Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Lecturers at the Benin national university have threatened to embark on an indefinite strike 20 June to protest the government's refusal to fulfil their demands. Full text...

Johannesburg - SA (PANA) -- South Africans will be able to make a difference to the plight of abused and abandoned children from Wednesday by simply making a telephone call, in a new fundraising drive being used in the country for the first time. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- Five people charged with murder have been sentenced to life in prison by the criminal court in Gitega, central Burundi, according to a legal source in the region. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Housing minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele is among six African leaders who would address the Special Conference of the UN Centre for Human Settlements in New York on Wednesday. Full text...

Moroni- Comoros (PANA) -- Thousands of people, including senior officials and businessmen, Monday gathered at Moroni's Independence Square to celebrate Mawlid, the birth of Prophet Muhammad. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- King Mohammed VI of Morocco has sent a congratulatory messages to all Muslim leaders on the occasion of Mawlid feast, celebrated Tuesday and Wednesday in Morocco to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Mohammed. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- Abbots Jean-Pierre Kutwa and Joseph Ake have been appointed bishops by Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Bernard Agre of Abidjan's Saint Paul's Cathedral has announced. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Nineteen 19 people were killed on the spot when a fuel tanker crashed into a bus in Ghana's Ashanti Region on Monday. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Mozambican Post Office has raised its tariff for international mails by up to 70 percent, effective 1 June. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Three people are feared dead after a Mercedes car veered off the Eko Bridge and plunged into the lagoon in Nigeria's economic capital of Lagos, police sources said Monday. Full text...

Muzarabani- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Penniless job seekers in Zimbabwe find the going tough when they come to the hurdles of corruption. Full text...

Cotonou Benin (PANA) -- Benin national Guillaume Attigbe, elected president of the African Regional Organisation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ORAF/CISL) has said his immediate focus would be a revamping of the near moribund movement. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- At least three persons were burnt to death when an ocean-going tanker, "M. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Burkinabe military officers Friday wound up a training session that focussed on respect for the rights of children, before, during and after conflicts. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- The government in Brazzaville is virtually in a catch 22 position, juggling in one hand IMF demands for cuts in public spending and, in the other, mounting pressure from striking teachers pressing for better conditions and pay. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- The Namibian government is to officially approve the Global Movement for Children (GMC) after its decision to declare 28 September as the Day of the Namibian Child. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- The World Bank has announced the commitment of two million US dollars to the rehabilitation of four provincial water supply facilities in Sierra Leone. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritian prime minister Anerood Jugnauth launched Thursday a national policy on the elderly at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute in Moka, 11 km south of Port Louis. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Nigeria's Women's Affairs minister Aicha Ismaila Thursday signed the African Charter on the Right and Welfare of the Child, at the OAU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Following recommendations from a committee observing the lunar month, Mauritanians will celebrate the Maaouloud feast (anniversary of the birth of Prophet Mohammed) next Monday. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- African countries Wednesday agreed a common position on the rights of children to be tabled at the September UN General Assembly Special Session on the future of children. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- At least 16 persons died in a road crash along the Ondo-Ore road in Nigeria's south-west Tuesday, observed as a national holiday to mark the second anniversary of the country's return to democratic rule. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- A delegation from the OAU Commission for Refugees on Tuesday inspected the Inga camp in Lower-Congo Province which hosts Angolan refugees in the south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Despite his personal involvement in negotiations with trade union leaders, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba has failed to break the deadlock over a wildcat strike that has paralysed his country. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Crime wave in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has reached alarming proportions with the UN rating the city at par with crime-prone regions like Bogota and Colombia. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi has said that Mozambique would continue offering scholarships to students from Sao Tome and Principe wishing to continue their studies at Mozambican higher education institutions. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- An international jury Tuesday chose Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland, as the laureate of the 2000 Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize for her "great contribution to the defence of human rights. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A leading South African church group, His People's Centre, has banned disgraced cleric Allan Boesak from preaching to its congregation for refusing to apologise to the community after his release from prison last week. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Child protection is everybody's business, according to Zola Skweyia, Minister of Social Development, in his message to mark Child Protection Week which began Monday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- One hundred amputees from the south- western Somali region of Baidoa, who are victims of the civil strife there, are to receive artificial limbs from the Rotary Clubs of Nairobi and Bombay and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Egyptian First Lady, Suzanne Mubarak was Monday elected to chair the first four-day Pan African Forum on Children which opened in Cairo. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Secretary general Salim Ahmed Salim Monday said the OAU would make it mandatory for for all member- states to draw up action plans at national levels to make the world a better place for African children. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The educational sector of Kenya is facing a new threat due to the massive exodus of highly qualified teachers to the lucrative Southern African market. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Rima Salah, Resident Representative of UNICEF for West and Central Africa has described as "unprecedented and historic," the mobilisation of Africa for the Pan-African Forum on the future of children, which opens in Cairo, Monday. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Indications, as African NGOs meet in Cairo ahead of the Pan African Forum for the future of Children, are that they would expected more than another string of resolutions on when the forum opens 28 May. Full text...

Bulawayo- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Junior doctors in the southern Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo went on strike on Saturday to press authorities to pay them agreed allowances. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- About 40 education experts from various countries concluded a meeting in Dakar Friday with a call on civil society organisations to increase training opportunities for teenagers and adults in sub-Saharan Africa. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- More than 28,000 students from the Eastern African region would soon benefit from a new international fellowship programme to be administered by the Inter-University Council for East Africa (ICEA). Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- Morocco intends to electrify all the villages in the kingdom by 2010, the Energy and Mining Minister Mustapha Mansouri has said. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Ministers of information, sport and culture of the Southern African Development Community have scheduled a meeting in Mauritius next week to review the proposed creation of a regional news agency to be based in Maputo, Mozambique. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- About 5,000 South Africans suffering from asbestos-related diseases and suing British mining company, Cape Plc, appear to have achieved a major breakthrough after the company said Tuesday it may consider settling the claims out of court. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- The Ethiopian Insurers Association (EIA) Wednesday said government has revoked its licence to levy minimum charges "for bonds (surety) and applied such charges. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu received a rousing welcome from University of Pretoria students and staff when he launched the Desmond Tutu Chair in Leadership Development and Future Studies at the campus on Tuesday. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Malian National Television and Radio workers have deposited a 72-hour strike notice starting Thursday if authorities fail to meet their demands, trade union sources said in Bamako. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Food rations for Angolan refugees in Namibia would return to a minimum energy value following a Swedish cash grant of one million dollars to save those who were starving, the World Food Programme announced Tuesday. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- Arab and African finance ministers are meeting in Marrakech, 320 km south of Rabat, in discussions ahead of an extraordinary session of the UN General Assembly on children, scheduled for 19-21 September in New York. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- About 14,000 teachers in Niger are threatening again to go on a three-day strike as from Tuesday to press for wage increases and improved working conditions. Full text...

Khartoum- Sudan (PANA) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it would resume flights Monday in Sudan suspended 9 May, when one of its pilots was shot dead in the South of the country. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Schneider Electric Company (SEC), one of the three largest electrical equipment companies in the world, plans to expand its market in Ethiopia and Sudan where there is a high consumer demand for electrical equipment, official sources said. Full text...

Oshakati- Namibia (PANA) -- A former Namibian senior police officer was Friday sentenced to six years in jail for stealing court fines and bail monies. Full text...