World Travel News

Poverty leaves Africa at mercy of bird flu: WHO

With Africa stretched fighting AIDS and tuberculosis, a bird flu pandemic could ravage communities which live side by side with poultry but lack the means to detect the virus, experts said on Thursday.

Delegates to a World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Brazzaville warned a shortage of money and scientific know-how could leave Africa struggling to detect and combat bird flu, as United Nations officials say the risk of a pandemic is growing.

“We need to get a plan in place as quickly as possible which would allow us to react efficiently against this pandemic which could also touch our region,” WHO Director-General for Africa Luis Gomez Sambo told the opening of the meeting.

The two-day conference grouping more than 140 experts from 43 African countries aims to draft a blueprint for tackling an outbreak in the world’s poorest continent.

While the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has not yet been detected in Africa, the close proximity between poultry and humans in towns and villages provide an ideal environment for the virus to jump to humans.

More: today.reuters.co.uk

S.Africa rand hovers off 6/dlr, rally seen intact

South Africa’s rand retreated on Thursday after smashing through the key 6/dollar level for the first time in eight months, but traders predicted further gains for the unit if global trends hold.

News on Wednesday that Britain’s Vodafone Group Plc has clinched approval for its $2.4 billion plan to raise its stake in South Africa’s Vodacom helped drive the unit more than one percent firmer to 5.98/dollar after domestic markets shut.

Traders said this put the rand – which has already clocked up gains of 5.5 percent versus the greenback so far this year – on course to rally further, possibly even tackling its previous 6-1/2 year low of 5.60/dollar later in 2006.

At 1500 GMT the unit was trading back at 6.07/dollar.

“The fundamental reasons for the rand being stronger have only improved … I see no reason why it shouldn’t continue to strengthen to 5.80/90 over next couple of weeks,” said Luke Shearer, Standard Bank’s head of global forex trade.

“I’m very bullish on the rand … it’s possible that later in the year we could go back to 5.6025/dollar,” he added.

More: za.today.reuters.com

South Africa skipper OK as underdog

As the manager of what he expects to be a severely undermanned South African team at the inaugural World Baseball Classic this spring, Rick Magnante is well aware of the long odds against his club getting out of a tough Pool B that features the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“My God,” Magnante said in a phone interview with MLB.com on Wednesday. “We’re going to be like the Lilliputians out there.”

But don’t waste any time feeling sorry for Magnante, a longtime scout for the Oakland A’s. Or for his players. Win, lose or mercy-ruled out of the tournament in short order, Magnante sees the WBC as the opportunity of a lifetime for everyone involved.

“It’s such an honor to be associated with this thing, I don’t think anything that might happen on the field will take any of the thrill away from it,” he said. “It’s going to be a tremendous life and baseball experience, regardless, for me and the kids.”

When Magnante refers to his roster as “kids,” he isn’t just trotting out the kind of colloquialism you’d expect from a 58-year-old baseball lifer. South Africa is anything but a hotbed of baseball talent, and among Nelson Mandela’s many talents is not the ability to paint the black with a backdoor cutter. In fact, Magnante expects to have very few players with professional experience.

More: mlb.mlb.com

50th anniversary of China-Africa ties marked

China hosted a reception here Thursday evening to commemorate the 50th forging anniversary of the inauguration of diplomatic ties with African countries and the release of China’s African Policy.

In his address to the reception, Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said China and Egypt established their diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level fifty years ago. This had launched the process of mutual recognition between China and African countries and signified a new stage of development of Sino-African ties.

Since then, China has established diplomatic relations with 47 African countries, he said.

The past fifty years have seen increasingly deep relations in various fields of cooperation between China and Africa, and have borne remarkable fruit, said Tang. “Given our all-weather relationship, genuine cooperation and fraternal affection, China and Africa are good friends, sincere partners and affectionate brothers,” he added.

More: news.xinhuanet.com

S.Africa rand range-bound, but rally seen intact

South Africa’s rand traded in a tight range on Wednesday, tracking moves in the dollar, but dealers said the local unit was set to resume its rally as gold prices march upwards and appetite grows for emerging markets.

The rand has retreated off an eight-month peak of 6.04/dollar scaled late on Monday after notching up gains of nearly 4 percent against the greenback during the first few days of 2006.

AT 1420 GMT it was trading at 6.0790/dollar, three cents firmer than its closing levels on Tuesday, when forex inflows from importers and profit-taking capped the currency’s gains.

Dealers said the rand was bolstered by a slightly weaker dollar, which is being hampered by concerns over U.S. trade data for November due on Thursday, expected to show a narrowing of the country’s deficit.

“I think the rally is still intact, we may move back towards 6.14 but we will eventually break through 6.07/08 again,” a local dealer said.

Many analysts think the unit is on course to tackle the psychologically important 6/dollar level again for the first time since May 2005, and possibly test the 5.60/dollar level later in the year if global trends hold.

More: za.today.reuters.com