South Africa

The onset of spring has seen a rally in emerging economies like Turkey, but the country's political risks are likely to rule out further growthThe European Central Bank's negative step on interest rates, as well as the U.S. Fed's postponement of its rate operation, look as if they have created a doping effect on "emerging economies," which also includes Turkey.

Emerging equities scored their biggest gains in seven weeks and currencies rallied on March 17 after a dovish U.S. Federal Reserve message, with even South African markets shrugging off local political tensions.

Year-end growth estimations for Turkey have been upgraded to 3.5 percent from 3 percent in December last year due to a better-than-expected economic performance, according to a chief economist at Fitch ratings agency.        

 The Bulgarian men's national football team climbed five positions in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking released on Thursday.

At present, Bulgaria occupies the 70th place jointly with the team of South Africa, with both teams having 500 points.

Turkish airport operator TAV aims to add one or two airports to its portfolio and boost revenue from its service businesses to compensate for the looming expiry of its contract to run Istanbul's Atatürk Airport, Chief Executive Sani ?ener said on Feb. 14.

In a spectacular valley less than two hours' drive north of Cape Town, a small herd of animals provides the chance to travel back in time over more than a century.
 
The animals roaming over a wide plain encased by jagged mountain ranges look like quaggas, a subspecies of the plains zebra -- but quaggas are extinct.
 

B92 on Tuesday received confirmation that Miroslav Miskovic's Delta Holding had sold its Delta City shopping centers in Belgrade and Podgorica.

South Africa-based investment fund Hyprop Investment announced that it had acquired the shopping centers for a total of EUR 202.75 million.

The Bulgarian men's national football team dropped three positions in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World ranking released on Thursday.

At present, Bulgaria occupies 75th position with 494 points, being between the teams of South Africa and Zambia.

There is no change to the first eighteen positions in the ranking as only 43 matches have been played since the start of the year.

Girls who cannot afford to attend the University of Pretoria are being offered academic scholarships, but there’s a catch – they need to remain celibate throughout their studies. Known as the “Maiden’s Bursary Award”, recipients need to undergo virginity testing at every vacation. Female elders also conduct manual hymen inspections on grass mats.

Bank Pasargad, Iran's second-largest listed bank, is looking to raise capital and expand overseas now that the country is free of the shackles of sanctions, a senior official told Reuters.