President Blaise Compaore

Guinea's ruling junta Tuesday said it wanted the creation of a transitional government to lead the country out of the crisis that has gripped it since a September massacre by the military. Regime representatives are in Ouagadougou for talks with the official mediator, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore. An aide to junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara ruled out the possibility of the leader going into exile while the west African nation regains stability, but called for an "open government". "We have said it before and we will say it to (Compaore) -- we will ask for an open government so that everyone can ... Read Full Story

Guinea's ruling junta on Tuesday said it wanted the creation of a transitional government to lead the country out of the crisis that has gripped it since a September massacre by the military. Regime representatives are in Ouagadougou for talks with the official mediator, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore. An aide to junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara ruled out the possibility of the leader going into exile while the west African nation regains stability, but called for an "open government". "We have said it before and we will say it to (Compaore) -- we will ask for an open government so that everyone ... Read Full Story

African countries must work harder to ban female genital mutilation, Chantal Compoare, the first lady of Burkina Faso, said on Monday. "I call on all African states to cooperate on all levels in order to speed up the elimination of the practice of female genital mutilation," Compoare told delegates at an international conference on the subject. Emma Bonino, the deputy leader of the Italian Senate, said she wanted the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution condemning the practice, also known as female circumcision. Female genital mutilation is carried out for religious or cultural reasons in some parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle ... Read Full Story

French state organisation Culturesfrance offered 500 copies of African films to Ouagadougou's film institute Friday, after the Burkina Faso capital was flooded by torrential rains. "We have just signed an agreement with Culturesfrance to receive 500 copies to rebuild the African film institute," said Michel Ouedraogo, delegate for the capital's Panafrican festival of cinema and television. A third of the 1,500 films held by the institute since 1992 were caught in the September deluge and nearly 80 percent of these are unrecoverable. "It is like Alexandria's Library: down in flames a hundred or so years ago but recently reborn. So the African film institute ... Read Full Story

Burkina Faso's president, mediating in Guinea after a massacre in September, on Tuesday called on the opposition, labour unions and civil society to devise an alternative to the junta. "President (Blaise) Compaore asked us to make concrete proposals for the transition, notably setting up another organ (in place of the military junta) to run the transition, the electoral process and conditions of eligibility," the leader of the New Democratic Forces of Guinea (NFD), Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, told journalists. "He asked us to take two days or more to come up with concrete proposals," Diallo said. "Afer listening to the (opposition) Forces Vives, he wants ... Read Full Story