Johannesburg - South Africa football fans are eagerly awaiting Saturday's draw for next year's Confederations Cup as they know that the draw will favour the hosts.

Bafana Bafana have been placed into Group A, but as one of four seeded teams, will face just one of either Italy or Spain and they can't be drawn into a group with Brazil.

South Africa's two other two opponents will be drawn from Iraq, New Zealand and the US.

The other group will see Egypt, Brazil and then either Italy or Spain and one of Iraq, New Zealand or the US competing in the June

New Delhi, Nov 19 : With the aim of enhancing co-operation between India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) in the field of small industries, the third tri-nation summit for small business development began here today.

Inaugurating the Summit the Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Shri Mahabir Prasad raised hope that the summit will help the small industries of IBSA countries to meet global challenges.

The Minister said that in order to achieve this objective, it is essential to have synergy between the complimentary strengths of MSMEs of these three countries. This synergy will not only improve the competitiveness of small enterprises but will also enable them to enhance their participation in global market.

Johannesburg- The number of South Africans who are confident about the country's ability to host the 2010 World Cup appears to be on the increase.

However, concerns on security and the class of the home team remained.

According to an opinion poll carried out by the African Response institute and released Tuesday, 69 per cent of 1,200 people questioned said they were confident that infrastructure for the football tournament would be finished on time.

Johannesburg - One of the leaders of South Africa's new political party on Tuesday ruled out joining forces with other opposition parties to give the ruling African National Congress (ANC) a real run for its money in next year's general election.

Mbhazima Shilowa, convener-in-chief of the Congress of the People (COPE), said the party formed by a group of senior former ANC members that were close to ousted ex-president Thabo Mbeki, was "going to the election alone to test our strength."

But COPE "will cooperate with all political parties" on an issue by issue basis, he said.

Johannesburg  - When South Africa was awarded the right to host the 2010 World Cup football officials in the country embarked on an ambitious plan.

Not only did they want to ensure that the World Cup itself would be a huge success, they also wanted to make sure that they would be able to field a strong team at the showpiece of international football.

To facilitate the latter, the South African Football Association (SAFA) spared neither effort nor money and in 2006 they proudly announced that Carlos Alberto Parreira had signed a contract to coach the team.

The arrival of the Brazilian World Cup-winning coach had South African football fans dreaming of World Cup glory.

Johannesburg - The advertisements began in local media at the weekend. "The Champions are coming," they say. Come watch Brazil for only 70 rand.

In seven months' time, some of the greatest footballing nations will descend on South Africa for the June 14-28 Confederations Cup, an eight-country tournament held every four years in the World Cup host nation a year before the world's most-watched sporting event.

The United States, Brazil, Spain, Iraq, Egypt and New Zealand - champions of their regions - and World Cup holders Italy and host nation South Africa will battle it out for the title of Champion of Champions in a tournament seen mainly as a dry run for 2010.