SOUTH AFRICA

Chevron Corp , the second-largest U.S. oil company, said it planned to put several downstream operations up for sale, including its Pembroke refinery in the UK, and eliminate 2,000 jobs this year.

(Reuters) - India will have to scale up prevention of HIV to avoid having to spend an increasing share of its health budget on treatment of AIDS patients, the World Bank and other agencies said Sunday.

The United States and Britain are threatening to withhold support for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a coal-fired plant in South Africa, expanding the battleground in the global debate over who should pay for clean energy.

Gold and foreign exchange reserves in South Africa have declined marginally for the month of February, said a statement from the South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB) on Friday. It said net gold and foreign exchange reserves declined to US38.281 billion in February from US38.630 billion in January.

The debate about fixing the financial crisis seems to be missing a key factor -- a broad ethical discussion of what is the right and wrong thing to do in a modern economy.

Our goal is to make sure that the natural occurrences that happen around us, like the World Cup, are leveraged in such a way that we make the wines within our portfolio household names.

The U.S. dollar is still somewhat overvalued while the Chinese renminbi is substantially undervalued, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday in an assessment of Group of 20 major economies.

Phuthuma Nhleko, Chief Executive Officer of South African mobile phone group MTN (MTNJ.J), will step down as CEO and group president in March 2011, the group said on Monday.

Petra Diamonds will be putting up a 507-carat egg-sized diamond on sale this week, which it discovered at its Cullian mine in South Africa. The company is expecting the 100-gram diamond to sell for around $25 million. Originally, analysts had placed the diamond price at around $20 million, but the rising rough diamond prices and higher buyer interest cited for the stone, could raise the diamond's sale price.

South African police are investigating the disappearance of a German auto executive who went missing three weeks ago while on a business trip to the country.

South Africa's department of mineral resources has completed an audit of the state's mining assets, and is preparing a proposition to cabinet to consolidate the assets under one company, the presidency said on Tuesday.

Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO) may finalise by Friday what could be the largest acquisition loan for an Indian borrower, as it readies a $9 billion purchase of the African assets of Kuwaiti telecoms firm Zain (ZAIN.KW), people familiar with the deal said.

Heineken NV , the world's third-largest brewer, forecast lower beer consumption in many regions, limited price increases and few cost benefits this year after reporting 2009 results broadly in line with expectations.

Microsoft announced on Monday its bid to help local languages to be integrated online more effectively. As part of their Unlimited Potential program, Microsoft is offering its software in 67 local languages.

Waste produced by old computers, cell phones, and other electronics threaten to choke developing nations with mountains of hazardous e-waste, according to a new report on Monday.

Private equity firms are putting floatation candidates back in the box after receiving knock backs from angry fund managers, and will try again in a couple of years when they hope the market will be more receptive.

China's No. 2 telecoms carrier China Unicom on Thursday denied any involvement in a $2.5 billion bid for Nigeria's former state telecoms monopoly.

Researchers sequenced the complete genomes of five southern Africans over the age of 80 -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa and four Bushmen from Namibia.

Kuwaiti telecoms firm Zain said it would pocket around half of the proceeds from its planned $10.7 billion sale of African assets to Bharti Airtel and use the rest to pay off debt, sending its shares soaring.

Bharti Airtel is in exclusive talks to buy most of Kuwaiti telecom group Zain's African business, the firm's third attempt at gaining a foothold in a continent that offers a last opportunity for major subscriber growth.

Bharti Airtel is in exclusive talks to buy for $10.7 billion in cash most of Kuwaiti telecom group Zain's African cellular assets, the Indian firm's third attempt at gaining a foothold in a continent that offers a last opportunity for major subscriber growth.