Mauritius: PM Anerood Jugnauth to hand over to son

Mauritian Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth says he is stepping down to hand power to his son, Pravind.

The 86-year-old first became prime minister in 1982, beginning a third spell as leader in 2014.

In a televised address Mr Jugnauth said he was resigning in favour of a "younger and more dynamic leader". His son is currently finance minister.

Opposition parties have criticised the move but in practice there is little they can do to stop it.

The younger Jugnauth is head of the Militant Socialist Movement, the largest party in the governing coalition.
A former prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, warned that the family was turning Mauritius into a "banana republic".

Mauritius, an Indian Ocean archipelago, is a former British colony.

In his speech, Mr Jugnauth cited the "Westminster tradition", referring to the transfer of power from David Cameron to Theresa May in the UK without elections, local media reported.

He is due to hand in his resignation on Monday morning.

Source:-BBC

EgyptAir flight MS804 to Cairo disappears from radar

EgyptAir flight 804 travelling from Paris to Cairo has disappeared from radar with 56 passengers and 10 crew members on board, the airline has said.

French President Francois Hollande said in a televised address that the plane had crashed early on Thursday.

The plane made "sudden swerves" mid-air and plunged before dropping off radars in the southern Mediterranean, Greece's defence minister said.

"At 3:39am the course of the aircraft was south and south-east of Kassos and Karpathos [islands] ... immediately after it entered Cairo FIR and made swerves and a descent I describe; 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right," Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told a news conference.

Greek authorities mounted a search in the area south of the island of Karpathos without result so far, he said.

However, Egypt's civil aviation ministry said in a statement it was too early to confirm if the passenger plane had crashed.

According to EgyptAir, the plane took off from Paris' Charles De Gaulle Airport shortly after 11pm local time.

Greece is deploying military aircraft and a frigate to an area in the southern Mediterranean its defence ministry said.

The search for the missing EgyptAir plane was taking place at sea, about 130 nautical miles southeast of the island of Karpathos, the Greek defence ministry told Reuters news agency.

"One C-130 aircraft and an early-warning EMB-145H plane are already operating in the area. Another C-130 plane is on standby at Kasteli airport on the [southern Greek] island of Crete," Greece's military command said.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com