Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Lawyers have lashed out at the public for “unguarded comments” after a judge freed two former government officials who had been charged for wilfully causing financial loss to the state during the celebration of Ghana's 50th independence anniversary in 2007. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- The Libyan charity organisation, Kadhafi Development Fou ndation (FKD), has opened the headquarters of the Centre for Islamic Appeal in t h e Pakistani city of Peshawar for victims of floods that have engulfed the city. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Mac Tontoh, a founding member of Osibisa, the music group that was famous in the 1970s and 1980s for its fusion of African music with west e rn pop and rock, has died in Accra, his close friend, Carlos Sekyi, announced on Tuesday. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Members of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) on Monday fr eed two Malian soldiers abducted at the same time as the customs officer of the T ouareg ethnic group, Lieutenant Sidi Mohamed Ag Acherif, whom they executed last Thursday a few kilometres from Tessalit in the far north of Mali. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on authorities in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland to immediately release jailed radio journalist Abdifatah Jama, who was sentenced on Saturday to six years in prison on charges related to an interview with Islamic rebel leader Sheikh Mohamed Said Atom. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Twenty-three people have died in two separate accidents on the main highway that runs east from the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to the border with Togo. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- Angola has fully complied with the Ottawa Convention on landmines, by destroying landmine stockpiles far beyond initially established go a ls, an Angolan Foreign Ministry official, Balbina Silva, said in Luanda on Tuesd a y. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The Angolan government has spent about 17 billion Angola n Kwanzas (US$1=92. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Nigeria on Saturday donated US$200,000 to the Ugandan G overnment for the rehabilitation of victims the Bududa landslide in the East Afr i can country. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- The executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, arrived in Niger on Tuesday at the start of a tour of three African countries where the agency is carrying out humanitarian programmes. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- UN has allocated US$41 million in emergency funding to boo st humanitarian operations in nine countries where people are suffering from the effects of hunger, malnutrition, diseases and conflict. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- No fewer than 12 illegal miners have been trapped to death in Ghana less than one month after more than 100 others were buried alive in on e of the worst accidents involving illegal mining. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) - – Road accidents have claimed 533 lives in Ghana during the first six months of this year, up from 336 during the same period last year, a senior police officer said in Accra on Friday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) - – Floods caused by heavy rains in Ghana have continued to wreck havoc in the West African country with six deaths recorded in the Eastern and Western Regions this week. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- African education ministers on Friday ended a conference on curriculum reforms in Brazzaville with a call to governments for increased investment in the sector, describing it as the anchor of the future well-being of the continent. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- The United States of America has granted US$82 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) to tackle hunger, malnutrition and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a statement from the US Agency for International Aid (USAID) said on Thursday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The deputy spokesperson of the United Nations Operations in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI), Kenneth Blackman, on Thursday announced the launch of a local transition fund aimed at consolidating the gains of humanitarian action and financing community rehabilitation. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- A United Nations education expert on Thursday told a conference of top African education officials in Brazzaville that countries on the continent need to switch from foreign to local languages as a medium of instruction in elementary school to stimulate learning interest in first-time learners and to enable them to easily grasp concepts being taught. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The vice president of Angola, Fernando da Piedade Dias d os Santos, on Tuesday in Luanda sent a message of condolence to the widow of fo r mer foreign minister and MP Paulo Teixeira Jorge, who passed away last Saturday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- The police have arrested the owner of a pit at Dunkwa Akyempim, an area within Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Central Region of Ghana, where dozens of illegal gold miners are trapped, as hopes fade for finding them alive. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- It is possible to eradicate poverty by the year 2015, according to the 2010 report of the United Nations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) released on Wednesday in Dakar. Full text...

Ndalatando- Angola (PANA) -- Thirteen people were killed and 41 others were seriously injured in a road accident on Monday at Binda mountain, near Ndalatando, in Angola's northern Kwanza-Norte province. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Nigeria's leading aviation personality, Nick Fadugba, chose to resign from the leadership of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) rather than be forced out after a boardroom battle, sources disclosed to PANA Monday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- The death toll in Sunday's floods in southern Ghana has risen to 11 as rescue operations continued Monday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- The death toll in Sunday's floods in southern Ghana has risen to 11 as rescue operations continued Monday. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ang ola, Bohdam Nahajlo, said on Tuesday in Luanda that Angola would from late 2011 n o longer refer to its citizens residing in Congo, Zambia and other countries as r efugees. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) - â" Police in Ghana's Western region are investigating an al leged incident in which three Ivorian nationals are said to have been thrown int o the Atlantic Ocean by the captain of a Chinese vessel. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- At least US$4 million has been earmarked by several UN a gencies for the implementation of a programme to combat malnutrition in Angola. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Ethiopia has showed the greatest rise in peacefulness in 2009 among 149 countries studied, according to a recent release of the 2010 Global Peace Index. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday calle d on the Rwandan authorities to provide information as to why the web site of ne w spaper Umuvugizi is inaccessible in the run-up to August presidential elections. Full text...

Yaounde- Camero0n (PANA) -- Cameroonian writer, diplomat and civil servant, Ferdi nand Leopold Oyono, died on Thursday in Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital, at the age of 81, sources from his family told PANA. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The Angolan Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Maria Candida Teixeira, on Thursday named Orlando Manuel Jose Fernandes da Mata as the new Chancellor of the University of Agostinho Neto. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- The African Union for Mutual Insurance (UAM) will hold a two-day meeting in Rabat from 10 June during which the 18 member countries and r epresentatives of African governments will sign the status agreement of the unio n . Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- A traditional system of preserving surplus fish in Casam ance, Senegal, known as "Bisness", has been presented as a probable solution to t he problems of conservation of fish products. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The Central African Republic (CAR) on Wednesday ratified t he UN-backed treaty that prohibits all nuclear tests, bringing the total number o f countries bound bythe global ban to 153. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) â" Ghana and Togo on Wednesday- agreed that about a 1,000 Gh anaians, and not 3,500, were sheltering in Togo after fleeing ethnic conflict in Ghana's Northern Region. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) - â" Ghana on Tuesday confirmed that a number of people had c rossed to neighbouring Togo in recent days to escape ethnic unrest in a communit y in the north of the country, but said the numbers quoted by the Togolese author i ties were â?exaggeratedâ? and â?alarmingâ?. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- A reception and protection centre for children in diffic ult situations has been established in Bohicon, some 135 km from Cotonou, with F r ance's financial support, diplomatic sources in the Benenise capital said on Wed n esday. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- The Italian government has granted 700,000 euros to Niger to help it overcome its serious food crisis, the Italian ambassador to Niger, G i ancarlo Izzo, said on Wednesday. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned tha t efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour were slowing down and cal l ed for a "re-energised" global campaign to end the practice. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The Angolan government and a Czech housing company on Thursday signed a US$300 million housing deal under which the European company would build 8,000 houses for low and middle income citizens. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Burundian teachers, who have been on strike for more than one month, on Monday demanded the payment in two instalments of 46 billion Burundian francs (nearly US$46 million) representing salary arrears for 2007 and 2008. Full text...

Abidjan- Cأ´te d'Ivoire (PANA) - â" An indefinite strike by Ivorian drivers over new fuel prices entered its second day on Tuesday with commuters of the city of A bidjan feeling the pinch and the economy slowing down considerably. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The prestigious 2009 Taco Kuiper Award for Inve stigative Journalism was this weekend won by Rob Rose of the Financial Mail/Sund a y Times for his series on â?South Africaâ?s Madoff". Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- An international conference on multi-grade teaching will be hosted from 22 to 24 March in Wellington, South Africa, according to a statement from the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) issued on Friday in Dakar. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) â" An indefinite strike called- by Mali's National Health an d Social Action Union (SNSAS) started on Wednesday with several hospitals and he a lth centres in the capital, Bamako, providing only minimum service. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe's biggest mobile phone operator, Econet Wirel ess said Saturday it was raising funds through promotions, for the victims of a d evastating earthquake in Haiti. Full text...

Paris- France(PANA) -- The French government responded to the humanitarian call o f the Tanzania's Red Cross by mobilizing euros 50,000 (about Tanzanian Shillings 94m) to help families affected by flood which occurred in the region of Morogoro , official sources told PANA here on Wednesday. Full text...

Luena- Angola (PANA) -- Heavy rains in the Angolan city of Luena in eastern Moxi co province have wreaked havoc displacing at least 1,205 families, the Angolan n e ws agency, ANGOP, reported on Friday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- A fire outbreak on Tuesday at Ghanaâ?s sole refinery, Tem a Oil Refinery (TOR), about 25 kilometres east of Accra, has claimed one life, a c cording to workers of the refinery. Full text...