New York, US (PANA) - The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) on Wednesday expressed sorrow at the passing of Nigerian author and former UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador, Professor Chinua Achebe. Full text...

Mchinji, Central Malawi (PANA) - US pop diva Madonna, currently visiting Malawi, Wednesday took her Malawian children back to the orphanage where she adopted one of them, David Banda. Full text...

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela’s health continues to improve after nearly a week in the hospital, where he is being treated for pneumonia, the government confirmed on Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Mrs. Zainab Bangura, has praised the Somali government's efforts to enhance the protection of women against sexual violence. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - European Union (EU) soldiers have begun training the first batch of 570 Malian troops in Koulikoro, 70 km from the capital city of Bamako. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - A 21-year-old a grade nine pupil at Shem basic school in Nakonde, northern Zambia, has committed suicide after allegedly impregnating a 52-year-old woman of the same village. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Over 32,566 nationals from the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), who have found refuge in North Congolese province of Likouala since 2009 due to violence in their homeland, have returned home, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Egypt and Sudan to stop asylum-seekers and refugees being kidnapped from camps in Sudan, forcibly transported to Egypt, and being severely abused in the Sinai desert. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The editor of the Malian private daily "Le Républicain", Boukari Daou, who has been detained for over two weeks in Bamako Central Prison over charges of "incitement to crimes", was released on bail Tuesday, following a request by his lawyers, PANA learned from judicial source. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - At least 18 people died and several others were injured in a road crash that occurred early Wednesday along the busy Abuja-Lokoja road in central Nigeria, according to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Muhammed Garba, has been elected President of Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), at the third FAJ Congress in Casablanca, Morocco, according to the local VANGUARD newspaper. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigerian Army Chief, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, has vowed that "until terrorists sheath their swords, the use of force would be applied on members of the Boko Haram sect." Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – A delegation from the committee supporting French-Cameroonian, Thierry-Michel Atangana, who has been imprisoned since 1997 in Cameroon, on Tuesday met Hélène Le Gal, Africa adviser of French president, at the Palace of Elysée in Paris. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Mr. Adama Dieng, on Tuesday welcomed the inclusion in the newly adopted Arms Trade Treaty of a prohibition on the transfer of arms which would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity and certain war crimes. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – The Special representative of the African Union (AU) in Guinea Bissau, Ovido Pequeno, on Tuesday appealed for international assistance for the country to fight drug trafficking. Full text...

Kasungu, Malawi (PANA) - Malawi school children, joined by hundreds of villagers, danced around pop diva Madonna and serenaded her with praise songs as she inspected school blocks she constructed in the central tobacco-growing district of Kasungu. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) – A Trade Unionist, accused of being one of the masterminds of the strike that paralyzed public education since February, was arrested Monday in Brazzaville, Trade Union sources told PANA here. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - Mauritania's main opposition party, the Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD), has called for an independent international probe panel to investigate alleged charges of laundering counterfeit dollars against President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, according to a statement received Tuesday by PANA. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Google, the American multi-national corporation specialising in Internet-related services and products, Monday honoured the late Kenyan environmentalist and political activist Wangari Maathai by using his picture on its 'google doodle'. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan government has condemned Sunday afternoon's attack on the Libyan Justice Ministry, based in the capital city of Tripoli. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - At least 19 people were shot dead and many others injured when gunmen launched a dawn attack on a village in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state on Easter Sunday, according to local media reports. Full text...

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - US pop diva Madonna sneaked into Malawi Monday morning, PANA reported. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - At last 718 former fighters of the Congolese rebel movement M23, who had sought refuge in Rwanda, have been moved away from the border with DR Congo, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement Monday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - About 15 people are feared dead after they were buried alive early Monday, when walls of a pit in which they were digging gravel collapsed at Moshono, near Arusha city in northern Tanzania, according to official reports. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Negligence of the contractor and engineers as well as sub-standard steel work were among contributory factors to the collapse of a 16-storey building here in which at least 30 persons died on Friday, according to witnesses and rescuers at the site in central Dar es Salaam. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Prof. Francisca Okeke of the University of Nigeria in the country's South-eastern city of Nsukka has been honoured as one of the five winners of the 2013 Annual L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A Nigerian journalist who has reported extensively on the activities of the violent Islamic sect Boko Haram has fled Nigeria to the United Arab Emirates, following reported threats from the sect and the Nigerian security agents, the online Premium Times newspaper reported Monday. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Floods following heavy rains on Saturday have wrecked havoc in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius leaving at least 9 dead and 82 injured in the capital, Port-Louis. Full text...

Kano, Nigeria (PANA) - At least 14 suspects were killed when soldiers of the military Joint Task Force (JTF) battling Islamic insurgents in northern Nigeria launched a dawn raid on a house at Unguwa Uku in northern Kano State, believed to be housing the insurgents. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Over 40 people have been killed in the past week around Nigeria's central city of Jos, in continuation of the tit-for-tat killings between Christians and Muslims in the area, the private Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The driver of a truck lost control of his vehicle and killed four beggars Full text...

Benghazi, Libya (PANA) - Four members of an armed group who attacked a humanitarian relief caravan Wednesday on the outskirts of Libya's city of Benghazi were arrested Thursday, the country's Ministry of the Interior has announced. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - A newly-built 16-storey commercial and residential building in central Dar es Salaam collapsed early Friday, causing panic among Easter holiday shoppers as poorly equipped rescuers frantically tried to reach victims trapped in the debris. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the appellate court in Cameroon to overturn the defamation conviction and jail sentence handed to a newspaper editor earlier this week. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) announced on Thursday that it has arrested 125 Chinese nationals for engaging in small-scale mining in the Central, Western and Ashanti regions. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – Members of the National Union of Mauritanians Repatriated from Senegal (UNRMS) have condemned last Thursday's dissolution, by President Mohamed Abdel Aziz, of the National Agency of Integration of the Refugees (ANAIR), saying that the agency has not yet completed its mission. Full text...

Ste-Croix, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritian Health and Quality of Life Minister, Lormus Bundhoo, Thursday launched the 2013 Substance Abuse Campaign at Ste-Croix, a suburb of the capital, Port-Louis, PANA reported. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Hundreds of thousands of low-income people will benefit from expanded access to financial services as a result of new commitments to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), an anti-poverty initiative backed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama has made changes in top military positions that sees Rear Admiral Matthew Quashie as the new Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) of the Ghana Armed Forces. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Elements of government forces, along with armed militias, are carrying out multiple large-scale attacks against civilians in Sudan's North Darfur, in what represents the worst instance of violence in recent years, Amnesty International said in a statement obtained by PANA here Thursday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A Senegalese woman, identified as Kamara Oumou, has been arrested in Nigeria for alleged drug trafficking, according to Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - British expatriate Christopher Paige, who was kidnapped in Nigeria's economic capital city of Lagos last Saturday, has been freed unharmed, the private Punch newspaper reported Thursday. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Chief Oluwole Awolowo, publisher of one of Nigeria's oldest surviving newspapers and scion of the famous Awolowo political family, died Wednesday at the age of 70, the local media reported Thursday. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The UN on Wednesday said it was "extremely concerned" over the abduction of dozens of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur region, Western Sudan, while on their way to a conference on problems facing the safe return of IDPs and refugees to their homes. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The umbrella Nigerian oil militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has said it received ''with incredulity'' the 24 years sentence slammed on its leader, Henry Okah, by a South African court on Tuesday for his role in the 1 Oct. 2010 deadly bombing in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday said it will begin the confirmation of charges hearing in the case of The Prosecutor vs Bosco Ntaganda on 23 September, 2013. Full text...

Cairo, Egypt (PANA) - Egyptian authorities on Tuesday extradited, to Libya, two former Libyan officials who fled their country after the 2011 Revolution that toppled the regime of Mouammar Kadhafi, PANA reported here. Full text...

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The US has announced that it is providing an additional US$51 million in humanitarian assistance to the people of the Sahel region, which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigeria police have confirmed the abduction of a Briton in Nigeria's economic capital city of Lagos by unknown gunmen. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Over 30 internally-displaced persons (IDPs), being escorted by a UN-AU peacekeeping force, on their way to attend a conference on the plight of refugees and IDPs in Nyala, south Darfur, were hijacked in Darfur region. Full text...