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.

Khartoum, Sudan - Sudanese president, Omar Al-Bashir arrived in Asmara, the Eritrean capital, on Wednesday for a three-day state visit during which he will take part in celebrations marking Eritrea’s national day.

UNESCO DG worried about attacks on World Heritage site in Libya - The UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, Wednesday called for the protection of Libya’s Old City of Ghadamès, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1986. In a press statement here, Bokova said: “I am deeply concerned by information that the Libyan city of Ghadamès has been the target of rocket attacks. I call upon all those involved to refrain from hostile acts that could cause additional damage to this outstanding city, inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Libreville, Gabon - The World Bank has granted Gabon a loan of 30.5 billion FCFA (about US$ 58 million) to enable the African country finance its new undersea fibre optic cable connection project, called Africa coast to Europe (ACE).

African Union Mission in Somalia - Forces of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have made significant progress in the last 24 hours towards Afgoye town, about 25 kilometres west of the capital, Mogadishu, the Mission announced Wednesday. Afgoye, located in the Shabeellaha Hoose region of southern Somalia, has been, for a long time, a stronghold of the Al-Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab insurgents and is a strategic junction for routes to the north, west and south of Somalia.

Most of the fake drugs being brought into Angola are from China and India, according to the African country's officials. Angola's Head of Economic Police Inspection Department, Cristiano Francisco, said the drugs enter the country mainly through the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has been given a key role in the G8’s next phase of a shared commitment to achieve global food security, the Alliance said in a statement made available to PANA here. It said the Scaling Seeds and Other Technologies Partnership, part of the new initiative focused on increasing agricultural food production in Africa, would be housed at AGRA and would focus on strengthening Africa’s seed sector.

For the third time this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced the retention of the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 12.0%. The decision was taken by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which met in the Nigerian capital city, Abuja, Monday and Tuesday. A communiqué released at the end of the meeting said 'the Committee, therefore, decided by a unanimous vote to maintain the current stance of monetary policy without discounting the possibility of changing it, should economic and financial conditions warrant so in the near term.

New York, US - The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Mr. Ian Martin, has welcomed the successful conclusion of voter registration ahead of the country’s legislative election scheduled for next month. In a statement made available to PANA in New York on Wednesday, Martin said the accomplishment 'is a major milestone' and a source of pride for the Libyan people who endured 42 years of denial of political rights.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the attack against Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore, which reportedly left the leader with head injuries. 'The Secretary-General urges the Malian military and security institutions to fulfil their primary function of protecting the State and its legitimate interim authorities, and underscores the need for those responsible for the attack to be held accountable,” a UN statement made available to PANA in New York Wednesday said.

Tanzania and the US have embarked on the second phase of collaborative efforts to finalise a joint action plan that will spell out the steps necessary to overcome major challenges in improving the East African nation’s business climate, US Ambassador to Tanzania Alfonso E. Lenhardt said. Lenhardt made the remark here Wednesday following a four-day visit by US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance Michael Camuñez to advance a White House proposed regional trade package with the East African Community (EAC) as well as the White House Partnership for Growth (PFG) Initiative in Tanzania.