* Harvesting relies on African, East European workers
* Costs rise to keep workers distanced and protected
* New COVID-19 surge in Europe adds to concerns
* Farmers say they can&#8217;t stop as other businesses do
By Joan Faus and Nigel Hunt
BARCELONA/LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Fruit and vegetable harvests are underway in western Europe with seasonal workers gathering crops in top producer Spain, but costs are rising as farmers fear a third wave of COVID-19 might cause a repeat of 2020&#8217;s damaging disruptions in labour supply.
Harvests rely heavily on workers from Africa and eastern Europe, but many couldn&#8217;t travel a year ago as borders closed in the first wave of the pandemic. Shortages of key goods appeared in supermarkets while prices rose as consumers hoarded.
Coranavirus cases are surging again in Europe, raising the risk of crop losses and adding to farmers&#8217; costs on everything from extra transport to keep workers socially distanced to buying protective gear for seasonal labourers.
In Spain&#8217;s northeastern Catalonia region, farmer Josep Cabre said he had spent about 6,000 euros ($7,000) on masks and other protective equipment for seven seasonal workers from West Africa working on his farm picking apples, pears and peaches.
&#8220;We have been lucky and, as far as we know, none of us has contracted COVID-19,&#8221; Cabre said, adding that shutting his business for 15 days could mean a 150,000 euro loss.
&#8220;A bar or shop can close for 15 days &#8230; but if I don’t pick the fruit at its right time and I do it later it would be damaged. To stop for 15 days would be an economic disaster,&#8221; he added.
Cabre tries to give workers tasks to keep them distanced. He has stopped using a nine-seat van to take them to fields near the city of Lleida, instead using several vans and reimbursing transport costs to workers who travel alone.
Lleida saw a infection cluster last summer, partially linked to migrants seeking seasonal jobs to pick fruit.
This year, thousands of workers have arrived on chartered flights from Morocco to help gather crops in Spain for the first major harvest of strawberries in the southern Huelva province.
&#8220;COVID measures have forced us to take on more people to do the same job,&#8221; Fernando Gomez of Murcia&#8217;s Proexport growers organisation said, adding that a hike in Spain&#8217;s minimum wage also put pressure on margins.

TOUGHER CHECKS
Growers in Germany still expect to have enough workers from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and elsewhere for the asparagus harvest. But workers face tougher health and safety checks.
&#8220;The extensive corona-regulations and hygiene measures are creating great challenges, both organisational and financial,” Daniela Rixen, spokesperson for the LKSH agricultural chamber representing farmers in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Bernhard Kruesken, secretary general of German national farming association DBV, said normally about 300,000 seasonal harvest workers come to Germany every year but fewer are expected in 2021 for the second year running.
France needs about 1 million seasonal workers each year. Fruit and vegetable growers have been seeking to attract local students and jobless people to compensate for lower numbers of foreigners if new travel restrictions are imposed.
Last year, France raised a so-called &#8220;shadow army&#8221; to pick crops from furloughed workers in other sectors including hotel receptionists, restaurant waiters and hairdressers.
Non-European Union workers account for about 25% of seasonal workers in France.
&#8220;You never know. At any moment rules can change and borders can be closed,&#8221; Jerome Volle, deputy-chairman of France&#8217;s largest farm lobby FNSEA said.
Similar concerns are rising in Britain, which needs about 70,000 seasonal workers with the highest demand during the berry season in late May to June.
&#8220;There is a concern that European borders end up shutting down or that people can&#8217;t travel and that will put huge pressure on the availability of seasonal workers,&#8221; said Tom Bradshaw, vice president at Britain&#8217;s National Farmers Union.
In a normal year, just 1% of the seasonal workforce comes from Britain.
Despite the challenges, there is still little likelihood of fruit shortages this year, said Natalia Aguilera, head of the Andalusian chapter of the cooperativas agro-alimentarias cooperative.
&#8220;If there weren&#8217;t any (shortages) last year, complicated as it was during to the pandemic, this year there is absolutely no chance,&#8221; she said.
($1 = 0.8531 euros)
(Additional reporting by Nathan Allen in Madrid, Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris and Michael Hogan in Hamburg; Editing by Veronica Brown and Edmund Blair)
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Coronavirus costs climb as Europe’s farmers seek seasonal workers

GENEVA, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; U.N. experts expressed alarm on Wednesday over reports of executions and other abuses by Russian security contractors in Central African Republic and over their close contacts with U.N. peacekeepers.
Russia first sent security contractors to CAR in 2018. It stepped up its support late last year to help the government fend off a rebel advance launched before the Dec. 27 presidential election.
Since then, the contractors have accompanied national forces as they retake towns from the rebels, CAR&#8217;s government has said.
The contractors include members of Russia&#8217;s Wagner Group, the U.N. experts said in a statement. Wagner Group members have fought clandestinely in support of Russian forces in Syria and Ukraine, Reuters has reported.
The experts said that they were concerned by reports of human rights abuses by the contractors, including mass summary executions, arbitrary detentions and torture during interrogations.
&#8220;Unacceptably, there seem to be no investigations and no accountability for these abuses,&#8221; the experts said.
The Russian military, which supervises the presence of the contractors in CAR, and CAR&#8217;s government spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The experts also said they were disturbed to learn of the &#8220;proximity and interoperability&#8221; between the contractors and the U.N.&#8217;s MINUSCA peacekeeping mission, which has more than 13,000 uniformed personnel.
They cited coordinated meetings that mission members held with Russian contractors and medical evacuations of wounded contractors to MINUSCA bases.
&#8220;Greater clarity on the roles of &#8216;international partners&#8217; and accountability is urgently needed,&#8221; they said.
A MINUSCA spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CAR has failed to find stability since a 2013 rebellion ousted former President Francois Bozize. About a quarter of the country&#8217;s 5 million people are displaced.
President Faustin-Archange Touadera was sworn in for a second five-year term on Tuesday after winning December&#8217;s election.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Aaron Ross; Additional reporting by Tatiana Ustinova and Margarita Popova in Moscow; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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U.N. experts alarmed by Russian security contractors’ ‘abuses’ in Central Africa

MAPUTO, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Thousands of people fleeing an attack claimed by Islamic State have made their way to safety elsewhere in northern Mozambique, aid workers said, while a small group of victims arrived by boat in neighbouring Tanzania.
Insurgents hit the coastal town of Palma, adjacent to gas projects worth $60 billion, with a three-pronged attack last Wednesday. Fighting continued as recently as Tuesday, security sources involved in rescue efforts and the United Nations said.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the accounts from Palma. Most communications to the town were cut last Wednesday.
A U.N. spokesman said that so far 5,300 displaced people had been registered in different districts of the Cabo Delgado province, home since 2017 to a simmering Islamist insurgency linked to Islamic State. Numbers of the displaced were expected to rise in the coming days.
Since Tuesday, more than 300 survivors of the attack had arrived in provincial capital Pemba by plane and boat, a senior humanitarian official based in Mozambique told Reuters.
A boat carrying another 1,000 people, including some injured, was expected to arrive in Pemba late on Wednesday after its departure from a gas project site near Palma was delayed, three people briefed on the rescue operation said.
In the village of Kilambo across the border in Tanzania, another boat with 45 people on board docked on Tuesday afternoon, a local community leader told Reuters, adding the people had been given food and shelter.
Others seeking shelter in Tanzania had failed to cross the border because of a difficult river crossing, U.N. humanitarian officials said. Tanzanian government and border officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The attack probably displaced tens of thousands of people, aid groups said, with people scattering into dense forest or attempting escape by sea.
Mozambique&#8217;s government has confirmed dozens of deaths, including at least seven killed when militants ambushed a convoy of vehicles trying to escape a besieged hotel. Witnesses have described bodies in the streets, some of them beheaded.
Phone calls to Mozambique&#8217;s government and security officials went unanswered on Wednesday.
President Filipe Nyusi said at an event unrelated to the Palma attack on Wednesday that the government will approach the enemy with &#8220;forcefulness&#8221;, describing the attack as not the biggest the country had seen.

BRAZEN ATTACK
Dollar-denominated bonds issued by Mozambique&#8217;s government have come under pressure since the fighting escalated a week ago, losing more than 3 cents in the dollar to trade as low as 81.75 cents, their lowest level since October 2020.
Islamic State claimed the attack on Monday via its Amaq news agency. A U.S. official said it may show the group&#8217;s increasing &#8220;brazenness&#8221; in Mozambique, where militants are now seeking to hold towns.
The Soufan Center, a U.S.-based security-focused think tank, said the latest attack could prompt greater overseas intervention in Mozambique, as the government was unable to contain the insurgency.
U.S. army special forces are already in Mozambique, and French troops have been monitoring the escalating violence from the nearby French island of Mayotte, it noted.
Portugal is preparing to send a small contingent of soldiers to help train armed forces in Cabo Delgado next month, state news agency Lusa reported on Tuesday.
The World Health Organization was monitoring health risks in the wake of the attack, including cholera, malnutrition and respiratory infections, WHO Africa official Thierno Balde told Reuters.
Balde said the true health impact of the attack may only become clear over the coming weeks.
(Reporting by Manuel Mucari in Maputo, Emma Rumney and Alexander Winning in Johannesburg, Wendell Roelf in Cape Town, David Lewis and Maggie Fick in Nairobi and Giulia Paravicini in Addis Ababa Graphic by Promit Mukherjee Writing by Alexander Winning Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo)
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Thousands find refuge after insurgent attack in Mozambique gas town

March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; CGN Mining Co Ltd:
* FY REVENUE HK$2.86 BILLION VERSUS HK$2.08 BILLION
* CGN MINING CO LTD RECOMMENDS FINAL DIVIDEND OF HK0.5 CENT PER SHARE
* FY PROFIT ATTRIBUTABLE HK$155.2 MILLION VERSUS HK$160.0 MILLION
* GLOBAL SUPPLY OF NATURAL URANIUM EXPECTED TO RECOVER IN 2021 BUT UNLIKELY TO RECOVER TO LEVEL BEFORE EPIDEMIC OUTBREAK
* IN 2021, WILL SEEK POTENTIAL URANIUM RESOURCE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES REGIONS SUCH AS CENTRAL ASIA AND AFRICA Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com)
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BRIEF-CGN Mining Says FY Profit Attributable HK$155.2 Million

JOHANNESBURG, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s trade surplus widened to 28.96 billion rand ($1.96 billion) in February from a revised surplus of 12.42 billion rand in January, data from the revenue service showed on Wednesday.
Exports increased by 16.5% on a month-on-month basis to 128.25 billion rand, while imports rose 1.6% to 99.29 billion rand, the South African Revenue Service said.
($1 = 14.7883 rand) (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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South Africa’s trade surplus grows to $1.96 billion in February

JOHANNESBURG, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa will begin operating Unit 3 at the Kusile coal-fired power station this week, state-owned utility Eskom said on Wednesday, marking the halfway point in a long delayed 118.5 billion rand ($8 billion) project which began in 2008.
&#8220;This brings to three the number of generation units that have achieved commercial status at the project, generating a maximum 2 400MW to support the South African power grid,&#8221; Eskom said in a statement.
Eskom provides more 90% of the electricity needed by Africa&#8217;s most industrialised nation, but has had to implement cost nationwide blackouts due to repeated faults at its ailing coal-fired power stations, severely constraining economic growth.
In February and March it cut power regularly in order to perform maintenance at its plants.
This month it faced uncertainty on about 6,000 MW of its nominal capacity of more than 44,000 MW and expects electricity supply to remain volatile until maintenance is completed by September.
($1 = 14.8140 rand) (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana)
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Eskom to start up third unit at Kusile coal-fired power station

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; A 121-year-old chocolate bar, from a batch commissioned by Queen Victoria for British troops fighting in South Africa, has been found in its original tin in the attic of an English manor.
The chocolate belonged to an English aristocrat who fought in the Second Boer War, Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfield, and was found in his helmet case at his family&#8217;s ancestral home, 500-year-old Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, eastern England.
&#8220;Although &#8230;you wouldn&#8217;t want it as your Easter treat, it is still complete and a remarkable find,&#8221; said Anna Forrest, Cultural Heritage Curator at the National Trust, a heritage charity that manages Oxburgh Hall.
The tin lid has a message in Victoria&#8217;s handwriting that says &#8220;I wish you a happy New Year&#8221; and the inscription &#8220;South Africa 1900&#8221;, as well as a portrait of the queen.
The National Trust said it believed Henry had kept the helmet and the chocolate together as mementoes of his participation in the war. The items were discovered among the belongings of his daughter Frances Greathead following her death aged 100 in 2020.
The Second Boer War, from 1899 and 1902, pitted British troops against the forces of two independent South African states run by the Boers, Afrikaans-speaking farmers, where huge gold and diamond deposits had been found.
Victoria commissioned 100,000 half-pound (226-gramme) bars to raise morale among the troops there.
Britain&#8217;s three main chocolate manufacturers at the time, Cadbury, Fry and Rowntree, were run by Quakers who opposed the war, so they refused to accept payment for the order and packaged the chocolate in unbranded tins.
However, the queen insisted the British soldiers should know that their treats had come from home, and the manufacturers relented and branded some of the chocolates, though not the tins.
While some tins survive, the National Trust said, it is extremely rare to trace one to its original owner, and rarer still to find the chocolate, as most recipients ate theirs. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and John Stonestreet)
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A gift of chocolate from Queen Victoria, intact after 121 years

KAMPALA, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Uganda&#8217;s biggest lender, Stanbic, posted an 8.9% decline in its pretax profit as the impact of the coronavirus crisis drove up impairments.
The lender, which is a unit of South Africa&#8217;s Standard Bank , said it had set aside more cash to cover the loan impairments, driving down the profit to 316.6 billion shillings ($86.50 million).
Provisions for bad debts rose 110% to 91.8 billion shillings, the bank said.
Stanbic restructured loans worth 800 billion shillings last year after the central bank allowed commercial lenders to change repayment terms for borrowers who found it hard to repay their loans due to the pandemic.
($1 = 3,660.0000 Ugandan shillings) (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Duncan Miriri and Louise Heavens)
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Ugandan lender Stanbic’s 2020 pretax profit falls 9% due to COVID-19

By Okwi Okoh
NAIROBI, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; In 2017, Nairobi-based producer Tony Mwangi headed to South Africa to retrain as a drone pilot instructor, hoping to get a head start in the industry before it was legal to own and operate drones in Kenya.
Now, a year after the Kenyan government adopted a law governing the nascent sector, his academy is one of just three in the East African country offering training to aspiring pilots.
&#8220;I wanted it to be professional where people actually fly safely,&#8221; Mwangi told Reuters as his students&#8217; drones buzzed in the background. &#8220;When you&#8217;re a professional pilot it will be easy to get a job.&#8221;
In many African states, regulation of drone use remains highly restrictive, grounding their potential to help leapfrog infrastructure challenges. Authorities have cited security and safety concerns.
Rwanda is a notable exception. The government has since 2016 permitted companies to harness drone technology for solutions such as transporting blood and medical supplies to remote areas. Last year, Rwanda&#8217;s police also used drones to monitor the streets during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Though Kenya began drafting regulations in 2016, it did not adopt legislation enabling drone use until last year. Kenya&#8217;s aviation regulator invited training institutions to apply for accreditation.
Mwangi was ready. He opened his academy, Dronespace, in Nairobi in December.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, business has been brisk.
His two-week course costs $1600 and includes the fee of a remote pilot&#8217;s license issued by the government regulator after the course. It is aimed at pilots willing to invest seriously in drones.
The steep cost is worth it for Eric Mwambaji, who manages IT operations in Africa for an international company. He says that after doing Dronespace&#8217;s course &#8220;I am looking at the potential of doing mapping, surveying, inspections and so on.&#8221; (Reporting by Okwi Okoh Editing by Omar Mohammed, Maggie Fick, Alexandra Hudson)
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Kenyan drone academy founder hopes to help aspiring pilots soar

JOHANNESBURG, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s rising long term bond yields and the related cost of government borrowing remain a concern, ratings firm S&amp;P Global said in its second quarter economic outlook for emerging markets.
The yield on South Africa&#8217;s benchmark 2030 government bond hit a record-high above 13% in March 2020 at the height of the financial crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Yields came down as the central bank slashed lending rates and launched a bond-buying programme. But they have started rising again in 2021, to near the 10% mark, as climbing Treasury yields in the United States lured away lenders.
&#8220;In South Africa, 10-year domestic currency government bond yields have risen about 70 basis points this year. While less abrupt, the rising cost of funding presents a challenge, given that interest rate payments in South Africa are already among the highest among key EMs,&#8221; said S&amp;P in a release dated March 30.
S&amp;P said this month that the 2021 budget did not focus enough on economic reforms, making a sustained rebound in gross domestic product unlikely. The deficit is forecast to more than double to 14% of gross domestic product in the 2020/21 fiscal year, from 5.7% in the previous year.
Foreign investors have avoided the country&#8217;s bonds or demanded a high premium, or yield. The central bank said on Tuesday non-residents had sold 74.6 billion rand of bonds in 2020.
Year-to-date, foreign selling of local bonds was 28.5 billion rand, according to Johannesburg Stock Exchange data.
The Reserve Bank (SARB) last week resisted raising lending rates following hikes by other emerging market central banks, saying the inflation outlook was benign. The bank said it had little control over long-term bond yields.
S&amp;P said in the report the increasing divergence between the U.S. rebound and the rest of the world could &#8220;force central banks to implement defensive interest-rate hikes&#8221; to compensate for the growing yield differential, especially those countries with large fiscal deficits like South Africa. (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Alison Williams)
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South Africa’s rising cost of funding concerning -S&P

JOHANNESBURG, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday it planned to seek a 15% annual wage hike in gold sector over the three year period.
Higher bullion prices, which reached a record in August last year, boosted 2020 earnings and offered gold miners a lifeline following production disruptions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; editing by Mfuneko Toyana)
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South Africa’s NUM union seeks 15% wage hike from gold miners

March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Newocean Energy Holdings Ltd:
* FY REVENUE DOWN 30.99% TO ABOUT HK$19,180 MILLION
* FY LOSS ATTRIBUTABLE HK$2.24 BILLION VERSUS PROFIT OF HK$642.2 MILLION
* FOR ITS LPG BUSINESS, CO AIMS TO TAP INTO LOCAL END-USER MARKETS IN AFRICA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
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BRIEF-Newocean Energy FY Rev Down 30.99%

JOHANNESBURG, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa have fired coach Molefi Ntseki after the team&#8217;s surprise failure to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations finals that will take place in Cameroon early next year.
The 1996 champions finished third in the qualification pool behind Ghana and Sudan, losing 2-0 to the latter on Sunday in Khartoum when a draw would have been enough to seal their place in the finals.
Ntseki was elevated from the country&#8217;s Under-17 side when he took over in August 2019 and won four of his nine games in charge, but had been mandated to reach next year&#8217;s continental showpiece event.
South Africa will begin their campaign to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in June having been drawn in a preliminary pool with Ghana, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
Only the top team in the group will advance to the final knockout round of qualifying. (Reporting by Nick Said Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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Soccer-South Africa fire coach Ntseki after Nations Cup failure

March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund (ETF), New York&#8217;s SPDR Gold Trust, remained unchanged on Tuesday from Monday, while holdings of the largest silver-backed ETF, New York&#8217;s iShares Silver Trust, rose 0.07% during the same period. Exchange-traded funds, the most widely recognized type of ETP, back each security issued with physical stocks of a given commodity, creating a product they say is free from counterparty risk. Name New Holdings (OZ) Date Prev Holdings Prev Abs Change % chg YTD Abs Change (OZ) (OZ) (OZ) GOLD SPDR Gold Trust 33,356,508.70 Mar 30 33,356,508.70 Mar 29 0 0.00% -4,283,797.30 COMEX Gold Trust 16,277,134.40 Mar 30 16,296,665.70 Mar 29 -19,531.30 -0.12% -604,517.20 ETF Securities gold (ex-US) 9,293,742.40 Nov 30 9,293,742.40 Nov 30 &#8212; &#8212; &#8212; ZKB Physical Gold ** 5,442,921.60 Mar 26 5,466,221.50 Mar 19 -23,299.80 -0.43% -154,867.90 Sprott Physical Gold Trust 2,606,214.00 Mar 30 2,606,213.00 Mar 29 1 0.00% 30,994.00 ETFS Physical Swiss Gold 844,902.30 Jan 24 844,902.30 Jan 24 &#8212; &#8212; 57,520.60 ABSA &#8211; NewGold ETF 634,309.90 Mar 30 634,315.20 Mar 29 -5.2 0.00% 10,634.50 Total 68,455,733.30 68,498,568.70 -42,835.30 -0.06% -5,244,263.60 SILVER iShares Silver Trust 579,022,878.70 Mar 30 578,605,155.4 Mar 29 417,723.30 0.07% 20,306,996.30 0 Sprott Physical Silver 131,038,777.00 Mar 30 130,937,765.0 Mar 29 101,012.00 0.08% 39,930,122.00 0 ETF Securities silver ex-US 100,389,761.60 Nov 30 100,389,761.6 Nov 30 &#8212; &#8212; &#8212; 0 ZKB Physical Silver 95,035,446.40 Mar 26 94,956,516.30 Mar 19 78,930.10 0.08% 1,591,365.50 ETFS Physical Silver Shares 22,908,298.30 Mar 20 22,908,298.30 Mar 20 &#8212; &#8212; &#8212; Total 928,395,162.00 927,797,496.6 597,665.40 0.06% 88,655,720.00 0 PLATINUM ETFS Physical Platinum Shares 738,343.90 Mar 20 738,343.90 Mar 20 &#8212; &#8212; &#8212; ABSA &#8211; NewPlat ETF 572,631.40 Mar 30 572,636.80 Mar 29 0 0.00% &#8212; ETF Securities platinum ex-US 617,330.80 Nov 30 617,330.80 Nov 30 &#8212; &#8212; &#8212; ZKB Physical Platinum 442,230.80 Mar 26 442,230.80 Mar 19 &#8212; &#8212; 18,976.30 Total 2,370,536.90 2,370,542.40 -5.5 0.00% 2,063,770.70 PALLADIUM InvestPalladium ETF # 142,113.50 Mar 25 142,113.50 Mar 25 &#8212; &#8212; &#8212; ETFS Physical Palladium Shares 129,466.60 20-Mar 129,466.60 Mar 20 &#8212; &#8212; &#8212; ETF Securities palladium ex-US 111,915.00 Nov 30 111,915.00 Nov 30 &#8212; &#8212; &#8212; ZKB Physical Palladium 78,361.80 Mar 26 78,361.80 Mar 19 &#8212; &#8212; 352.6 ABSA &#8211; NewPalladium ETF **** 29,414.90 Mar 30 29,415.20 Mar 29 &#8212; &#8212; -12,452.60 Total 491,271.80 491,272.10 -0.3 0.00% -49,403.90 The figures above are those reported to Reuters by the organizations involved by telephone or email on the date shown, or those that are publicly available on their websites. ** ZKB physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium funds are fully backed by physical precious metal and investors are entitled to physical delivery of them. *** Shareholders in the GAM Gold fund can elect to hold &#8220;A class&#8221; shares, which are fully backed by physical gold. Investors in that class are entitled to physical delivery of the precious metal. Investors may also elect to hold &#8220;AX&#8221; class shares, which are fully backed by physical gold. Investors in that class are not entitled to physical delivery of the precious metal. **** Absa Capital&#8217;s NewPalladium Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) was listed on March 27, 2014 and is fully backed with South African palladium. # Standard Bank&#8217;s AfricaPalladium ETF, South Africa&#8217;s first listed palladium exchange traded fund, debuted on March 24, 2014. 
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TABLE-Holdings of SPDR Gold unchanged, iShares Silver rise

DUBAI, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Global airline industry body IATA said on Wednesday a digital travel pass for COVID-19 test results and vaccine certificates would be launched on the Apple platform in mid-April.
The digital travel pass, currently in the testing phase, had been planned to be launched by the end of March.
IATA Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East Kamil Alawadhi said it was expected to launch on the Apple platform around April 15, and later for the Android platform.
&#8220;But the application will only achieve its success once airlines, different countries, airports adopt it,&#8221; Alawadhi said.
UK-based carrier Virgin Atlantic said on Friday it would trial the IATA app on its London to Barbados route from April 16. Barbados has said it will accept the pass at its border, one of the first countries to accept a digital pass instead of paper documentation.
IATA has said its travel pass will help speed up check-ins.
&#8220;A huge amount of airlines have requested to be on board,&#8221; Alawadhi said. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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IATA says travel pass app to launch on Apple mid-April

DIARY – Italy to May 31

LISBON, March 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Portugal&#8217;s largest builder Mota-Engil swung to net loss of 20 million euros ($23.48 million) in 2020, after it booked a 39 million euro provision relating to the pandemic, the company said on Wednesday.
In 2019, Mota-Engil posted a 27 million euro profit.
The company stated that &#8220;the net loss of 20 million euros was due to the recording of 30 million euros accounted as provisions directly related to the risk of mitigating the negative effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic&#8221;. The builder also booked a 10 million euros one-off provision.
Overall sales fell 17% to 2.43 billion euros and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) slidded 9% to 380 million euros, while its margin rose to 16% from 14% in 2019, the company said.
Turnover in Africa fell 24% to 761 million euros due to constraints related to COVID-19 mainly in Angola and Mozambique, but Latin America, where sales slumped 37% to 595 million euros, was the region most affected by the pandemic.
The construction company noted that business in Peru, Mexico and Brazil was negatively affected &#8220;due to demanding containment measures and stoppages&#8221;, while turnover in Europe rose 8% thanks to construction segment in Poland.
Mota-Engil which operates in more than 20 countries spread across Europe, Africa and Latin America said its the order book reached an all-time high of 6.1 billion euros, and expects it to stand above 6 billion euros in 2021.
The builder estimates capital expenditure (capex) of 200-250 million euros this year, after a 197 million euro capex in 2020 and expects EBITDA margin to remain resilient.
The company is currently in the final stages of selling a 30% stake in the company to Chinese giant China Communications Construction Co (CCCC). ($1 = 0.8518 euros) (By Patrícia Vicente Rua; Editing by Louise Heavens)
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