Three Spanish aid workers have been kidnapped in the desert nation of Mauritania.

A fast-thinking pilot with passengers in cahoots fooled a hijacker by braking hard upon landing, then accelerating to knock the man down.

A fast-thinking pilot fooled a gunman who had hijacked a plane flying from Africa to the Canary Islands.

A boat carrying 400 illegal migrants was finally allowed to dock in Mauritania today, after being stranded for 10 days in international waters off the north-west African country’s coast, government officials said.

A boat carrying Africans illegally trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands capsized off Mauritania’s coast, killing at least four and leaving more than two dozen missing and presumed dead, officials said today.