SOUTH AFRICA

Harmony Gold said on Saturday a miner who was trapped underground at its Kusasalethu mine in South Africa after a fall of ground has died and that all operations remained suspended pending an investigation.

Theodore J. Forstmann, better known as Ted Forstmann, the co-founder of private equity firm Forstmann Little & Company and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Management Group (IMG) died on Sunday, of brain cancer. The 71-year-old private equity investor and philanthropist had been battling the illness for six months.

It was not the acclaim of an international prize that motivated a 11-year-old Pakistani girl to oppose the Taliban's decision to ban education for girls in her neighborhood. Malala Yousufzai, now 13, attracted attention from around the world and focused it on the sorry state of affairs in the Swat Valley, which is located close to the Afghan-Pakistan border, simply because she wanted a better life, where nobody would stop her from learning or watching her favorite Indian television series.

The police is set to speak to 16 youngsters, who were sponsored and supported by deceased cricket writer Peter Roebuck. The youngsters lived with Roebuck in his eight-bedroom house in South Africa.

In honor of D’Oliveira, South African and Australian cricketers stood in silence for one minute.

According to FIFA President Sepp Blatter, there is no racism in soccer. But there is, Sepp, and it's a serious problem.

Guildford Shapo was later taken to WS Knobel Hospital where he died.

South Africa's rand nudged higher against the dollar in late Johannesburg trade on Thursday as risk appetite received a boost from favourable U.S. data but further weakness still lurks while euro zone debt worries remain, traders said.

Standard Bank Group expects its clients to issue corporate bonds in excess of 10 billion rand over the next four months and is in talks with four offshore companies interested in inward listings in South Africa.

South Africa's rand reversed its earlier losses against the dollar on Wednesday and government bond yields pulled back from the previous day's multi-week highs as local assets took a breather from a hammering brought on by global risk aversion.

Ghana will seek to boost revenues from its mining industry next year by hiking taxes, according to a text of the 2012 budget delivered to parliament on Wednesday.

A budget crunch in Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy, has reached a critical stage with the government struggling to maintain spending on HIV/AIDS, education and the elderly, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

A huge yellow diamond fetched a world record price of $12.36 million at Sotheby’s Geneva auction in Switzerland on Tuesday.

Eastern Platinum said it has resumed full production at its flagship Crocodile River mine in South Africa, following a probe into a fatal accident at the mine earlier this month.

South Africa's monetary policy will maintain its focus on hitting a 3-6 percent inflation target over the medium term but will remain sensitive to the domestic economic situation, Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus said on Tuesday.

South Africa's third-biggest listed clothes retailer, Mr Price, reported a 22 percent rise in first-half profit as above-inflation wage increases and decades-low interest rates lift consumer spending in Africa's biggest economy.

South Africa's mine workers union on Tuesday rejected an increased wage offer from Lonmin Plc and said it was moving closer toward launching a strike at the platinum miner's operations.

Marius Els was killed by his pet hippopotamus Humphrey on Saturday. Six year-old Humphrey attacked the South African man at his farm, repeatedly biting and gouging his owner.

About 230,000 people in Swaziland -- almost one-fifth of the population -- are HIV-positive

Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum producer, beat expectations with a 59 percent jump in full-year earnings, even though a strike at its Karee operations drove up unit costs and forced the miner to cut its output target.

Harmony Gold , South Africa's third-largest gold producer, said on Monday it had received a number of enquiries and proposals from parties interested in acquiring its assets in Papua New Guinea, but it was not ready to sell.