Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- A senior Zambia Red Cross Society (ZRCS) official has appealed on the government to beef up security in boarder areas to facilitate the smooth distribution of relief maize, the country news agency reported Wednesday. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- Police officers had to use tear gas Wednesday to disperse about 1,000 Malawi university student in Zomba, some 68 km east of Blantyre, where unrest has persisted since the previous day. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Authorities in the Burundi transitional government have promised to give "fiscal facilities" to the private press which has hitherto been deprived of State support. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Armed soldiers and anti-riot policemen have been deployed to strategic areas in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, amid rising tension over the killing of a driver of southern Igbo ethnic stock by suspected Moslem fundamentalists. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- Over 2,000 students on Monday staged a violent demonstration against the police in central Liberia for shooting to death a fourth grade pupil, press reports said here Wednesday. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Nine people were reported missing in Lydenburg after the Mpumalanga provincial town was flooded Tuesday afternoon. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The media rights group, Reporters without Borders (RSF) has appealed to President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo to set free Congolese journalist Frederick Kitengie. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- UNICEF is planning a demobilisation of over 14,000 children recruited as combatants by rebels in Burundi, it was officially disclosed here. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Six out of every ten households in Mauritius are in debt, the Central Statistics Office affirmed Monday in a study conducted on 4725 households. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Some 100 child traffickers were arrested and sentenced between five and 10 years' imprisonment since the beginning of the year, Henriette Lagou, family, women and children's minister reported Tuesday in Paris. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- The rights and freedoms of the citizens and communities were significantly scorned in Niger in 2000, according to the Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Niger (ANDDH). Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The US government Tuesday indicted a Franco-Moroccan for the 11 September terrorist attacks, US attorney general John Ashcroft said in Washington, D. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Mozambican government's Mass Communications Institute (ICS) is planning to install about 20 new community TV and radio stations in rural areas by the second half of February 2002. Full text...

Praia- Cape Verde (PANA) -- Two months after its creation, Cape Verde's national human rights committee (NHRC) was Monday officially launched, with the occasion timed to coincide with the international commemoration of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Paris-based media freedom watch group, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Tuesday despatched an open letter to DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, demanding the release of detained Radio France International journalist, Frederic Kitengie. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The South African Human Rights Commission has bestowed the lifetime achievement award on former South African President Nelson Mandela in recognition of his sterling work in championing human rights. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria Tuesday launched a National Integrated Rural Development Policy aimed at tapping the enormous natural and human resources that abound in the rural areas. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- At least one student and a bystander were shot and seriously wounded on Tuesday, while several others sustained varying degrees of injuries during running battles between students and gun-totting police officers in Zomba. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- In what amounts to an extra show of solidarity, Liberian lawyers have elected two detained colleagues to head the national bar association, according to election results published in Monrovia Tuesday by the legal body. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) --Eighteen human rights and pro-democracy groups in Liberia have formed a coalition to promote respect for human rights and civil liberties in the country, the local press reported Tuesday. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The secretary general of a coalition of human rights defenders in Gambia, Mohammed Lamin Sillah, has described the country's human rights record as appalling. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- At least two persons died and property worth millions of naira were destroyed Monday when fire gutted the main market in Abuja, Nigeria's federal capital, according to local media reports Tuesday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- The year 2001 has been a period of unprecedented optimism for the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the sub-regional body's deputy executive secretary Albert Muchanga said Monday. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- A prominent Pan Africanist and human rights activist in Banjul has charged that slavery still exists in The Gambia. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A US attorney who represented Jewish Holocaust survivors seeking compensation from Swiss banks is seeking plaintiffs to sue banks which financed the former apartheid government in South Africa. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Mozambican Interior Ministry, which is responsible for the country's police, has promised to "severely" punish policemen who break the institution's rules and ethical codes. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Sixty people have been confirmed dead and 2,500 displaced in the ethnic conflict between the Mamprusis and Kusasis last week at Bawku, about 830-km north of Accra, the Ghanaian capital, the national news agency (GNA) reported Monday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzania signed two new agreements with Sweden Monday for a fresh Swedish support of 2. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- All arrangements for the official launching of the first SADC (Southern African Development Community) journalism prizes next year have been completed, according to the general secretary of the SADC information and culture unit, Renato Matusse. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The 2002 world report on children was launched in Lusaka Monday with a challenge on the Zambian government to define its game plan against increasing social stress across the country. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The authorities in Kenya have announced plans to establish special courts to deal with cases involving corruption. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- Villagers in the flood-prone Lower Shire Valley of southern Malawi have rejected government plans to resettle them to upper grounds despite fresh warnings of more floods during the current rain season that runs till March 2002. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambia's former first lady Vera Chiluba has sued President Frederick Chiluba for 400 million US dollars as compensation for divorce, the independent Post newspaper reported Monday. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The 21-year-old security guard suspected of killing Marike de Klerk, wife of South Africa's last apartheid-era president, appeared in court Monday in connection with her murder. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- The Rastafarian community in Malawi has planned street demonstrations across the country for next Tuesday, to protest the death in police custody of local reggae star Evison Matafale. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The eighth anniversary of founding President Felix Houphouet Boigny's death came and went 7 December almost unnoticed, with Cote d'Ivoire still embroiled in the social and political crises that followed his demise. Full text...

Port Louis- Maurice (PANA) -- The Mauritius agency for treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts (NATRESA) has announced the launching, on Monday, of a national campaign against alcohol abuse. Full text...

Chipata- Zambia (PANA) -- A father in the Zambian town of Chipata has appealed to President Frederick Chiluba for help in meeting medical costs for his son, David Lungu. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- A Zambian cleric Sunday called for the strengthening of the extended family system in Africa to cater for the growing number of orphaned street kids. Full text...

Khartoum- Sudan (PANA) -- Five young boys, aged between 12 and 17 years old, were killed when a lime mine collapsed on them at Umbadda suburb of Khartoum Saturday, press reports said Sunday. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- The Botswana Centre For Human Rights (DITSHWANELO) has decried rising ethnic tensions in Botswana. Full text...

London UK (PANA) -- A 15-year old Somali boy has been stabbed to death in London following a row over an alleged debt of £10. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Security agencies sent to the northeastern corner of Ghana to restore calm in fighting between two ethnic groups on Saturday said it has been difficult to disarm them. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- At least one person was killed and several others injured when armed robbers fired at passenger buses at the popular Iddo terminal in Lagos early Saturday. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritius Child Education and Development Centre has published a tale on child prostitution to assist parents in sensitizing children to the ill effects of the activity. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Authorities in Niamey on Friday released the editor of the satirical weekly, Canard dechaine, Abdoulaye Tiemogo, who was jailed in October after being found guilty of libel. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- Botswana plans to amend its Refugee Act to include provisions for asylum seekers and refugees on transit, a local paper has reported. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- A UN radio station to be known as "Okapi" is scheduled to begin broadcasts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) next month, the world body's Observer Mission in Congo announced in Kinshasa Friday. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- One more victim of Ghana's ethnic clashes at Bawku, about 830 km north of Accra has died as the security agencies arrested five more people. Full text...

Luena- Angola (PANA) -- Israeli government has been spending some 60,000 US dollars annually on landmine danger awareness programmes in Angola over several years, the Angolan news agency (ANGOP) reported Friday. Full text...