South Africa will send officials to New Zealand to solicit support for the country’s bid to host the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the South African Football Association (SAFA) said on Wednesday.

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup draw will be held in Auckland on Saturday. The SAFA said they will send president Danny Jordaan to convince the world that the country has the infrastructure and capability to host the tournament.

‘We have the infrastructure, the stadiums, the hotels and the training venues, and what helps is that we have already hosted a World Cup of 32 teams in 2010. The infrastructure is in place and we have the capacity to deliver. The world knows our capacity, they have seen the stadiums and our infrastructure,’ said Jordaan.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) gave Jordan a letter of support to present as a supporting document.

‘This serves to confirm that SAFA is a member of SASCOC and is a member in good standing. We acknowledge that hosting of either continental or world tournaments in South Africa places the country at the highest level globally and adds value to our economy. SASCOC fully supports and appreciates such intentions with focus on addressing women development and growth,’ read the letter.

XINHUA

2 (ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) — The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), the central bank, on Wednesday announced that it will offer a ransom in reward as part of ongoing efforts to crackdown hoarding, illicit transfer and transaction of foreign currency and gold.

The bounty follows the suspension of bank accounts belonging to 391 individuals who were allegedly involved in illegal foreign currency transfer activities.

Disclosing the new directive relating to the tips and rewards on illicit money and gold transfer and transaction, Mesfin Getachew, NBE’s legal services director, said the law will be transmitting 15 years of imprisonment against the guilty besides confiscating the foreign currency notes and relevant items.

According to the latest announcement, the bank will reward informants up to 15 percent of the foreign currency or an equivalent amount of gold value, which the police confiscated from the guilty with the help of the information obtained.

The informants can provide information related to illicit money transfers or transactions in person or through various mechanisms, Getachew said during a briefing Wednesday.

AFP

3 (Churchill, Canada, Oct 20, 2022 (AFP) – Sprawled on rocky ground far from sea ice, a lone Canadian polar bear sits under a dazzling sun, his white fur utterly useless as camouflage.

It’s mid-summer on the shores of Hudson Bay and life for the enormous male has been moving in slow motion, far from the prey that keeps him alive: seals.

This is a critical time for the region’s polar bears.

Every year from late June when the bay ice disappears — shrinking until it dots the blue vastness like scattered confetti — they must move onto shore to begin a period of forced fasting.

But that period is lasting longer and longer as temperatures rise — putting them in danger’s way.

AFP

4 (Berlin (dpa) – Illegal migration via the Balkan route must be reduced, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told German news organization RND in remarks published early Thursday.

Faeser, who was speaking ahead of a conference in Berlin with representatives of countries from the West Balkans, said that European authorities had a joint responsibility to stop illegal migration ‘so that we can continue to help people who urgently need our support.’

‘We have taken in more than a million refugees from Ukraine in Germany since the beginning of the war,’ the minister pointed out.

At the same time, more people are coming to Europe via the Mediterranean and the Balkan route, Faeser added.

In order to curb migration via the Balkan route, a bundle of measures will be discussed at the meeting in Berlin on Thursday. These include aligning the visa policy of the Western Balkan states with EU standards, combating smuggling and ensuring effective border protection.

Procedures for returning people ‘who have no right to stay with us,’ must also be discussed, Faeser asserted.

DPA

5 (New York, Oct 20, 2022 (AFP) – Tesla reported Wednesday another quarter of sparkling earnings growth, but shares fell amid questions over the resilience of electric vehicle demand, CEO Elon Musk’s embattled Twitter transaction and other issues.

The electric vehicle (EV) maker scored a more than doubling of profits in the third-quarter to $3.3 billion on increased auto deliveries

But shares retreated in after-hours trading after the company reported revenues of $21.5 billion, a 56 percent increase over the year-ago period, but about $500 million below analyst forecasts.

The company flagged battery supply chain bottlenecks as a constraint on EV growth and noted that logistics volatility was an ‘improving’ challenge.

‘Knock on wood, it looks like we’ll have an epic end-of-year,’ Musk said during an earnings call.

‘The factories are running at full speed and we’re delivering every call we make.’

Source: The Namibian Press Agency