Africa Must Adapt To Soaring Temperatures*
*
Two killed in Egypt fire fanned by sandstorm
*
Cairo (AFP) April 20 - At least two people were killed Tuesday in a fire
fanned by a fierce sandstorm in Cairo which halted all flights at the
main airport and delayed the arrival of US Defence Secretary Robert
Gates, a police source said. The two died when the fire, triggered by a
flame from a gas stove and fanned by strong winds, set some 50 homes
ablaze in the village of Atalia in the Nile Delta governorate of
Menufiyah, the source told AFP.

 Eight other people suffered burns. The blaze swept through the village
due to strong winds and the fact that roofs are often made of palm tree
stems. Some 30 firetrucks were deployed to control the fire. Meanwhile,
air traffic had by late afternoon partially resumed at Cairo
international airport after a five-hour interruption which left
thousands of passengers stranded. "The resumption of normal traffic
should take several hours," the official MENA news agency reported.

 All take-offs and landings had been interrupted during the sandstorm
"which cut visibility to fewer than 500 metres (yards), which is 300
metres below the necessary field of vision," operations director General
Abdel Fattah Badran told reporters. Two flights -- one from Sudan and
one from Luxor in upper Egypt -- were diverted to Egypt's Red Sea resort
of Sharm el-Sheikh, Badran added. The US Defence Secretary, who is on a
Middle East tour, was due in Cairo around 1.30 pm (1130 GMT) but was
stuck in Amman because of the storm. Photo courtesy AFP.

by Staff Writers
Johannesburg (AFP) April 20, 2007

African governments must urgently look at ways to adapt to effects of
rising temperatures on the continent most vulnerable to climate change,
authors of a United Nations report said Tuesday.

As global temperatures rise due to greenhouse gasses that have already
gathered in the atmosphere, sub-Saharan Africa will have to deal with an
unavoidable one degree temperature increase.

"At least 0.6 degrees (centigrade) of global warming appears unavoidable
given how much greenhouse gas has accumulated in the atmosphere," said
Guy Midgley, a chief scientist of South Africa's National Biodiversity
Institute.

"The unavoidable regional warming is closer to one degree. Adaptation is
going to be necessary," he said, during a regional briefing on the
landmark Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change's fourth assessment
report.

This could see the continent, whose marginal resources are already
stretched, suffering more droughts, floods and less food as agriculture
is affected by the rising temperatures.

Another of the report's authors, Pauline Dube, said a reduction in water
sources represented one of the most pressing threats to countries in the
region.

"South Africa and Botswana experience water stress. The city of Gabarone
is severely handicapped and often construction has to stop. The city has
to recycle water," said Dube, a senior lecturer in the University of
Botswana's environmental science department.

The 1,500-page report, which has been developed over five years, was
presented as a summary for policymakers, who have the power to find ways
to adjust to the effects of climate change.

*
Italy urges united Africa aid policy*

Tokyo (AFP) April 20- Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi called Tuesday
for Europe and Japan to coordinate aid to Africa in the face of China's
increasingly visible presence in the continent.

"With regards to Africa, Europe and Japan should align in their
communication and become closer," Prodi told students at the University
of Tokyo, speaking through an interpreter.

"If we look at numbers, Europe and Japan together present a great deal
more aid to Africa than China," said Prodi, the former head of the
European Commission. "But when I talk to African leaders, they only talk
about China."

China has become a growing investor and donor in Africa, although it has
come under criticism in the West for supporting nations such as Sudan
despite the mass killings in the Darfur region.

Prodi also called on European nations to focus on their relations with Asia.

"I think it is very important to direct the European Union's politics
towards Asia. This is Asia's century... and Asia's revival will give
support to the Mediterranean region," Prodi said.

Prodi met Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and agreed to
put African development and global warming high on the agenda in
upcoming summits of the Group of Eight industrialised nations.

China responded that it wanted all sides to cooperate on aid for Africa.

"We believe if other countries of the world want to collaborate on
helping Africa, this is a good thing. No one side can exclude the
other," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing.

"When China engages in economic, trade and cultural cooperation, it will
not exclude any other side. We welcome any other countries, especially
developing countries, to give a hand to Africa so that Africa can
develop like other countries," he said.

Many observers view Beijing's overtures to Africa as motivated mainly by
China's desperate need for oil and other resources to fuel its booming
economy.

Source: Agence France-Presse