Johannesburg

Young South African angler loses daring duel with 2-metre shark

South Africa FlagJohannesburg - A 15-year-old angler in South Africa's Western Cape province wrestled with a 2-metre-long ragged-tooth shark for over an hour after inadvertently reeling in the big fish that then swung around and bit him, leaving him in need of 47 stitches.

In a tale reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, in which an elderly Cuban fisherman struggles with a giant marlin, the teenager caught a shark while fishing in Plettenberg Bay on the very south-western tip of South Africa late Wednesday night.

Santa Claus roars into Johannesburg on motorcycle

Santa Claus roars into Johannesburg on motorcycleJohannesburg  - Santa Claus has arrived to open the Christmas season in Johannesburg, but on a Harley Davidson motorcycle rather than in a reindeer-driven sleigh.

An estimated 38,000 people on more than 23,000 motorcycles took part in South Africa's 26th annual Toy Run from Pretoria to Johannesburg on the first Sunday of Advent.

2010 World Cup organizers: "Plan B is dead"

Johannesburg - The critics have been silenced, organizers of the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa said on Wednesday.

"Plan B is dead," Danny Jordaan, head of the World Cup local organizing committee told reporters in Johannesburg in a year-end review of preparations for the tournament.

Jordaan was referring to speculation earlier this year that the world football body FIFA could yank the World Cup from South Africa if the country was deemed ill-prepared to become the first African host of the tournament.

FIFA president Joseph Blatter's admission in June that FIFA did have a Plan B when it came to the host nation - in the event of a major upset - was grist for the rumour mill.

South Africa plans special visa for World Cup

South Africa 2010 World Cup LogoJohannesburg - Visitors needing visas to visit South Africa for the 2010 World Cup will be issued with a special event visa, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday.

"This will be the first time that such a visa will be used by a country hosting a major world event," he said.

The event visa will apply mainly to African visitors from non-Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries who would normally require visas to enter South Africa.

It will also be issued for the Confederations Cup next year.

UN officials arrive to help fight cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe

Robert MugabeHarare/Johannesburg - A group of senior United Nations officials has arrived in Zimbabwe to lead efforts to combat a devastating cholera epidemic, answering an appeal by President Robert Mugabe's government last week for help.

At least 575 people have died and over 12,000 people been infected in a cholera outbreak that began in sewage-drenched poor urban townships in August.

Because those figures do not include people who died at home, the real toll is thought to be much higher.

The state-controlled daily Herald newspaper said Tuesday that five World Health Organization (WHO) experts arrived from Geneva on Monday.

South Africa not to tighten border controls, minister says

Johannesburg  - South African Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said Tuesday that the country is not going to tighten border controls despite many illegal immigrants entering the country.

"Economic migrants will always find a way of moving into areas where they shouldn't be," she told reporters in Johannesburg, according to the South African press agency Sapa.

"You are not going to be able to prevent that," she said, adding that the worst thing South Africa could do was "to go back to the past where we had electric fences meant to restrict people."

Tighter border controls would "actually encourage illegal migration."

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