South Africa

Turkey's stock exchange Borsa Istanbul said yesterday it plans to go public, in Ankara's latest move to bolster its $220 billion equity market that has punched below its weight for years.

Borsa Istanbul, the country's only stock exchange, plans to list up to 43 percent of its capital through the sale of most of the shares now held by the national Treasury.

Namibia's outgoing president, Hifikepunye Pohamba, has won the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's $5 million African leadership prize, an award meant to recognise good governance that has been presented only three times in eight years.
   

ACAPULCO - Serbia's Viktor Troicki reached the quarterfinals of an ATP tournament in Acapulco by beating Columbia's Santiago Hiraldo 6-3 6-4 on Thursday.

His next opponent will be Kevin Anderson from South Africa, who beat Steve Johnson from the US 3-6 7-5 6-3.

The prize fund for the tournament is USD 1.4 million.

Photo Tanjug, M. Jelesijevic (archive)

A Spanish sailor was killed on Thursday and three more seamen were injured in an explosion on a tanker anchored in the port of Drepano, in the prefecture of Achaia.

Of the three sailors who were hurt, one remained in critical condition at a nearby hospital last night while the injuries sustained by the other two were said not to be life-threatening.

KAZAN - Serbia's water polo team will compete in Group D with Montenegro, Australia and Japan at the World Championship this year, the draw decided on Thursday.

The remaining groups will gather:

Group A: Croatia, Brazil, Canada and China,

Group B: Greece, the U.S., Italy and Russia,

Group C: South Africa, Hungary, Argentina and Kazakhstan.

Stephane Layani, CEO of Semmaris, a business group that controls Rungis, a leading fresh produce wholesaler in the world, told AGERPRES in a recent interview that Romanians and French people are united by the fact that they know how to bring the pleasures of life around the table.

Photo credit: (c) stephanelayani.fr

BELGRADE/ADDIS ABABA - Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic had several bilateral meetings on the second day of the African Union Executive Council's session in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, including a meeting with Navtej Singh Sarna, Secretary (West) in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said in a release.

More than 100 artists will take part in a global "Live Earth" concert on June 18 to galvanise demands for climate action, former US vice president Al Gore said Jan. 21.
      
"We are going to have one event all over the world on all seven continents," he announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
      

Thandi the rhinoceros was left for dead by poachers nearly three years ago, meant to be among the 600 rhino killed in South Africa in 2012. She beat the odds, and after a slow recovery, has given birth to a healthy calf, game reserve managers announced Jan. 14.

Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd said Jan. 9 it has been chasing a "poaching" ship for three weeks amid heavy ice flows in an attempt to stop the crew from illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean.