Senegal is to reclaim control of its airports and air traffic from a pan-African body it has threatened to quit, a Transport Ministry official said on Friday. ”As of May 10, Senegal will take back from ASECNA [Agency for the Security of Navigation in Africa and Madagascar] the running of its aeronautical activities,” said Yoro Sarr, an adviser to Air Transport Minister Farba Senghor.
Diplomats failed to agree on Friday on a follow-up meeting to an acrimonious 2001 conference on racism after two weeks of difficult negotiations between Western and Islamic countries. The meeting was unable to decide on the venue or duration of a conference to chart progress in the fight against racism since the landmark conference in Durban seven years ago.
A rapidly spreading virus that has already killed 22 children in eastern China has killed an 18-month-old boy in southern China’s Guangdong province, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The boy died in Guangdong’s Foshan city from a suspected case of hand, foot and mouth disease, which was probably caused by the enterovirus 71, or EV71.
The Otago Highlanders recovered from 14-11 behind at halftime to beat South Africa’s Cheetahs for only their second win this season. It was another close defeat in a frustrating season for captain Juan Smith and his Bloemfontein men who themselves have won just once this season and are second-bottom of the table.
African Development Bank pledged -billion more for food aid on Friday as soaring commodity prices raise fears of famine, and it urged grain-exporting countries not to restrict shipments. The bank said that its agriculture portfolio will grow to ,8-billion, and it was restructuring a portion of that to free up -million to be used more quickly.
A hacker has allegedly gained access to suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli’s computer and is attempting to blackmail him, his attorney said on Friday. ”An individual is claiming to have hacked Mr Pikoli’s system. The hacker is threatening to release Mr Pikoli’s documents to the press, if he is not paid,” said his attorney Aslam Moosajee.
For Paul Hörer, who first met Josef Fritzl 35 years ago, the Austrian was a ”decent, outgoing and, above all, amusing bloke”. He remembered how Fritzl came to stay with him in Munich, and how he and his family spent happy evenings with Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, on the terrace of their ”tip top” house in Amstetten.
Japan and China will cooperate in a -million project to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from a thermal power plant, a Japanese daily reported on Saturday. Under the plan of the project, emitted carbon dioxide from a thermal power plant will be injected into a major Chinese oil field to extract more crude oil, the report said.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) voiced concern at the African National Congress’s proposed media tribunal, on the eve on World Press Freedom Day. It believed self-regulation was the best mechanism to ensure a free and open press, Sanef said. It supported the existing institutions charged with self-regulation of the media.
A bonus-point try in the final minute has kept the Auckland Blues’ Super 14 semifinal hopes flickering with a free-wheeling 35-22 win over the Queensland Reds on Friday. Scrumhalf Taniela Moa reached out to plant the ball on the tryline for the Blues’ fourth try to come away with a maximum five points and move to 31 points.