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.

Togo acquires submarine optic fibre cable to boost telecom - Togo now has its own optic fibre submarine cable landing point to boost its telecommunications network, official sources in Lome told PANA Wednesday.

The committee in charge of political parties at the Libyan Ministry of Justice has asked Libyans wishing to form political parties to file their applications as from next Saturday. In a statement, released Tuesday evening, the Committee stressed that applications must be submitted in duplicates -- a copy to the committee in the morning and the other copy to the ministry of justice in the afternoon.

Kenya to intensify cross-border security operations - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said Wednesday the military, currently involved in an African Union operation against Somali rebels, would intensify border surveillance and scale up their operations to boost homeland security. Kibaki also urged Kenyans to remain vigilant and supplement the work of the East country’s security forces by volunteering information on security threats.

East African parliament rejects EU trade liberalisation talks - The East African Community (EAC) Council of ministers should be restrained from continuing with negotiations with the European Union (EU) on a new trading pact that allows both sides tax free exports to each other’s markets. The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) passed a resolution Wednesday, calling on the region’s trade ministers and ministers of finance to stop the negotiations with the EU on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) until all the concerns are addressed.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - A group of Somali politicians Wednesday rose from three days of negotiations here, agreeing on a tight timeline to hold elections and ratify the country's draft constitution before the current transitional government ends in August. 

Young people from the youth constituency, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on Wednesday asked developed countries not to 'jump ship' from the Kyoto Protocol (KP) and Long-term Co-operative Action (LCA) negotiating tracks at the ongoing climate talks in Bonn, Germany. Reports from the talks, obtained here by PANA, said the youth constituency, also known by its acronym as YOUNGO, invited delegates from developed countries to pledge their continued ambition to the existing frameworks for reducing carbon emissions.

The family of Gambia’s missing journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh, on Wednesday refuted claims by the country’s police boss that Manneh has been “seen in America”. Gambia’s Inspector General of Police, Yankuba Sonko, Tuesday told a local newspaper that the disappeared journalist is alive in America.

Rabat, Morocco - The Prime Minister of Morocco, Abdelilah Benkirane, will visit Tunisia on Thursday for a two-day friendly and working visit at the invitation of his Tunisian counterpart, Hamadi Jebali, PANA learnt Wednesday from an official source in Rabat. This will be the first time a high-ranking Moroccan official will visit Tunisia since the fall of President Ben Ali.

The African Union (AU) has renewed by 12 months, the mandate of the task force leading the hunt for Ugandan rebel leader, Joseph Kony, whose Lords Resistance Army (LRA) is accused of committing atrocities in three countries in the Central African region. The elusive Ugandan rebel leader has been moving his forces between Sudan, northern Uganda, the Central Africa Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they are accused of kidnapping girls and boys and turning them into sex slaves and soldiers to commit atrocities.

Navy platforms for modernization - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, has approved the procurement of two new 1,800-tonne Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), as part of efforts aimed at modernizing and repositioning the fleet of the Nigerian Navy. President Jonathan is also expected to launch, next week, a 31-metre Seaward Defence Boat, constructed locally by the Nigerian Navy, and lay the Keel of a Second Seaward Defence Boat which is to built soon.