Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- With a persistently high gender disparity in school enrolment, only a few African countries will achieve the goal of universal primary education by 2015, a senior official of the African Union observed here Monday. Full text...

N'djamena- Chad (PANA) -- About 72 hours after the government quelled a mutiny in the Chadian capital, residents are still deprived of mobile phone channels, operators said here Friday. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Africans must assume their share of responsibilities and do much more in translating into practical action their declared commitment to reducing poverty, former OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim said here Friday. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Africa needs to revive the hope that its children would continue to enjoy a special position in society despite negative factors affecting traditional family patterns, a senior official of the African Union (AU) said here Friday. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The Secretary General of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) Nderry Mbaye, said Thursday the union would continue to fight for press freedom in the country. Full text...

N'djamena- Chad (PANA) -- Cell phone users in N'djamena, the Chadian capital, have complained of lack of service from Tuesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Anna Tibaijuka, on Wednesday said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's newly formed Commission for Africa will help expedite the release of stalled funding for the continent's development needs, especially its growing urbanisation crisis. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Mabassa Fall, a representative of the Dakar-based National Organisation for Human Rights (NOHR), Wednesday raised concern over widespread poverty across Africa, describing it as a form of violation of the rights of people on the continent. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- A two-day international policy conference at which eminent personalities will discuss the challenges and opportunities for advancing the African child and the family in the new millennium opens here on Friday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Royal Air regional representative in Abidjan, Mohammed Mjahed has announced that Morocco would increase scholarships to Ivorian students from 5,600 to 11,000 during the next academic year. Full text...

Takoradi- Ghana (PANA) -- A university teacher and traditional chief in Ghana has urged African journalists to project African values and identity in their publications to safeguard the independence of their countries. Full text...

Accra-Ghana (PANA) -- About 2. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The widespread introduction of the New Information and Communication Technologies (NICTs) in Senegal has helped integrate the disabled into the labour sector, Mansour Kama, chairman of Senegal's National Employers' Confederation (CNES) revealed here. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya will assume full responsibility for all refugees living within its borders once a refugee bill, now in its final stages, is enacted in Parliament, Vice President Moody Awori said Tuesday. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger's public schools teachers returned to the classroom Monday after a five-day strike called by their trade union, the National Union of Workers in Niger (SNEN), to press the government to repeal an early retirement plan. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- The fifth congress of the Moroccan National Press Union (SNPM) ended at the weekend with the re-election of Younes Moujahid as Secretary General of the Union for a second four-year term. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Niger plans to devote the US$152 million debt write-off by the Paris Club to reinforcement of its social sector, the country's Finance minister Mahamane Lamine Zene revealed here Monday. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Childhood star of the South African movie e'Lollipop, Muntu Ndebele, returned to a red carpet treatment at the weekend after being "lost" for more than two decades. Full text...

New York- UN (PANA) -- UN refugee agency, UNHCR Friday appealed for urgent new funds to meet the "desperate" needs of more than 120,000 Sudanese who fled into eastern Chad from the fighting in Sudan's western Darfur region. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Thousands of people on Thursday attended a memorial service in Cape Town for top South African singer Brenda Fassie who died after a short illness last weekend. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The French-speaking branch of the International Free Unions Confederation (CISL) begins a three-day forum on union claims here Thursday, a release announced Wednesday. Full text...

Bangui- Central African Republic (PANA) -- National Education minister Karim Meckassoua has announced the creation of a new teacher-training college to turn out 700 teachers per year in the Central African Republic (CAR). Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The imbroglio between proprietors and the Education ministry over the allotment of a 14 billion CFA franc grant from the EU heightened Wednesday with the closure of all several private secular and denominational schools in Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Some 69 Niger former Air Afrique workers at Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey have been hired by Menzies Aviation Group, a company specialised in transit services, according to sources at the Transport and Tourism ministry here. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger's National Union of Teachers (SNEN) Wednesday decided to continue with its five-day strike that started Monday until government meet their longstanding demands. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Two trade unions of primary and secondary school teachers in Mali on Wednesday entered the second day of a three-day strike after negotiations with the authorities on bonuses and allowances broke down in Bamako. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- A top Zimbabwean businessman was gunned down on Monday night in what is suspected to be a contract hit, police said here Wednesday. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Workers of the Hubert Coutouchou Maga National University Hospital (CNHU-HCM), the biggest in Benin, have threatened to begin a three-day wholesale strike on Wednesday in demand for better working conditions. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- The Maghreb Architectural Experts College (CEAM) in conjunction with the National College of Moroccan Architectural Experts (CNEAM) are to host a landmark congress from 14 to 15 May in Casablanca, Morocco, sources close to the initiators said Sunday. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- The Councils of Ministers of the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states have agreed to set up a water facility to promote access to clean water and sanitation for people in the ACP countries. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB) is hosting the annual conference of the World Blind Union (WBU) that began Friday in Cape Town. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- The Councils of Ministers of the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states have agreed to set up a water facility to promote access to clean water and sanitation for people in the ACP countries. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The US ambassador to Benin, Wayne E. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- The African Centre for Human Development (ACHD) in Ghana has disclosed that it had in the last 18 months rescued 864 child slaves from some districts in the country. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- A 42-year-old Ghanaian farmer died Wednesday after drinking stolen palm wine suspected to have been laced with DDT insecticide, police said. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Editors of Banjul-based Independent bi-weekly newspaper on Tuesday blamed President Yahya Jammeh's government for failing to provide adequate security despite their repeated alarm of an eminent attack against the paper's printing press. Full text...

Kigali- Rwanda (PANA) -- Children in Rwanda have taken the vanguard role to push authorities in the country to provide them better protection in terms of education, health and justice. Full text...

Kinshasa- RD Congo (PANA) -- Parents of pupils and students will no longer pay salaries of teachers in DR Congo beginning academic 2004-2005, the minister of primary and secondary education, Constant Ndomb Nda O Mbel announced here at the weekend in a policy statement. Full text...

Abidjan- Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) -- About 1,135 out of 1,9245 students from vocational schools in Benin will do written and oral examinations in Côte d'Ivoire this year to study toward Advanced Vocational Diplomas. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the country's umbrella labour movement, Saturday urged Senate President Adolphus Wabara to step down from office for the investigation of allegations of financial impropriety against him. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Thousands of Mozambican workers marched through the streets of Maputo Saturday, to mark the May Day, under the slogan For employment, development and social justice. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Locally-based Burundi diplomats are planning an unprecedented strike at the foreign ministry to protest the authorities' slow progress in promoting them, the diplomats' union has said. Full text...

Conakry- Guinea(PANA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers is in Guinea, on a visit that would include a tour of camps for refugees from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has completed the distribution of basic consumer items to about 175,000 residents of 253 villages in western Cote d'Ivoire. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Volunteer sailors from a visiting Royal naval vessel, HMS Scott, on Friday spent the day as a working party with Habitat for Humanity in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha, assisting in a local housing project. Full text...

London- UK (PANA) -- Three African journalists are among ten senior Commonwealth journalists selected to participate in the Harry Brittain Fellowship programmed this year. Full text...

N'Djamena- Chad (PANA) -- Chadian police broke up a student demonstration at the University of N'Djamena in the Chadian capital Friday. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Gambian Social Welfare director Fanta Ceesay said here Thursday that 12 Ghanaian girls recently rescued by police from traffickers would be repatriated back to their country. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Benin has launched a National Employment Agency (ANPE) to centralise and promote employment activities in the West African nation. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Two Mauritanians suspected of murdering 24-year-old Adeline Pane will stand trial in May at the criminal division of the regional tribunal of Nouadhibou, the business capital of Mauritania, judicial sources have said. Full text...