A pilot for Japan’s All Nippon Airways fell asleep at the controls for several minutes while on a domestic flight and had to be awakened by a government inspector who was travelling in the cockpit. An official from the Transport Ministry, who was in the cockpit for a routine inspection, woke the pilot after he fell asleep as the plane was cruising at 12,000 metres (36,000 feet), but he dozed off again and had to be awakened a second time. “He was asleep for two or three minutes,” the spokesman said. The spokesman said there was no danger to passengers since the plane was on auto-pilot and the co-pilot was also present. The pilot, who has been suspended, is undergoing medical tests.

Rwanda is marking the 10th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, one of the worst atrocities of the late 20th century – alongside what happened in the Balkans. A bit of background – it was triggered by the shooting down of a plane with Rwanda’s Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana onboard on 6 April 1994. By amazing coincidence the wreckage landed in the garden of the presidential residence. The crash served as a signal to Hutu extremists, supporters of the government, to start the systematic extermination of minority ethnic Tutsis and any Hutu opponents of the regime. The former UN commander in Rwanda said Western states were “criminally responsible” for the genocide. Canadian General Romeo Dallaire said France, which led the small international peacekeeping force at the time of the genocide, the UK and the US in particular did not care enough to stop the killing. The killing continued for 100 days before a Tutsi-dominated rebel army seized control.

New European low-cost airline WIZZ Air plan to start flights from Budapest to seven European cities from June 24. Destinations include London, Barcelona, Athens, Rome, Paris, Prague and Katowice from Budapest. From July 1 it would add Paris, Munich, Athens, Barcelona, Dortmund and Stockholm to its destinations from Poland, it added.

Qantas, Australia’s biggest airline has announced that it plans to start a new low cost Asian airline in November 2004. The new airline will be called Jetstar, the same name as Qantas’s new low-cost domestic venture. The new airline will be the fifth budget operator to fly to and from Singapore, following Thai AirAsia, a joint venture between Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia and Thailand’s Shin Corp, and Jakarta-based Lion Air, which both already operate flights. Valuair, owned by ex-Singapore Airlines staff, has just started flying. Tiger Airways, a budget venture between Singapore Airlines and Irish discount airline Ryanair is expected to start operations this year.

European travel agent Thomas Cook has said that its airline Condor planned to offer cut-price flights on long-distance journeys. Proposed services include flights to the US, Caribbean, Africa and Asia with prices starting at EUR99 (USD$120).

For a while now postage costs to the EU countries have been rising and has now reached the point where they are on a par with the costs for our other members worldwide members (USA, South America and Australia). We feel that it is unfair for one member to subsidise another and have decided to abolish the EU price band.

The new fees will be effective from the 1^st June 2004 when the following fees will apply:

• 1 year subscription £18.00 (around €27)
• 2 year subscription £34.00 (around €51)
• 3 year subscription £48.00 (around €72)

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