of lack o f vaccines for the A/H1N1 flu (swine flu), official government sources said in T u nis. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- The Secretary-General of the Council for Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said here that the unveiling of the Jewish Synagogue on Thursday had no t hing to do with efforts to boost Culture Minister Farouk Hosny's attempt to beco m e the first Arab and Muslim chief of UNESCO. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (GSIC), in collaborat ion with the Association of mosque Committees in the Greater Banjul Area, and in consultation with Imam Ratib of Banjul, announced here on Friday that the fastin g for the Holy month of Ramadan would begin on Saturday. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Egyptian Coptic Priest, Matta Sawiris, the Chairman for The Centre for International Peace, on Saturday called on Egypt's Christians not to participate in the strike proposed for the Coptic New Year, on 11September. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Ramadan, a period of fasting for Muslims, will begin Fri day, 21 August the Libyan Centre for remote sensing and space sciences announce d on Saturday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) – Ghana’s vice president John -Dramani Mahama has appealed to the Libyan Leader Muammar Al-Qathafi to have clemency a Ghanaian is in jail in t he north African country for attempting to spread Christianity. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Eliud Wabukala has been named the new Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya. Full text...

Douala- Cameroon (PANA) -- Seven militants of the Southern Cameroon National Coun cil (SCNC), movement for the independence of "English Speaking Cameroon", arrest e d in Bamenda (North-Western Cameroon) the day before Pope Benedict XVI arrived i n Cameroon, have been detained in the central prison of Bamenda, judicial sources told PANA Tuesday. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Bishop Maurice Piat of Port-Louis has said he app roved of the position of the Head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, on c ondoms, a statement issued in the Mauritian capital Friday indicated. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- Pope Benedict XVI arrived here on Friday from Cameroon i n continuation of his African tour. Full text...