America's first black president Barack Obama will acknowledge the historic stain of slavery and honor Senegal's democratic resilience in an unstable region Thursday, at the start of an African tour.

Obama stepped off Air Force One into the African night late Wednesday in Dakar to launch a three-nation trip designed to fulfill neglected expectations for his presidency on a continent where he has deep ancestral roots.

The threat of terrorism in Africa's Sahel remains high despite the weakening of Islamist groups in northern Mali, the European Union's representative for the region said on Friday.

Michel Reveyrand de Menthon told a media conference in the Senegalese capital Dakar that a French-led military intervention launched against al-Qaida-linked militant groups in January had not eliminated the danger.

Paris company that rents out luxury cars is pursuing former Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade over 350,000 euros ($456,000) in allegedly unpaid bills, its owner told Agence France Presse on Monday.

Olivier Marqueze-Pouey, the owner of Accompagnement Service, says he met Wade in 2000 and established his small company on the back of an exclusive deal to provide the African leader with transport when he was visiting Paris.

President Michel Suleiman has stressed that Lebanon will continue to implement a U.N. resolution that halted the Israel-Hizbullah war in 2006 in an attempt to restore sovereignty on all its territories.

“With the support of the international community, Lebanon will continue to work to implement Security Council resolution 1701 in an effort to restore sovereignty on all its territories,” Suleiman said on Thursday during a dinner banquet thrown by the President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, in his honor.

President Michel Suleiman said Wednesday that rival leaders should adopt an electoral vote law that is consistent with the Taef accord away from political confessionalism.

MPs should “find a law that is consistent with the Taef and does not take back (the country) to sectarian laws,” Suleiman told Lebanese expatriates in Senegal on the second day of his visit to the West African country before heading to the Ivory Coast on Thursday.

President Michel Suleiman, who is on an African tour, has appealed for dialogue in countries witnessing turmoil, saying violence does not resolve problems.

“We don't back violence to achieve demands,” Suleiman told Arab ambassadors based in Senegal, hoping that the turmoil would be resolved through all-party talks.

Mali's interim president defended the country's rights record Tuesday against accusations by the United Nations that the military was guilty of atrocities against ethnic groups in the war-torn north.

Dioncounda Traore, on a visit to the neighboring west African state of Senegal, said reprisals highlighted by a U.N. mission to Mali were rare but vowed that those found guilty of abuses would be hunted down and prosecuted.

President Michel Suleiman headed on Tuesday to Africa on an 8-day tour at the head of a delegation, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The President will hold talks with senior African officials in Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria in addition to the Lebanese community in those countries.

Outraged by adverts urging women to bleach their skin, a spontaneous movement has emerged in Senegal arguing that black is beautiful -- and to act otherwise is to risk one's health.

The campaign sprang up in response to advertisements that appeared in the capital Dakar last year for a cosmetic cream called "Khess Petch", or "all white" in the local Wolof language.

Iran and Senegal have resumed diplomatic ties severed two years ago after Dakar accused Tehran of supplying weapons to its separatist rebels, the ISNA news agency reported on Thursday.

"The declaration for the restart of political ties between Iran and Senegal was signed by the two foreign ministers on the sidelines" of the ongoing Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Cairo, ISNA reported citing an official statement.