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WEST AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs, 17 November

CONTENTS:

MAURITANIA: Telephone rates slashed
GUINEA: Development aid from Germany
NIGERIA: Man publicly flogged
NIGERIA: 450 planes unfit to fly
NIGERIA: Gas reserves for hundreds of years
NIGERIA: Industry bank created 


MAURITANIA: Telephone rates slashed

Mauritania has slashed the cost of its local and international telephone
calls following the October launch of the country's first mobile telephone
network, AFP reported on Wednesday. The biggest cut was 50 percent for
inter-city calls.

Calls to North America will be 20.7 percent cheaper. Those to North and West
Africa, the Middle East and the European Union will be 15 percent less.

GUINEA: Development aid from German

Germany has pledged some US $22 million in development aid to Guinea through
2001, AFP reported on Tuesday. It includes financial and technical aid and
aims to strengthen basic social services such as food and water supplies, as
well as training.

NIGERIA: Man publicly flogged

A man was flogged in public in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina on
Wednesday for allegedly impregnating an 18-year-old girl out of wedlock. He
was the first to receive such punishment in the state under strict Islamic,
Sharia, law since it was adopted in August, AFP quoted local radio as
reporting on Thursday.

He was sentenced to 100 strokes of the cane and a one-year in prison. At
least nine northern Nigerian states have declared Islamic law this year or
their intention to adopt the code.

NIGERIA: 450 planes declared unfit to fly

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has declared 450 planes in the country
unfit to fly. Most of the planes have already been grounded for several
years, AFP reported on Thursday.

Aviation officials have ordered the planes to be removed from the country's
airports. Several airline companies operate in Nigeria and tickets are
relatively cheap because of the country's inexpensive aviation fuel. 

NIGERIA: Gas reserves for hundreds of years

Nigeria has enough recoverable gas reserves to last an estimated 450 years.
That is more than the country's crude oil reserves, AFP quoted an
environment ministry official as saying on Wednesday. But he said only 12
percent of Nigeria's gas reserves have been produced. The official was
speaking at an energy conference in Vienna.

NIGERIA: Industry bank created 

The Nigerian government is setting up an industrial bank with an initial
capital of US $416 million to facilitate loans to large-scale, medium- and
small-scale industries, and to rehabilitate ailing industries, AFP reported
on Wednesday.

The new bank, the Bank of Industry, was created from the fusion of the
Nigerian Industrial Development Bank, the Nigerian Bank for Commerce and
Industry, and the National Economic Reconstruction Fund. 

[ENDS]
 
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