SOUTH AFRICA

The United States on Tuesday held out the chance of attending a U.N. conference on racism in Geneva next week but said the final text must remove what Washington views as restrictions on freedom of speech.

Wine tourists are a growing breed as wineries around the globe step up their game and offer visitors better services and gourmet food alongside wine tasting.

Somali pirates defied international naval powers on Thursday to keep an American ship captain hostage on a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean after their first seizure of U.S. citizens.

Stronger emerging economies are likely to pull further ahead from weaker peers following the moves by global leaders to augment the lending capacity of the International Monetary Fund.

A U.S. Navy destroyer arrived off Somalia on Thursday to apply pressure for the release of an American ship captain taken hostage in the first seizure of U.S. citizens by increasingly bold pirates.

A $6 cardboard box that uses solar power to cook food, sterilize water and could help 3 billion poor people cut greenhouse gases, has won a $75,000 prize for ideas to fight global warming.

Western nations and lending agencies have agreed a financing package of more than $1 billion to improve infrastructure in southern and central Africa at an investment conference meant to expand transport links and trade.

South African judge Richard Goldstone urged Israeli and Palestinian authorities Friday to cooperate with a U.N. investigation he is heading to examine alleged war crimes in their recent conflict.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration promised to push for a new United Nations climate treaty on Sunday but said Washington had no magic wand and that all countries had to help.

U.N. nuclear watchdog governors failed to agree on a successor to Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday after five rounds of voting, opening the field to new candidates who might bridge rich-poor divisions.

South African ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on Friday criticized Western powers for holding back aid to Zimbabwe while President Robert Mugabe was still in power.

U.S. President Barack Obama and his top two economic officials on Tuesday dismissed suggestions by emerging economic powers that the world move away from using the dollar as the world's main reserve currency.

Mints around the world say demand for gold coins has risen sharply as interest in the precious metal soars on the back of financial instability and concerns over the inflation outlook.

On March 6, South Africa's Standard Bank, the largest African banking group, announced it will buy a 33% stake of Russian investment bank Troika Dialog.

eTelecare Global Solutions to acquire Phone House Ltd., a BPO service subsidiary Talk Talk Group Limited, a South African customer care subsidiary by adding about 400 employees to expand its global delivery network.

Hollywood character, Matt Damon was moved as he listened to a pregnant Zimbabwean woman describe how she was raped and the hardships she faced crossing into South Africa.

When it comes to money, women really are more responsible then men, with an international survey finding that they're less likely to get into debt and strive harder to become financially independent.

Two thirds of the world's cell phone subscriptions are in developing nations, with the highest growth rate in Africa where a quarter of the population now has a mobile, a United Nations agency said on Friday.

Southern African finance ministers agreed on Friday to push for donor help to rebuild Zimbabwe from economic collapse, and put the initial need at $2 billion, South Africa's foreign minister said.

Go off-peak, or in the 'shoulder season' just before the masses arrive. For example, African safaris in the rainy season cost up to 40% less, and offer the chance to see more new-born animals; the Galapagos Islands in May are 20-30% cheaper than December / January or high summer - and offer warmer, calmer conditions

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to release detained activists and said such a move would help unlock international humanitarian support.