SOUTH AFRICA

The ruling African National Congress estimated that the initial costs to establish the health care program at 128 billion rand ($18 billion).

South Africa's government would act to shield the local economy against the impact of a new global recession, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday, as data pointed to a slowdown in factory output in the second quarter.

The Tanzanian government said it is committed to wiping out sexual abuse and rape of children.

AngloGold Ashanti , Africa's biggest gold producer, said on Thursday that a worker was killed at its Mponeng mine in South Africa after a seismic event, bringing mining operations to a halt in the affected area.

Gold is set to widen its premium over platinum after hitting parity for the first time in 2-1/2 years this week, with no end yet in sight to the potent cocktail of fear factors that are benefiting safe havens at the expense of cyclical assets.

Gloomy comments from South Africa's central bank on the impact of global financial turmoil on the country's capital formation, key to growth, were the backdrop to a fall in bond yields and a volatile day for the rand, which ended down against the dollar.

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The foreign minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu has arrived in Syria to convince President Bashar al-Assad to halt his regime?s brutal crackdown against anti-government protesters.

Rioting and looting spread across London on Monday as hooded youths set buildings and cars ablaze, smashed shop windows and hurled bottles and stones at police in a third night of violence in Britain's worst unrest in decades.

South Africa's Reserve Bank sees no reason at this stage to make any significant changes in the make up of its foreign currency reserves, the Bank said on Monday, after Nigeria and Mauritius announced plans to diversify their own holdings.

South Africa's ruling ANC put off discussions planned for Monday to bring its Youth League leader Julius Malema to heel after the populist politician angered the party by calling for nationalisation of mines and meddling in foreign affairs.

South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius has been selected to run in the 400 meters at the world athletics championships starting in Daegu, South Korea, this month.

Only twelve of the companies in the S&P 500 index currently have women chief executives, down from 15 in 2010.

Investor confidence in South African assets eased in the second quarter of this year, pointing to overall uncertainty among fund managers, compilers ETM and Maxim said on Thursday.

South Africa has agreed to a 2.5 billion rand bailout for Swaziland to help it through a budget crunch that had prompted unprecedented protests against Africa's last absolute monarch, officials said on Wednesday.

South African government bonds rallied sharply on Wednesday and the yield on the benchmark note fell to 9-month lows as a gloomy global economic climate cast a shadow on the domestic outlook.

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Reportedly, the king?s application for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among other financial institutions, was summarily rejected.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Tuesday that Oprah Winfrey along with James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith will be honored with Oscar.

Despite mining minister Susan Shabangu's reluctance to say it, South Africa is not going to nationalise its mines.

South Africa said it would push Wal-Mart to rejig the conditions of its $2.4 billion Massmart deal, as Pretoria looks to wring bigger concessions from the world's top retailer.