New York, US (PANA) - A UN group of independent experts has drawn attention to discrimination against persons with albinism in Tanzania, where they are the victims of ritual attacks and are routinely mistreated. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - One of Nigeria's popular columnists, Pini Jason, has died at the age of 65, according to local media reports on Saturday. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – Authorities in Mauritania have granted broadcast licences to two new Television stations -- Dava and ‘Al Mourabitounes, official sources told PANA here Saturday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Saturday warned that the security situation remains volatile in the so-called “Triangle of Death”, which covers the area between the towns of Pweto, Mitwaba and Manono, in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted 3.9 kilogrammes of cocaine stashed in female handbags and folders, according to the local PUNCH newspaper. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Only 10 candidates of the 1.6 million students who sat for the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), scored 300 and above of the maximum 400 marks, according to local media reports which quoted the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigeria Police Force has pledged its commitment to protecting the rights of journalists in the country, according to local media reports. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Gambian journalists on Friday asked the government to stop harassing them, saying this does not only tarnish the image of he country but also retards professionalism and overall development of the media. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Ten persons were killed and 45 other injured Friday in a road accident not far from Mauritius capital, Port-Louis, PANA reported. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The UN has revealed that over 20,000 civilians have been driven from their homes by recent rebel attacks on a number of localities in western Sudan's Kordufan region, at a time direct talks have been launched with the AU facilitators in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) – The Executive Secretary of Rwanda High Council of the Media (HCM), Emmanuel Mugisha, on Friday denounced a recent report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) which named Rwanda among the countries that gag the press. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's first petroluem minister Shettima Ali Monguno has been kidnapped by gunmen in Maiduguri, capital of the country's northern Borno state which is the epicentre of the violence being perpetrated by the Islamic sect Boko Haram. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the African Union (AU) to champion the call for the release of all journalists imprisoned in Africa and appeal for justice in the murders of journalists killed in the line of duty. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwanda will soon allow tourists to visit the 2-km long prehistoric cave in Musanze (North), according to Ms. Rica Rwigamba, Head of Tourism and Conservation at the Rwanda Development Agency. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Migrant Response Centre (MRC) of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti is struggling to cope with increased numbers of stranded migrants from Ethiopia asking for transport assistance to return home, IOM said. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - At least six people were killed and 23 others seriously injured in a road accident which occurred early Friday on the main road from the Rwandan capital, Kigali, to the south of the country, according to a police spokesman. Full text...

Maiduguri, Nigeria (PANA) - Gunmen riding in 50 vans have attacked public buildings in the Marte local council area of Nigeria's northern Borno state. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian government has withdrawn the forgery charges filed against two journalists of the private Leadership newspaper at a federal court in the capital city of Abuja. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Mr. James Anaya, says the Namibian government must increase efforts to address the loss of land of indigenous groups and ensure that their traditions and customs are preserved Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – A Libyan police station in Benghazi was destroyed early Thursday after unidentified gunmen lobbed cocktail Molotov into the building, causing material damage, official police sources told PANA here. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Thursday released its 2013 Impunity Index, saying unpunished, deadly violence continues to plague the press globally, and has notably increased in Nigeria. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - More than 270, 000 pedestrians lose their lives on the world’s roads each year, accounting for 22% of the total 1.24 million road traffic deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Over sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed the right of every person “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” that right remains in peril in far too many countries, according to US Ambassador to Tanzania Alfonso E. Lenhardt. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - West Africa’s human rights institutions have called for the prosecution of human rights violations at the Community Court of Justice. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - The Secretary General of Confederation of Mauritanian Workers (CGTM), Mr. Aballahi Ould Mohamed, has denounced the over-exploitation of the country's workers. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – A massive jail break has taken place at the Sebha correctional facility, 800 kilometres south of Tripoli, the Libyan capital, according to an official spokesperson of the local council, Abobker Hanza, who did not specify when the incident took place. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Satellite images taken after the 16-17 April military raid in Nigeria's northern town of Baga has given the best indication yet of the massive destruction in the town following a raid by the military Joint Task Force (JTF) which is battling Boko Haram insurgents in the area. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – Thousands of Chadian refugees and internally-displaced persons who ran away from inter-tribal fighting in Sudan, are facing yet another threat with the advent of the wet season, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A new report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), released Tuesday in Washington DC, has identified governments across the globe that are most egregious violators of religious freedom. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigerian Nobel Laureate and renowned author Wole Soyinka has Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Representatives of over 85 countries, international organisations, and the private sector, under the aegis of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, will meet at the UN headquarters in New York Wednesday (1May) Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A court in Nigeria's South-west state of Osun has sentenced a 31-year-old man, Kelvin Ighodalo, to 10 years in prison without an option of fine for stealing a Sony Ericsson mobile phone valued at 50,000 naira (US$300) from the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Participants at a just-ended stakeholders’ forum in Monrovia, Liberia, have lauded the multi-million-dollar donor support to the ECOWAS for Peace and Development Project (PADEP) for promoting the culture of peace, integration and providing vital humanitarian assistance to populations displaced by conflicts in the region. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Niger has a population of 17,129,076 inhabitants, 49.4% of which are men and 50.6% women, according to preliminary results of the fourth general population census conducted in 2012. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's violent Islamic sect Boko Haram will henceforth concentrate more on kidnapping than robbery, the military alleged Sunday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian military has denied local media reports that some soldiers have been arrested in connection with last week's massacre in Baga, northern Borno State, during a clash between the military and insurgents. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – The Libyan Defence ministry spokesman, Adel al-Barissi, has vehemently denied accusations by the Chadian president Idriss Deby that Libya is “hosting and training Chadian opponents in barracks in Libya”. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The death toll from last week's clash between the Nigerian military and insurgents suspected to be members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect has been put at 228, higher than the 185 widely reported by the local media and contested by the government. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The military Joint Task Force (JTF) battling the Islamic sect Boko Haram in northern Nigeria says it has killed a notorious commander of the sect, Mohammed Chad. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A High Court Judge in Nigeria has been suspended for one year by the judicial authorities following his controversial judgement that attracted widespread anger and criticism across the country. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Security Council has extended to 30 April, 2014, its arms embargo on Cote d'Ivoire as well as financial and travel sanctions on those who threaten the peace in the West African country. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The president of the Libyan General National Council (GNC), Mohamed al-Megreyef, has said that the Libyan government will continue to develop its institutions despite terror attacks aimed at deterring it. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - France is to train some 3,000 Libyan police officers in an effort to reinforce the country’s security, the French Minister in charge of French Nationals Abroad, Mrs Helene Conway-Mouret, announced Thursday at the French Senate. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libyan authorities have arrested 500 illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa in the town of Ajdabia, 800km from the capital, Tripoli, the Libyan press agency reported here. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Northern Mali will descend to emergency levels of food insecurity in less than two months if the security situation and humanitarian access to vulnerable communities in the West African country do not improve, four international aid agencies have warned following the analysis of experts. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Chad has shunned the call by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) to arrest visiting Sudanese Defence Minister Abdelraheem Mohammed Hussein, who is being sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) has written to Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza urging him not to sign the country's New Media Law, which was adopted by the Senate 19 April 2013. Full text...

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South Africa's National Assembly has passed the controversial Protection of State Information Bill with an overwhelming majority, after years of debate. Full text...

Lome, Togo (PANA) - A road accident involving two vehicles on Wednesday in Tsevie, 35 kilometres away from Lome, the capital, has claimed the lives of seven persons and injured many others, police sources told PANA here Thursday. Full text...