Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Spanish and Swahili are the two most suitable official working languages of the recently formed African Union, two academics have argued. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Bereaved families in Zimbabwe's capital Harare faced double trouble at the weekend as they had to dig their own graves to bury relatives due to a striking municipal gravediggers. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- A common tourist visa will be issued beginning 21 September in the five-member states of the Entente council, the Ivorian ministry of tourism and crafts said Friday in Abidjan. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- A Court in Nigeria's northern Sokoto State has sentenced a man to one-year imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane, under the Islamic Sharia code, for selling the meat of an animal that died of unverified cause, the local media reported Friday. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- The UN resident representative in Liberia, John Kakonge, said the development process in the war- torn country can only be attained through empowering the local community and fostering its participation. Full text...

Sikasso- Mali (PANA) -- A representative of the African Development Bank (ADB) in Mali said the bank would help finance the government's 10-year socio-sanitary development plan (PRODESS) in the Sikasso region, 380 km south of Bamako. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegal's National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions (UNSAS) on Wednesday expressed "profound disappointment" and disapproval of latest hikes in price for consumables and rates for water and electricity. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Malian Rural Development minister Ahmed El Madani Diallo has launched a 15. Full text...

Kigali- Rwanda (PANA) -- The Deputy Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal in Rwanda (ICTR), Adama Dieng, is in the country on a three-day official visit, sources said. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and the University of Namibia (UNAM) have entered into an agreement of cooperation in postgraduate training in business administration and management. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- High running costs have driven the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) into excess of expenditure of 243 million rupees over the last four years, Prime minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth told Parliament Tuesday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- A total of 107 Tanzanian policemen have been sacked in what the government said was campaign to remove corrupt and undesirable elements. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Malian immigrants in France have donated an ambulance to their home village of Sadiola in south- western Mali. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwean women activists at the weekend formally launched a controversial female only university, which they say will help address some of the gender imbalances in the country. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Air Afrique's personnel has accused the acting administrator of the company, Jefrey Erickson, of "distorting the truth" when it comes to Air France's financial participation in the troubled multinational airline company. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The UNESCO Dakar Office will from Monday host a five-day national workshop for teachers involved in the education of the handicapped. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- An Accra High Court Friday sentenced six people involved in Ghana's 1999 highway robbery of unrefined gold valued at one million US dollars, to 15 years each. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- The International Development Association is to give Burundi a loan of 40 million US dollars to finance a new public works and employment-creation project. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The Malian people of Djenne (a world cultural heritage) have mobilised against government plans to build a dam at Tallo for the irrigation of rice fields. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Ethiopia's Central Statistical Authority (CSA) has announced that the next national population and housing census would be conducted in 2004. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- The Congolese government and two of the country's major trade unions signed Tuesday in Brazzaville a renewable two-year social truce aimed at "sheltering Congo from social conflict", an official source said on Wednesday. Full text...

Bissau- Guinea Bissau (PANA) -- Education, transport, communications, port and airport workers in Guinea-Bissau are on a five-day strive called by the country's Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CSI). Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Poor countries that ignore science and technology do so at their own peril, and they do not necessarily have to reinvent the wheel. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Independent Trade Unions of Benin (COSI) have formed a confederation. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- At least 30,000 youths are expected to participate in the 15th World Youth Festival (WYF) which entered its second day in Algeria on Sunday. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Communications Workers Union shop stewards from Gauteng staged a protest outside the US Embassy in Pretoria on Monday to express their concerns about American citizens driving the privatisation process of communications giant Telkom. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Libyan leader, Col. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The secretary general of the Kenyan Union of Journalists, Ezekiel Mutua announced that local journalists shall henceforth, play a more assertive role in local news coverage. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Saturday formally launched Sierra Leone's anti-corruption Commission, describing the vice as a "dangerous disease". Full text...

Tunis- Tunisia (PANA) -- The Association of Tunisian Journalists (AJT) has suspended relations with the Paris-based international press freedom watchdog, Reporters without Borders, or RSF. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A British paedophile who has admitted to sexually abusing a number of children aged between six and 16 over the past 35 years, was denied bail in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Friday. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Street children face a lot of psychological difficulties, a local psychologist said. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Privately-owned British airline 'Virgin Atlantic' has formally launched its Lagos-London flight, scheduled to kick off in a fortnight, with promises of lower fares and employment opportunities for Nigerians. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) has announced the appointment of Martin Feinstein, a former advertising agency chairman, as chief executive of the 'Proudly South African' (PSA) campaign. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- The Teachers and Educational Workers Union of the University of Ghana in Accra on Thursday began an indefinite sit-down strike to press demands for the payment of salaries based on the new minimum daily wage of 5,500 cedis. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Although car washing is a relatively new and undeveloped line of business in Namibia, it has turned the life of Valde Nghuumbwali around. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's minister of Social Development, Zola Skweyiya, has called for an immediate and thorough investigation into the delay of payment of social grants to approximately 400,000 beneficiaries throughout the country. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- International media watchdog "Reporters Without Borders" (RSF) Thursday denounced the ruling party in Kenya for the attack by some of its members on Jackson Orina, a photojournalist of the "Nation" newspaper. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A new Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) has been delivered to the South African Air Force for President Thabo Mbeki and other senior government officials, the South African National Defence Force confirmed on Wednesday. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- British troops serving in Sierra Leone have retrieved 40 landmines in the southern area of Potoru, UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) spokesperson Margett Novicki said Wednesday. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- Junior and intermediate staff of universities and teacher training colleges in Sierra Leone Wednesday announced suspension of their sit-in action till 20 July. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- The Roman Catholic Church in Congo has spoken out against a bill authorising hospitals and health centres in the country to carry out abortion, Brazzaville sources said Wednesday. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambian Muslims said Wednesday they had invited Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, expected in the country for next week's OAU summit, for prayer at a mosque in the capital, Lusaka. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has nominated S. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Southern Africa Regional Representative of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), John Tesha, has appealed to African leaders to encourage free movement of their people to foster integration and development of the continent. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Managing Editors and Editors-in-Chief of media houses in Niger, have decided to set up a Press Centre in Niamey, the private daily "Tenere Express" reported. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- More than 1,000 media persons from Africa and other parts of the world are expected in Lusaka for coverage of the historic 37th ordinary OAU Summit, which opened Monday in the Zambian capital. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South African President Thabo Mbeki is scheduled to attend a two-day workshop with local media leaders in the Sun City resort north of Pretoria on his return from an overseas tour Friday. Full text...

Tunis- Tunisia (PANA) -- Tunisian News Agency has vehemently protested against the Paris-based media watchdog 'Reporters Sans Frontieres' (RSF) for orchestrating the occupation of the premises of the Tunisian Tourist Board in Paris in an attempt to secure the release a detained human rights activist, Sihem Ben Sedrine. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- The National Federation of Congolese Teachers (FENATREC), has suspended its one-month strike, the State radio announced Wednesday. Full text...