At least 41 people were killed and many others seriously injured when a bus collided with a truck 200 km west of Burkina Faso's capital yesterday, public prosecutor Boromo Maiza Compaore said.

The bus was carrying at least 75 people to San Pedro, a port city in neighbouring Ivory Coast, when it crashed near Ouahabou, he said.

"Corpses are littering the road. Many are still trapped in the wreckage of the bus and emergency services have to saw through the metal to get them out," state radio in the west African country quoted him as saying.

The vehicles caught fire after colliding, witnesses said. An investigation into the causes of the crash has begun.

Memorial for 'Mama Africa'

South Africans held a public memorial yesterday for Miriam Makeba, one of Africa's best-known voices and a champion of the fight against apartheid during three decades in exile.

Makeba, 76, fell ill and died after a concert against organised crime in Italy on Sunday.

About 2,000 people, including politicians, musicians and artists, paid their last respects to Makeba, known as 'Mama Africa' and the 'Empress of African Song'. She was praised as a larger-than-life figure at the service at the Johannesburg Dome, a top concert venue.

Wine auction nets $6.7m

An American wine auction house sold $6.7 million of fine vintages in Hong Kong yesterday with Asian buyers attracted to cheaply-priced wines.

Despite some initial apprehension the financial crisis might dry the growing thirst among affluent Asians for the world's rarest and finest vintages, Acker Merrall and Condit sold nearly 90 per cent of 950 lots of wines and champagnes in the firm's second major wine auction in Hong Kong this year.

Air France pilots continue strike

French airports faced more weekend disruption after Air France pilots rejected a proposal yesterday to break off a four-day strike.

The airline cut up to a third of long-haul flights and half its other services, causing severe airport disruption on the second day of a strike against proposed retirement age reforms.

There had been hopes of a breakthrough after the government offered to guarantee the right to retire at 60 in talks with unions, but pilots voted against ending the strike, unions said.

The carrier had said it would be able to operate 65-70 per cent of long-haul flights and around half of its planned short and medium-haul flights at the weekend.

The strike was called over proposals to allow pilots to retire at 65 rather than the current final retirement age of 60, a measure being discussed in parliament as part of wider social security reforms.

Islamist rebels whip 32 dancers in Somalia

Islamist insurgents whipped 32 people in Somalia yesterday after arresting them for taking part in a traditional dance in rebel-held territory south of the capital Mogadishu.

Fighters enforcing a strict form of sharia law have been slowly advancing on the city, raising the stakes in their two-year rebellion and undermining fragile UN-brokered peace talks to end 17 years of chaos in the Horn of Africa nation.

Mauritania's toppled president to fight coup

Mauritania's ousted president said he would join the fight to restore democracy in the Saharan state, despite a claim from the military junta which toppled him that he would retire.

Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was transferred from house arrest in Nouakchott to his home town on Thursday, after which a minister in the military government said Abdallahi had vowed to retire from politics.

Abdallahi, who had been under house arrest since military officers led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz overthrew him in a bloodless coup on August 6, is free to receive visitors but not to leave Lemden, a town of around 500 people, 200 km south of the capital.

Opposition warns of 'run on the pound' risks

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plans to borrow more to cope with a deepening recession could lead to the collapse of sterling and a slower recovery from the economic turmoil, a senior opposition figure said.

In an interview with the Times published yesterday, the Conservative Party's economic affairs spokesman George Osborne accused Brown of adopting a "scorched earth" policy that will wreck the economy for future governments.

"We are in danger, if the government is not careful, of having a proper sterling collapse, a run on the pound," Osborne said as Brown and other world leaders gathered in Washington to discuss the crisis. "The danger of that is that it pushes up long-term interest rates."

Iran detains 10 spies near border

Iran detained 10 spies carrying $500,000 in cash who had entered the Islamic Republic illegally from neighbouring Pakistan, state television said yesterday.

Modern espionage cameras and maps of sensitive regions in Iran were found when the group was detained in Iran's south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province bordering Pakistan, the report said.

Television did not give any details on their nationality or say when they were detained.

Sistan-Baluchestan is a volatile province known for frequent clashes between security forces and well-armed drug smugglers.