NEW DELHI, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - An Air Mauritius passenger plane aborted its take-off from the Indian capital Thursday after a fire broke out in its undercarriage, airport officials said.

ADDIS ABABA, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - Mauritius on Thursday proposed the creation of an organisation of non-oil producing countries to counter the effects of soaring crude prices on the world's poorest nations.

The idea was floated by the Indian Ocean island's ambassador to the African Union in Addis Ababa, where the 53-nation pan-African organisation is headquartered.

NAIROBI, March 28, 2008 (AFP) - National flag-carrier Air Mauritius will next month launch a weekly flight to the Indian city of Bangalore, the firm announced Friday.

The first flight, scheduled for April 28 under a code-sharing agreement with Air India, will take the Mauritius-Bangalore-Chennai-Mauritius route, it said in a statement.

PORT-LOUIS, March 19, 2008 (AFP) - Mauritius will next month host a conference of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) aimed at tackling poverty in the region, the government said Wednesday.

PORT-LOUIS, March 17, 2008 (AFP) - Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam of the island nation of Mauritius on Monday said he was sacking his foreign minister, Murlidass Dulloo, for breaking ranks with the government.

Dulloo's job, which he had held since the government was formed in July 2005, will be taken over by the prime minister himself, a statement from the president's office said.

PORT-LOUIS, Feb 19, 2008 (AFP) - A South African woman was jailed for 11 years and fined 100,000 rupees (3,500 dollars / 2,500 euros) Tuesday after being convicted of drug-smuggling in Mauritius, a court source told AFP.

PORT-LOUIS, Dec 12, 2007 (AFP) - Tourist arrivals in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius soared by 16,1 percent in 2007, according to a central statistics bureau report obtained by AFP Wednesday.

The body said a total of 803,307 tourists had visited Mauritius during the first 11 months of this year, up from 691,967 over the same period in 2006.

PORT LOUIS, Dec 5, 2007 (AFP) - Mauritius has signed an interim trade deal with the EU as part of talks to replace preferential market access for dozens of African, Caribbean and Pacific nations, a Mauritian official said Wednesday.

NAIROBI, Nov 6, 2007 (AFP) - Mauritius authorities on Tuesday detained nine Filipino sailors who staged a mutiny and seized control of a vessel off the island's coast, a maritime official said.

'They arrived at about 6.00 PM and have been detained in the Water Front police station,' said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme.

MANILA, Nov 6, 2007 (AFP) - The Philippines has dispatched a team to Mauritius after Filipino sailors staged a mutiny and seized control of a fishing vessel, a senior foreign affairs official said Tuesday.

The nine crew members took the action on Sunday off the Indian Ocean state claiming that they were being mistreated, the official said.