Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian Labour Minister Musa Gwadabe has advised employers not to sack or discriminate against their workers suffering from HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Wives of several West and Central African countries' leaders have called on policymakers to be more committed in efforts to reduce by half the maternal and neo-natal mortality rates in the region by 2010. Full text...

Khartoum- Sudan (PANA) -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed a plan to break the malaria cycle in the Sudan which has a high incidence of the malaise. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KBS) has banned the use of cosmetic products containing mercury and its derivatives. Full text...

Oshakati- Namibia (PANA) -- A senior official in Namibia's health and social services ministry has said that he supported President Sam Nujoma's recent advice to men to stay away from alcoholic bars in order to spend more time with their families. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has welcomed the move by the South African Chamber of Business and Anglo-American to provide cheap anti-AIDS drugs to suffering employees. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Correctional Services minister Ben Skosana Tuesday visited Westville Prison in Durban where more than 2,000 prisoners have become infected by cholera. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Three Ethiopian pharmaceutical companies have submitted documents for the importation of different life-prolonging drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS, an official statement said. Full text...

Oshakati- Namibia (PANA) -- Malaria has killed 50 people in northern Namibia, the permanent secretary in the ministry of health and social services, Dr Kalumbi Shangula said on Monday. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Seven First Ladies from west and central Africa Monday in Bamako, Mali began an international forum dubbed "Vision 2010" to examine ways of reducing maternal and neo-natal mortality in the region by 2010. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Nigerian Government has urged the country's junior doctors to give it more time to meet their demands rather than embark on another nation-wide strike. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Governments within the Great Lakes region have been urged to harmonise their programmes to target migratory populations in order to forestall the widespread scare of HIV/AIDS infection in the area. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Mauritania's water and energy minister Kane Moustapha on Saturday inaugurated 204 clean drinking water projects in several regions heavily affected by Guinea worms. Full text...

Lome- Togo (PANA) -- Population Health International has launched a communication project aimed at improving knowledge of reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases among Togolese school children. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- More than 80 percent of blood donated by students and teachers in Kenya's Nyanza Province schools has the HIV virus that causes AIDS, according to health officials. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritian Health minister Ashok Jugnauth announced Friday the introduction shortly of a health card for every employee in the country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Drug company, Aventis Pharma AG, is providing 25 million US dollars to support WHO's activities in tackling trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness in Africa, over a five-year period. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- The Mauritian government Thursday announced plans to construct a new hospital at a cost of 160 million rupees (27. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- About 70 mayors from 17 African countries are holding a three-day workshop in Abidjan devoted to the search for affective measures to reduce the socio- economic impact of HIV/AIDS in their respective cities. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Health workers in Tanzania's rural areas are now quite aware of HIV/AIDS and how the disease is transmitted but many of them lack the proper protective gear. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Decisions taken at last week's African Summit in Abuja on HIV/AIDS will amount to nothing unless they are translated to action to save the continent from the AIDS pandemic, according to a senior official of the UN agency for AIDS. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- The British American Tobacco (Mauritius) launched Wednesday the Youth Smoking Programme to discourage vendors from selling cigarettes to minors. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- At least 50 transport operators including drivers attended open days in Kinshasa organised by the "Fondation Femmes Plus" a non-governmental organisation that offers counselling to people living with HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The Malian health ministry last weekend launched a vast anti-AIDS campaign targeting Bamako's bus terminals to sensitise passengers on ways to prevent the incurable pandemic. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Barely a fortnight after medical authorities ruled out the presence of the Ebola in Kenya, scientists now say the country is home to primates carrying the virus of the deadly disease. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Fired by the renewed vigour of African leaders to battle the HIV/AIDS scourge, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has announced the setting up of a West African HIV/AIDS coordination centre in the country. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzanian and Kenyan researchers have expressed optimism about finding a cure for the HIV/AIDS disease within seven to 15 years, but intimated that a vaccine for its prevention may never be discovered. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Burundi has reached an agreement with four pharmaceutical laboratories to obtain anti-retrovirals at a cost 90 percent less than in the United States. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Mental patients admitted in Kenyan hospitals have outnumbered their medical minders, making it difficult for them to attend to patients efficiently, a medical official has disclosed. Full text...

Brussels- Belgium (PANA) -- The European Union has expressed support for UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan's appeal for the creation of a world AIDS control fund, an EU statement said in Brussels Friday. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Libyan revolutionary leader, Col. Full text...

Washington- US (PANA) -- The president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn said the institution would shortly provide additional 500 million US dollars toward the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Determined to wrest their continent from the jaws of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other related infectious diseases, African leaders rose from a two-day historic meeting in Abuja Friday with a new resolve to battle the diseases with all the power in their arsenal. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- The OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim's report submitted to the African summit on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases which opened in Abuja (Nigeria) Thursday, paints a very bleak picture of the scope of the pandemic in Africa. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- The leader of the Libyan revolution, Col. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Abidjan-based African Development Bank (ADB) this week indicated it was throwing its weight behind Africa's fight with Malaria. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Thoraya Obaid, Friday advocated stronger preventive effort to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, as a ground- breaking African Summit on the pandemic wound up in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Angola, Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon and DR Congo have signed a protocol of agreement relating to the synchronisation of the National Immunisation Days (JNV) against polio in Central Africa. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- "What are we going to do with AIDS? Are we going to adopt the Dakar Declaration after that of Kampala and then leave it at that?" a clergyman asked. Full text...

Kigali- Rwanda (PANA) -- Malaria is a growing epidemic in Rwanda, health and government officials have warned, advising people to use nets in order to keep out mosquitoes which spread the disease. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Mali has cancelled all taxes on impregnated mosquito nets and insecticides imported into the country in accordance with a decree adopted by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday in Bamako. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Abidjan-based African Development Bank on Wednesday joined in celebrations marking the first annual Africa Malaria Day to show its solidarity with its member countries battling the killer disease. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The African Advisory Committee for Health Research and Development (AACHRD) on Thursday ended a four-day session in Dakar with a call on governments to recognise research as a critical factor for the people's well-being. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and former US President Bill Clinton Thursday paid tribute the Reverend Leon Sullivan, the African-American civil rights leader who died Wednesday in the US, aged 78. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for world-wide response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, at the ongoing Africa AIDS Summit in Abuja Thursday, has received instant support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo have called for the establishment of a global trust fund to help raise the necessary resources to battle HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Against the grim realities of HIV/AIDS devastation in Africa, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has described Africa as an endangered continent. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Making his second visit to Nigeria in nine months, but this time as a private citizen, former US President Bill Clinton stole the show at the opening session of the African AIDS Summit in Abuja Thursday, attracting the loudest ovation from the crowd. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- As Africa Wednesday reflected on its lot with Malaria, authorities in Burundi conceded that the disease was a leading health problem in the country, accounting for more than 40 per cent inpatients. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- In continuation of the commemoration of the Africa Malaria Day, Gambian youths have been observing a "Malaria Week" with sundry activities including a symposium and a declaration against the scourge. Full text...