South Africa

A potential increase in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve (Fed) after this week's FOMC meeting would confirm that the U.S. economic expansion remains on track, but higher rates could bring risks to some emerging market sovereigns, said Moody's Investors Service in a note on Dec. 14

Oscar Pistorius was convicted of murder on Dec. 3 by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal, which threw out his earlier conviction on a lesser charge for shooting dead his girlfriend in 2013.

The richest tenth of the world's people produce half of all carbon emissions, while the poorest half - most threatened by droughts and super storms linked to climate change - produce only one tenth, Oxfam said on Dec. 2. 

The number of patients infected with the HIV virus has increased in Turkey over the past year, according to Hayati Demiraslan, an academic at the Medical Faculty of Erciyes University in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri.

The number of patients infected with HIV increased from 1,400 in 2013 to 1,967 in 2014, Demiraslan said during an address to students. 

Russia plans to strengthen the control of food imports from Turkey by performing additional border and production checks.

The Russian government authorised the federal agricultural supervision agency, Rosselkhoznadzor, to strengthen control over agricultural products and food imports from Turkey and organise additional checks at borders and production plants in Turkey.

Russia will strengthen control over food supplies from Turkey and will perform additional border and production checks, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture said on Nov. 26, as reported by Russian TASS news agency.

The long-waited rate hike decision by the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) will most probably be made by the next month. The global markets have definitely prepared themselves adequately for the hike. They have prepared so much that many emerging currencies, including the Turkish Lira, has started to gain value against the U.S.

Turkey's most important tourism destination, Antalya, will host the fifth International Resort Tourism Congress next weekend on the heels of last week's G-20 Summit. 

The economic and political changes occur in Greece make the country a great bargain for travelers, as eturbonews website reports.

A 1,111 carat "high quality diamond" has been discovered at a mine in Botswana, said to be the biggest find in more than a century, according to the mine company.
 
The gem, only second in size to the Cullinan diamond which was unearthered in South Africa in 1905, was mined by Lucara Diamond Corp.