SOUTH AFRICA

A group of trekkers from South Africa reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro on Saturday ... barefoot.

Russian firms produced 209.0 tonnes of gold in 2011, 3.6 percent more than in 2010, but below an earlier forecast, data published on Wednesday by the Gold Industrialists' Union industry lobby showed.

Four South African men were sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder of a lesbian woman in Cape Town.

A leading indicator of the state of global industry -- whose biggest dips in the past have come just before the world economy fell into recession -- is dropping like a lead anchor. Some savvy market forecasters are saying this should be sounding alarm bells. But what do the experts who actually work in shipping have to say?

Chardonnay, the world's most popular white wine, dates back centuries, but it owes much of its history in the United States to a winemaker who planted the grape in California 100 years ago.

Harmony Gold plans on selling South Africa-based Evander Gold Mines for $219 million (1.7 billion rand) to Pan African Resources and Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources

Gold eased on Monday, under pressure from a weaker euro, but was off session lows and still within sight of last week's seven-week highs, supported by evidence of improved investor demand.

Two miners died at South Africa's Modikwa Platinum underground mine after a cave-in, bringing the number of workers killed at mines in the country this year to more than 10, the National Union of Mineworkers said Saturday.

The world of international finance is largely incomprehensible, even to its practitioners. Consequently, a whole industry, of which I am personally part, has sprung up to explain finance to the public. This makes the public think that understanding finance is something that is possible.

First Uranium's third-quarter gold sales dropped 5 percent and uranium production fell 14 percent from the prior quarter due to accidents at its Ezulwini mine in South Africa, and the miner cut its full-year gold production forecast.

The epic global shifts of 2011 transformed the political, economic, and social landscape from Shanghai to Sao Paolo, Washington to Cairo. No leader is safe from the vagaries of social unrest; no economy (not even China's) is unaffected by contagion from an over-leveraged, under-managed euro zone. No country is immune from the threat of asymmetric attacks - anything from a terrorist bomb to cybe...

Gold fell on Tuesday as a lower euro, due to an impasse to restructure Greek debt, and weakness in crude oil and equities prompted investors to take profits.

Europe's debt crisis could tip the world economy into recession and a bigger firewall is urgently needed to keep the damage from spreading, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

The euro zone debt crisis is escalating and dragging down the world economy, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, as it sharply cut its outlook for global growth and called for policies to restore confidence.

The euro zone debt crisis is escalating and could derail the global economic recovery, the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday as it called for urgent action to restore confidence.

About one in five workers around the globe, particularly employees in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, telecommute frequently and nearly 10 percent work from home every day, according to a new Ipsos/Reuters poll.

With a taste for Jimmy Choo shoes and Hermes handbags, Choice Okoro's idea of shopping is a world away from her mother's.

Mali is seeking to raise the state share in mining projects to 25 percent from 20 percent in a proposed revision to the West African gold producer's mining law, a senior official at the state regulator told Reuters on Monday.

Beautiful Brittany Kerr, who is a dancer for the Charlotte Bobcats, had no idea what a frenzy her American Idol audition would cause. Kerr, a stunning NBA dancer and singing hopeful who resembles former Idol contestant Carrie Underwood, caused quite the stir after her American Idol audition aired last week on FOX. A massive traffic influx of thousands of fans searching for her photos crashed Kerr's manager's Web site.

General Motors has once again grabbed the largest share of global sales and become the world's largest automaker, moving past sales of Toyota and Volkswagen in 2011.

Global brewer SABMiller reported a 3 percent rise in beer volumes in the last three months of 2011, as growth in African and Latin American markets helped offset falls in North America and Europe.