South Africa

The Presidential Tour of Turkey (TUR) enters its second half-century this year, and an international peloton of the highest order will join the opening celebrations at the seaside resort of Alanya, on the Mediterranean coast, where the first of the eight stages begins on April 26.

A phone app tracing the footsteps of Nelson Mandela was launched Wednesday in South Africa to encourage tourists to explore his life story, 25 years after his release from prison.
      

An association that promotes reading among children became on Tuesday the first African group to win the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world's largest prize for children's and young people's literature.        

International Credit Rating Agency Fitch did not change Turkey?s outlook in its recent evaluation of the country, which resulted in comforting the markets slightly. Many people were not expecting Fitch to lower the ratings with elections approaching, but looking at the positive reaction of the markets, we concluded that ?it means some uneasiness did exist.?

The stronger U.S. dollar has stemmed external pressures in some countries from signs of weaker currencies and falling foreign exchange reserves.

In a report published on March 23, Moody?s Investor Service said external pressures in some countries are translating to capital outflows or significantly lower inflows as the U.S. dollar hurts countries with large external funding needs.

Now that the lira and other emerging market (EM) currencies have somewhat stabilized, at least for the moment, it may be useful to try to understand why some underperformed, while others overperformed, peers.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders has drawn criticism from minority groups for blackening his face during a charity rally in Brussels in which participants dress up in what they say are the clothes of 19th century African noblemen.
   

An expected rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank is creating an uncertain environment for foreign capital flows to Turkey that could ultimately hurt the housing industry, but domestic and overseas demand is rebounding, according to a Standard and Poor's (S&P) report.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed on Tuesday the Bulgarian Petko Draganov as his Special Representative and Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Draganov succeeds the Slovak Miroslav Jenca, who was recently appointed as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, the site of UNRCCA informs.

INDIAN WELLS - World number one Novak Djokovic is through to the 4th round of the ATP Masters tournament in Indian Wells, California, after beating Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-5 6-3 in Tuesday.

His next opponent will be John Isner from the US, who defeated Kevin Anderson of South Africa 7(8)-6 6-2.

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill