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...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Some 70,000 people and 4,500 organisations from 125 countries on five continents are expected to take part in the World Social Forum (WSF) to be held in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, 26-30 March, according to the organisers . Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Some 127 inmates of the Ganye prison in the northern Nigerian state of Adamawa escaped after the prison was attacked on Friday evening by gunmen, who killed 25 people in the coordinated attack that also targeted a police station, a bank and several relaxation joints. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Twenty-five people, including a former Commissioner of Health and a chief prison warder, were killed when gunmen launched a series of attacks in Ganye in Nigeria's northern state of Adamawa on Friday night, the private Leadership newspaper reported Sunday. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – The Libyan government has denied media reports that a demonstrator outside the office of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was knocked down by his vehicle last Wednesday. Full text...

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – Anthi Hartikayten of Finland is to lead a European Union civilian mission to help Libya secure its borders, the Libyan Foreign Affairs ministry said on Friday. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The UN and its partners have carried out their first mission to the conflict affected region of Blue Nile, near the border with Ethiopia, their first such visit since the eruption of unrest there, thanks to the recent deal concluded in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, early this month. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigerians from all walks of life have commended the immense contributions of the late literary icon, Prof. Chinue Achebe, to the propagation and development of African literature. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The New York-based press freedom watchdog, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Friday welcomed Togo's Constitutional Court's rejection of ''repressive amendments'' to a media law that granted the state-run media regulator sweeping powers of censorship. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - The leadership of Nigeria’s ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has lamented the death of literary giant, Prof. Chinua Achebe, describing his death as a “monumental national loss”. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – The Mauritanian government on Friday set up a National Agency against poverty and the evils of slavery, according to an official communique here. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, who died in the US Thursday night at the age of 82, was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe on 16 November, 1930, in Ogidi, near the commercial town of Onitsha in Eastern Nigeria. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Reports of the death of renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in the US at the age of 82 has been validated by the Nigerian presidency, which issued a statement on the death. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenyans mourned the death of Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, the grandfather of modern African literature, who died aged 82 years, PANA reported from here Friday. Full text...

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - The Japanese government is to give US$5 million for the care of refugees and returnees in Burundi, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a statement in Bujumbura Friday. Full text...

Bell Village, Mauritius (PANA) - The Mauritian government will seek funds to improve the country’s water distribution system, with approximately 40 percent of water lost due to obsolete distribution pipes, Minister of Public Utilities Rashid Beebeejaun said on the occasion of the World Day Water celebrated, which is marked on 22 March every year. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The Secretary General of the International Commission of the Congo Basin Ubangui Sanghai (CICOS), Mr. Simon Sakibédé, has urged member countries to manage water resources in a rational way. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has expressed concern over what it described as the well-being of Chadian nationals deported from Libya arriving home in "dire and physical and mental status." Full text...

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has expressed his concern about the high-levels of serious road accidents in the country. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The US authorities have offered a US$5 million bounty for information leading to the arrest of two of its nationals believed to be key members of the Al Shabaab militia group in Somalia, a top official said on Thursday. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – In marking the 20th anniversary of the World Water Day (21 March), a UK-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), WaterAid, Thursday urged governments and international leaders to support an ambitious target of providing access to water, sanitation and hygiene for all Africans by 2030. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The main opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Thursday lashed out at the federal government for lacking the ''vision and capacity'' to stop the incessant attacks by the violent Islamic sect Boko Haram, following Monday's suicide bombing that killed dozens in northern Kano city. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The US government has donated four utility trucks to the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force (TPDF) for use in training personnel for peacekeeping operations in African conflict areas. Full text...