The pressure group, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), Thursday hailed Amnesty International (AI) for the launch of the organization’s new annual report under the theme 'leading from the streets'. In a statement, WOZA said its leader, Jenni Williams, travelled to London to witness the launch of the report held at Amnesty’s headquarters. During the launching ceremony, AI’s Secretary General, Salil Shetty, reportedly said that last year was “a year of protests where ordinary people sent a clear message that it is no longer business as usual for tyranny and injustice.”

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - Libya’s telecommunications investment arm, LAP GreenN, announced Thursday that shareholders and directors of its wholly-owned subsidiary, UCOM, have been fully reinstated to resume their management control responsibilities of Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL). UCOM, through its US$ 200 million investment, controls 69 percent of the Uganda's fixed and mobile telecommunications company, Uganda Telecom Limited.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - As the current UN climate talks are abut to conclude after two bitter weeks of negotiations, global civil society said Thursday that some rich countries were pulling international climate regulation apart at the seams. Representatives of civil society networks at the conference highlighted the risk posed to the current legal framework governing carbon emissions and climate finance. 'There was a spirit in Durban to work on climate change from now to 2020 using and developing the rules we have whilst simultaneously designing a post 2020 arrangement to be agreed in 2015. Developed countries like the US, Japan, Canada and Russia have turned that spirit into a ghost,' said Mohamed Adow, senior climate change adviser at Christian Aid.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - Despite the dramatic drop in polio cases in the last few years, the threat of continued transmission due to funding and immunization gaps has driven the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to launch an Emergency Action Plan. The plan aims to boost vaccination coverage in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the three remaining polio endemic countries, to levels needed to stop polio transmission, according to a joint statement issued Thursday by partners of the GPEI.

Lagos, Nigeria - To further strengthen bilateral trade between Nigeria and Brazil, authorities have launched a new chamber of commerce even as trade between the two countries in the last five years had risen to US$8.9 billion naira, the local Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday. The privately-owned paper said that the bilateral trade has all along been in favour of Nigeria, due to  the country’s crude oil export to the South American country.

Lagos, Nigeria - On a visit to drought-stricken Chad, Spanish football star Raúl González has added his voice to urgent calls for funding to prevent a full-blown food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa, where over 17 million people are at risk of hunger and more than 1 million children under five face acute malnutrition. A combination of drought, chronic poverty, high food prices, displacement and conflict has led to dramatic declines in food production across the Sahel.

Libyan govt. reassures Kadhafi's PM will get fair trial if extradited - Former Libyan Prime Minister Baghadi Mahmoudi will be given a fair trial if he is extradited from Tunisia where took refuge after the fall of the Mouammar Kadhafi regime, the nation's First Vice-Prime Minister, Mustapha Abushakour, assured Wednesday. Abushakour said at his weekly press conference that fair trial would also be accorded to all other persons under prosecution.

New York, US - The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, has stressed the need to minimize the impact of conflict on civilians, as the military forces make their way into Somalia’s Afgooye corridor. 'At this stage, we have no reports of significant movements of people from the corridor,” Bowden said in a statement, made available to PANA in New York, on Wednesday. He, however, said: 'I remain concerned that an escalation of hostilities or a prolonged operation could lead to displacement, further straining the capacity of settlements and host communities in Mogadishu or driving people away from the life-saving help they require'.

Cape Town, South Africa - The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) has ordered the country's national television channel, ETV, to pay a fine of 20,000 Rands for airing footage of the violent death of the former Libyan leader, Mouammar Kadhafi, last year. The Commission said the channel should have warned viewers about the graphic nature of the footage before airing it.

Crude oil production - Libya's crude oil production has gone up to 1,555,000 barrels per day which represents the highest level of production since the end of the war on 17 February, the first Libyan Vice-Prime Minister, Mustapha Abushakour, told a press conference here late Wednesday.

Moroccan King Muhamed VI meets with François Hollande Thursday - Moroccan King Muhamed VI, on a private visit to France since last Friday, is scheduled to meet with newly-elected French president, François Hollande, at the Elysée palace on Thursday, according to official sources here.

Bujumbura, Burundi - The 'Tribunal of Grande Instance' in Bujumbura has slammed life imprisonment on eight individuals charged with the killing, on 9 April, of Ernest Manirumva, former vice-president of the anti-corruption Watchdog, 'OLUCOME'.

Lagos, Nigeria - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has confirmed Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi as the substantive Minister of Sports, Information Minister Labaran Maku said.

Thursday's forex rates for Central African CFA franc - Following are Thursday's forex rates for the CFA Franc issued by the Bank of Central African States.

Latest forex rates for Mauritanian Ouguiya - The Central Bank of Mauritania on Thursday released the foreign exchange rates of the Ouguiya against some major foreign currencies.

Thursday's forex rates in Mauritius - Following are Thursday's forex rates for the Mauritian rupee:

Lagos, Nigeria - Airtel Uganda Thursday announced new harmonized call rates to all African destinations, cutting costs for Ugandans who communicate with family, friends and business associates across the continent.   In a press statement, received here by PANA, Airtel Uganda said 'Starting today Airtel customers can call any destination in Africa for 10 Ugandan shillings per second.  Calls within East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC) as well as calls to Nigeria and South Africa will cost even less, at 6 shillings per second.

Lagos, Nigeria - The ECOWAS Commission has presented 1,320 tons of grains valued at more than US$1 million to the Government of Cote d'Ivoire to alleviate the sufferings of 1 million people displaced during the country's post-electoral crisis of 2010. According to an ECOWAS Commission statement, the 885 tons of rice and 435 tons of maize were presented by ECOWAS Commission President Kadre Desire Ouédraogo to Cote d’Ivoire’s Minister of State for Employment, Social Affairs and Solidarity, Mr. Kafana Kone, during a ceremony in Abidjan on 20 May 2012.

Telecommunications - Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, Thursday said that it has joined an elite club of global brands by making it to this year’s BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list.

Tripoli, Libya - A law promulgated by the Libyan National Transitional Council (CNT) to seize the property of several people close to ousted leader Moummar Khadafi has generated controversy, particular among civil society organisations. The list of the names of people affected by the law comprises a large number of businessmen close to the former regime.