Sydney - The autopilot on a Qantas Airways Airbus A330 suddenly disconnected 500 kilometres after taking off from Perth in Western Australia last week, a news report revealed on Saturday.

London - Two goals from Roman Pavlyuchenko sent Tottenham Hotspur into the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday night as they overcame Wigan Athletic 3-1 at White Hart Lane.

Pavlyuchenko broke the deadlock from the penalty spot early in the second half after Frazier Campbell had been brought down by Wigan goalkeeper Richard Kingson.

With 15 minutes to go, Luka Modric appeared to have made the win safe for the home side as he headed in after Jamie O'Hara's shot had rebounded off the post.

But Spurs, who despite a recent recovery in the Premier League still languish dangerously close to the relegation zone, were unable to relax as Wigan striker Henri Camara scored from close range in the dying minutes.

Vienna - Only Japan and South Africa have submitted candidates for succeeding Mohamed ElBaradei at the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based organisation confirmed Friday in a statement.

As ElBaradei's third and last term ends at the end of November 2009, Yukiya Amano of Japan and Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa, who represent their countries at the IAEA Board of Governors, are now vying for the prestigious post of director general.

The deadline for IAEA member states to name candidates ended on December 31, 2008.

Nairobi/Accra - Polls closed Friday evening in the last Ghanaian constituency to cast its ballots in a run-off presidential election that has become increasingly tinged with controversy.

The remote farming constituency of Tain, which has just over 53,000 registered voters, could not complete its vote in Sunday's presidential run-off election after problems distributing the ballots.

John Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) holds a 23,055-vote lead over Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), meaning that the constituency has the power to decide who wins.

Atta Mills won Tain in the inconclusive first round in early December with 16,211 votes to 14,935 for Akufo-Addo.

Washington - A US airline on Friday apologized to nine Muslim passengers it ordered off a flight a day earlier, but defended its actions as necessary to ensure safety.

Airline officials ordered nine traditionally-dressed Muslims, including three children, off an AirTran flight that was to have left Reagan National Airport in Washington Thursday afternoon, the Washington Post reported.

Two passengers apparently complained to flight staff after overhearing a suspicious remark among the Muslim travellers, the newspaper reported Friday.

Later Friday, AirTran said it regretted the incident and apologized to all the flight's passengers, including the Muslims kicked off the flight, but said "while ultimately this issue proved to be a misunderstanding, the steps taken were necessary."

Cairo - The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas' loss has been "very small" during the Israeli offensive on Gaza, the group's spiritual leader, Khaled Mishaal, said on Friday.
"Hamas loss is small, very small," Mishaal, the group's politburo chief, said in a statement broadcast live on al-Jazeera TV.
In his second TV appearance since the attack started seven days ago, the top leader of the hard-line Palestinian faction, who lives in exile, said that Israel failed to hit the group's military targets.
Over the past week, more than 700 targets in Gaza have been hit, an army spokeswoman said, while hundreds of rockets fired by Hamas hit Israel.