Luanda/Johannesburg, Jan 11 : Two people have been arrested in connection with the gun attack on the bus carrying the Togo football team in Angola that left three people dead, Angolan state media reported Monday.

The Angop news agency said the two suspects were arrested in the province of Cabinda where the machine-gun attack took place Friday, two days before the Africa Cup of Nations.

The separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened further attacks during the football tournament, which runs until the end of the month.

Togo's national football team flew home Sunday from Angola after pulling out of the tournament.

Johannesburg, Dec 30 : A South African community living alongside a deadly road aims to end the carnage by performing a ceremony to appease their ancestors, including spilling the blood of animals on the tarmac, a local newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Moloto Road, which runs from Pretoria into neighbouring Mpumalanga province, has witnessed several horrific smashes in recent months.

Johannesburg, Dec 12 :Miss India Pooja Chopra was eliminated from the Miss World pageant here Saturday, failing to make it to the final round of seven competitors.

Chopra had earlier made it to the semifinals on the strength of her "Beauty With Purpose" project on saving the girl child.

There were 16 competitors in the semifinal round. (IANS)

After a gap of nine years, former Miss World Priyanka Chopra is ready to take part in the Miss World contest again, but as a judge.

Bollywood hottie will be seen judging the finalists during the last round of '2009 Miss World contest', which is being held on December 12 in Johannesburg.

On this, an elated Chopra said, "When Julia Morley, who is in charge of the beauty pageant, invited me to be a judge, I was ecstatic. There I was a teenager all those years ago, nervous as a help on the same platform. Now I'm going in a totally different capacity."

Johannesburg, Nov 28 : History is supposed to be the study of facts, but as in so many things in South Africa, even the history of international football in the country is not as straightforward as it should be.

A number of questions immediately arise when looking at the history of South Africa in international football.

Johannesburg, Nov 27 (IANS) The 2010 FIFA World Cup is expected to inject 55 billion rands ($7.46 billion) into the South African economy, according to the Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Rejoice Mabudafhasi.

Auditing firm Grant Thorn conducted the economic impact assessment for South Africa hosting the World Cup and found that not only would the event inject this much money into the local economy, but also create an estimated 415,000 new jobs, a Bua News report quoted the minister as saying.

Johannesburg - Oscar-winning US actor Jennifer Hudson said she was honoured to be chosen to play Winnie Mandela in a film about the controversial ex-wife of South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela.

The biopic entitled Winnie will be shot on location in South Africa next year by local director Darrell Roodt.

"I was compelled and moved when I read the script," Hudson said in a statement issued Friday by Ma-Afrika Films, co-producers of the film with Canada's Equinoxe Films.

Johannesburg, Nov. 20 : In an indirect rejoinder to South African cricket team coach Mickey Arthur, England captain Andrew Strauss has said that his team is in South Africa to make runs and win matches, and not to make friends.

Johannesburg, Nov 19 : South Africa coach Mickey Arthur has said his team had started the series against England in a friendly manner, but it is time to raise the voltage.

Arthur also defended his stance on the basis that his side needed to ensure that they had a competitive edge going into the series.

Johannesburg - In scenes reminiscent of last year's deadly campaign of xenophobic violence, residents of a South African informal settlement this week attacked migrants living in their midst, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

Around 3,000 mostly Zimbabwean migrants were sheltering Wednesday in a municipal building in the small town of De Doorns, 150 kilometres from Cape Town, after being attacked by mobs who accused them of taking their jobs.

Johannesburg - In scenes reminiscent of last year's deadly campaign of xenophobic violence, residents of a South African informal settlement this week attacked migrants living in their midst, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

Around 3,000 mostly Zimbabwean migrants were sheltering Wednesday in a municipal building in the small town of De Doorns, 150 kilometres from Cape Town, after being attacked by mobs who accused them of taking their jobs.

Johannesburg  - The reggae singer, whose tuneless rendition of South Africa's national anthem before a clash with France in Toulouse last week has been blamed by one Springbok as contributing to their defeat, on Monday blamed "sabotage."

Ras Dumisani's howling performance of the usually stately Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika (God bless Africa) before test game, which France won 20-13, had some of the Springbok players battling to hold back laughter.

Johannesburg, Nov 13 : England spinner Graeme Swann has said the series against South Africa is going to be tough, but his team has the potential to beat the world''s top-ranked Test team.

“We want to knock them off their perch. We know we can beat anybody on our day, but we need consistency. We were superb in our first two practice matches, but then had a nightmare against South Africa A on Tuesday,” The Sun quoted Swann, as saying.

Johannesburg, Nov 13 : South African skipper Graeme Smith has said that he is amazed by England''s Test and 50-over captain Andrew Strauss not being part of the national Twenty20 squad.

Strauss has opted out of T20 cricket to ensure that he remains fresh for the other formats. England will be reluctant to pick him for the opening international against South Africa on Friday.

Johannesburg, Nov. 12 : England’s best batsman Kevin Pietersen has suggested that his recovery from Achilles surgery that forced him out of this summer''s Ashes series was mismanaged by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Asked if he felt he had been pushed too hard in the initial rehabilitation, he said: "Yes, there were bits and pieces of that, but it is a long time ago and I want to concentrate on the cricket."

Johannesburg, Nov 12 : South African President Jacob Zuma has been awarded the title of 'Best African President' for his role in the country's struggle for liberation and his contributions for the continent at large, a media report said.

Zuma was felicitated Tuesday evening at the Africa Consciousness Media Leadership Awards organised to honour African individuals who have contributed towards the liberation and development of the continent.

Johannesburg - South African palaeontologists on Wednesday announced the discovery of a new species of "transition" dinosaur that straddles the divide between the four-legged giant plant-eating sauropods and their bipedal carnivorous predecessors.

The Aardonyx Celestae, as the new dinosaur has been named, was discovered on a farm in central Free State province in the Karoo Basin, an area rich in fossils.

"What we have here in Aardonyx is an intermediary dinosaur. It's not entirely a prosauropod and it's not a sauropod," palaeontologist Adam Yates said, unveiling the fossil remains at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Johannesburg - South Africa's first female central bank governor, Gill Marcus, began work Monday.

Marcus, 60, is a former deputy governor of the bank and former deputy finance minister as well as ex-chairwoman of Absa, South Africa's biggest retail bank.

She replaces Tito Mboweni, the country's first black Reserve Bank governor, whose prudent monetary policies over the past decade are credited with having helped stabilize the economy and attract and retain foreign investment during the first years of democracy.

Johannesburg  - The coach of dispirited World Cup hosts South Africa said on Friday he believed Bafana Bafana could clinch a spot in the quarter-finals.

Carlos Alberto Parreira was speaking a day after he arrived back in South Africa on his second stint as national football coach.

"I would not have accepted this position if I did not think Bafana had the ability to get past the knockout stages," Parreira told a press conference, adding: "A quarter-final place is achievable."

Johannesburg  - A South African man is serving an 18-month jail term for running a red light, a sentence a judge in his case admitted was "harsh."

The machine operator from KwaZulu-Natal province was convicted of reckless and negligent driving after he used a turning lane to overtake a queue of cars and then jumped the light, Johannesburg-based The Star daily newspaper reported.

When traffic officers at the scene stopped the father of four and said they wanted to arrest him, the driver told them to fine him instead and sped off.