<B>MADRID. Spain hopes repatriations to Senegal start soon.</B> Spain said yesterday it believed repatriation flights of illegal migrants to Senegal would go ahead shortly, even though the African country said at the last moment it would not accept a planeload of its citizens. At least one possibly two, planeloads of migrants escorted by Spanish police had been scheduled to arrive at Dakar’s international airport early yesterday but the operation was abruptly called off. Spanish officials, who are desperate to start repatriating African migrants who have been streaming into the Canaries this year, said they understood it was a touchy subject for the Senegalese government but trusted the delay would be short.

<B>SINGAPORE. World economy stays strong but risks grow – IMF. </B>The global economy is set for another year of strong growth, the International Monetary Fund said yesterday, but it warned that rising inflationary pressures and a US economic downturn posed growing dangers. In its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook, the IMF raised its 2006 forecast for global growth to 5.1 percent from an April forecast of 4.9 percent. It also predicted 4.9 percent growth in 2007 versus a previous projection of 4.7 percent. Stronger growth in Europe and emerging economies should help offset a slowdown in the US, the global economic watchdog said. There is a one in six chance that global growth could fall to 3.25 percent or less in 2007, the IMF estimated. If the forecast for 2006 materialises, it will mark the strongest four-year period of growth for the global economy in three decades

<B>ADDIS ABABA. Flooding affects 357,000 Ethiopians – UN.</B> The number of Ethiopians affected by last month’s devastating flash floods has reached 357,000, including 136,528 forced to abandon their homes, a UN humanitarian agency said yesterday. Flooding from overflowing rivers has killed some 1,000 people in parts of Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia since early August. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) said Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region was the worst-hit in the giant Horn of Africa nation, with 97,000 people affected, of which 37,000 have lost their homes. “Large areas of cropped land in the Amhara region are swamped by the floods,” it said in a report. The report said Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile River, has expanded by 50 metres (160 ft) and increased the risk of further flooding. Flooding typically occurs in Ethiopia’s lowlands after heavy rains in the June-September season drench the highlands. This year’s flooding was especially damaging because it followed severe drought

COLOMBO. Sri Lanka front largely quiet as talks hopes rise. </B>Sri Lanka’s army and Tamil Tiger rebels exchanged intermittent shell-fire overnight, but their tense northern frontline was relatively quiet as hopes rose for a resumption of peace talks, the army said yesterday. Norwegian mediator and International Development Minister Erik Solheim is expected to visit Sri Lanka next week while Japan’s peace envoy Yasushi Akashi will visit in the last week of September in a bid to boost the peace process, diplomats said. The envoys would also be trying to fix a date for direct talks between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, after both sides announced this week they were ready to resume talks after a gap of five months.