JOHANNESBURG – South Africa will tighten its mine safety regulations to hold mine operators accountable for accidental deaths in the industry, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday. Safety is a huge issue in South Africa’s deep and dangerous mines and increasingly a focus for investors. A spate of deaths at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations, including a seismic event that killed seven […]

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian villagers armed with knives, hammers and clubs slaughtered 292 crocodiles in revenge for the death of a man killed by a crocodile at a breeding farm, an official said. Photographs released by Antara news agency showed bloodied carcasses of the crocodiles in a large pile in the Sorong district of the […]

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s rand strengthened early on Monday, extending previous gains, as sentiment towards riskier, high-yield markets improved after trade talks between China and the European Union. At 0650 the rand traded at 13.2125 to the dollar, up 0.32 percent from Friday’s close. The dollar slipped against most major currencies on positive trade talks […]

PARIS (Reuters) – Crowds of cheering French football fans gathered in Paris on Sunday, draped in red, white and blue and singing the Marseillaise, as excitement grew head of the France-Croatia showdown at the World Cup final in Moscow. By the end of the match their enthusiasm was rewarded with a 4-2 victory! A day […]

GABORONE – Botswana, home to the world’s largest elephant population, may lift a ban on hunting for sport in the face of what the government says is growing conflict between humans and wildlife, a move sure to provoke protest from animal welfare groups. Conservationists estimate the land-locked southern African country to have around 130,000 elephants, […]

Nancy Sinatra, the first wife of the late, legendary singer and actor Frank Sinatra, died Friday at the age of 101, her daughter, also named Nancy Sinatra, said in an internet tweet. “My mother passed away peacefully tonight at the age of 101,” the younger Nancy Sinatra, 78, wrote on her official Twitter page. “She […]

LONDON – Tennis must see sense and bring in fifth-set tiebreaks to avoid the kind of marathon which saw Kevin Anderson outlast John Isner in a six hour, 36 minute Wimbledon semi-final on Friday, according to retired great Mats Wilander. South African Anderson eventually prevailed 26-24 in the fifth and deciding set of what became […]

JOHANNESBURG – Barclays Africa changed its name back to Absa on Wednesday, in a rebranding aimed at underlining its South African roots as Britain’s Barclays gradually retreats from the continent. The name change comes almost a year after Barclays sold most of its controlling stake in Absa, South Africa’s third-largest lender, ending more than a […]