SOUTH AFRICA

DRDGold , South Africa's fourth largest gold producer, said on Monday its headline earnings more than doubled as it lifted output during a period when the gold price steadily advanced.

Gold prices eased a touch in holiday-thinned trade on Monday as investors took bets on higher prices off the table, disappointed by a lack of clear guidance from the Federal Reserve on Friday on the options for U.S. economic stimulus.

China's fast-growing consumerism and lax policing of ivory laws are the latest threats to wild elephant populations, said an author of a recent report on endangered species.

A U.S. and European push to impose U.N. Security Council sanctions on Syria for its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators is meeting fierce resistance from Russia and China, U.N. diplomats said.

A photograph uploaded on Facebook of a white South African man posing like a hunter near an apparently lifeless body of a black child has created a furore as South African police try track him down.

A drive to benefit from record bullion prices lifted Australian gold production by 10 percent, or 24 metric tons, to 270 metric tons in the 2010/11 financial year, maintaining Australia's No. 2 ranking behind China, a sector survey released on Sunday showed.

South Africa's mines minister Susan Shabangu will in a few weeks time give her assessment of how much progress the industry has made in reaching the targets of a charter aimed at giving previously excluded blacks a higher share of ownership, her spokesperson said on Friday.

South Africa's rand advanced to a one-week high against the dollar, breaking through resistance at 7.15, supported by a rise in U.S. stocks.

Libyan rebels said they were sending in special forces units in their hunt for fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi, whose supporters are now pinned down in pockets of resistance in the capital, Tripoli.

Libyan rebels said Friday morning they were sending in special forces to hunt for Moammar Gadhafi, whose supporters are now pinned down in pockets of resistance inTripoli.

Libya's rebel council announced Friday morning it has moved from Benghazi to Tripoli even as the hunt for Moammar Gadhafi continues and his loyalists fight on in the capital and elsewhere.

Fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi taunted his Libyan enemies and their Western backers from his hiding place as NATO targeted his hometown and rebels announced a move to govern the country from Tripoli.

Gold Fields Ltd., a major gold mining company, warned Thursday that there were several Web sites that use Gold Fields branding and purport to be investment vehicles on behalf of the company.

Gadhafi is not welcome in most nations, nor in most parts of Libya, but the leader and King of Kings still has powerful friends that may be willing to accommodate Gadhafi for the rest of his life.

South Africa's Harmony Gold Mining Co , the world's fifth-largest gold producer, said on Wednesday output for its 2012 financial year should rise to between 1.45 million ounces and 1.55 million from around 1.3 million in 2011.

The U.S. ambassador made a surprise trip to a southern Syrian town Tuesday, his second visit to an area rocked by protests against President Bashar al-Assad and a move likely to antagonize the authorities in Damascus.

Four hundred people were killed and 2,000 injured in three days of fighting between the rebels and pro-Gadhafi forces in the capital, but the anti-government fighters tore through Moammar Gadhafi Bab al-Azizya compound in Tripoli with little resistance.

HP creates a TouchPad buying frenzy, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's whereabouts are still unknown, Hurricane Irene is headed to the United States, and more in today's Daily Scoop.

The Motown hitmaker and legendary songwriter Nick Ashford died on Monday at age 70, a friend and former publicist said.

Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown song production duo Ashford and Simpson, died on Monday, his former publicist told Associated Press.

Libyans around the world, in places such as Greece, Turkey and Sudan, celebrated the arrival of rebels in Tripoli over the weekend.