World Travel News

New Gene Study Shows Locusts Came Out of Africa

Newswise — Current thinking about the desert locust, the swarming African insect that destroys crops and wreaks havoc on economies, has been that it originated in the western hemisphere and migrated to Africa. A new genetic study of this insect of biblical fame says it’s actually the other way around. Like humans, this voracious species of locust probably came out of Africa.

In a paper in the January ’06 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, lead authors Sean Mullen, University of Maryland post-doctoral fellow, and Nathan Lovejoy, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, indicate that these locusts – Schistocerca – originated in Africa. From there they probably migrated to the western hemisphere, between three and five million years ago, by flying over vast expanses of Atlantic Ocean.

The findings reverse the conclusions of an earlier morphological study (Song 2004), which tried to determine why there is only one species of these locusts in the eastern hemisphere, when all of its more than 50 species of relatives live in the west. That study theorized that the desert locust colonized Africa from North America.

More: newswise.com

South Africa. Volvo Ocean Race: The “movistar” trains for the inshore race

The “movistar” team continues training hard at Cape Town. The Spanish Volvo Open 70 boat has gone out to sail every single day since last Monday, working for three to six hours on the water; additionally, she did some night time sailing, during a 24-hour training run.

“The time factor is essential and we are making the most of it – says Pedro Campos, General Manager of the team - . We will have the inshore race on the 26, and we want to be in top shape by then to try to score as many points as we can”.

During her first day of sailing in South Africa, all that the “movistar” team did was to check all systems, but last Tuesday, they stepped up the work with six hours of training, during which the Volvo Open 70 boat sailed beyond Cape Hope, south of the African continent.

Xabi Fernández commented on the experience of the second day: “It was a long and very fruitful day, and we came across good wind and waves. Training at Cape Town is very interesting, because you can reach the open sea after just a few miles of sailing, and it just takes a few hours to go from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean”.

More: bymnews.com

Southern Africa’s children face a New Year of hunger

Johannesburg, 22 December 2005 - While much of the rest of the world feasts over the holiday season, more than nine million southern Africans face an uncertain future in 2006 because WFP lacks the funding to deliver enough food aid to the hungriest in the region.

WFP needs US$77 million immediately to keep providing food aid in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe – the countries hit hardest by the region’s food crisis – until June 2006, when the next harvest is due.

Lesotho and Swaziland will also receive food aid for the same period.

WFP is working to stem the impact of the ‘triple threat’ in southern Africa: the combination of extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS and the weakening capacity of governments to meet the needs of their most vulnerable citizens.

Southern African countries have nine of the 10 highest HIV adult prevalence rates in the world.

“The people who suffer the most when there are food shortages are the children, the sick and the elderly,” said Mike Sackett, WFP Regional Director for southern Africa.

More: reliefweb.int

S.Africa to build 2 gas power plants near Cape Town

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa’s state-owned electricity company Eskom will build two open-cycle gas turbine power plants near Cape Town to help boost waning capacity, the company said on Friday.

The two stations will cost about 3.5 billion rand and form part of a five-year 93 billion rand government strategy to upgrade energy infrastructure in Africa’s biggest economy.

“Both plants will add 1,000 megawatt peaking capacity and will be ready for the winter (May) of 2007,” Eskom spokesman Fani Zulu told Reuters, adding construction would start in the first half of 2006.

Eskom had already placed a 1.8 billion rand order with German technology group Siemens and was inviting tenders for the remainder of the work.

South Africa is scrambling for new power sources to meet rising demand, with excess peak capacity expected to start running out in 2007.

More: za.today.reuters.com

South Africa welcomes fight against racism

Durban, Dec 23 (PTI) United Cricket Board of South Africa today welcomed the introduction of tough new measures by its Australian counterpart to stamp out racism among spectators at the forthcoming Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

“Cricket South Africa welcomes this tough public stance taken by Cricket Australia in the fight against racism. This evil has to be stamped out wherever it is found, and all must unite against it,” UCB CEO Gerald Majola said.

“Our players need to be protected against racism and we hope that these new measures will ensure this in Melbourne and Sydney,” he said.

The new measures were announced by Cricket Australia’s CEO James Sutherland following complaints by the South African squad that some of its members were racially abused by spectators during the Perth Test.

Those under fire from Australian spectators had been Makhaya Ntini, Ashwell Prince, Charl Langeveldt, Shaun Pollock, Garnet Kruger and Justin Kemp.

Ntini, Prince and Langeveldt are reported to have been racially abused because they are players of colour.

Sutherland said unruly spectators face on-the-spot-fines, or possible bans from future matches. Security would also be increased at the grounds.

The second Test between South Africa and Australia begins at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 26. PTI

More: ptinews.com