Johannesburg - Minutes after winning the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, Finnish ex-president Martti Ahtisaari's thoughts were with the south-west African desert state of Namibia, where he cut his teeth as a peace-broker in the 1970s.

The veteran mediator was a United Nations envoy to the country between 1977 and 1990 - during the struggle in then South West Africa's for independence from apartheid-era South Africa.

Cape Town - Reacting to the announcement that France's Jean- Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the Nobel prize for literature, renowned South African author Andre Brink told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Thursday he was glad, if unsurprised.

Johannesburg - Disaffected members of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) loyal to ousted former president Thabo Mbeki announced plans to form a splinter ANC faction that would challenge the party in upcoming general elections.

Addressing a press conference in Johannesburg, former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota, flanked by his former deputy Mluleki George and other ANC members, said the ANC, under Jacob Zuma's leadership, had become mired in tribalism and disregard for the rule of law.

Johannesburg - More than 20 people were feared to have died in when a bus crashed into a bridge in South Africa's north-eastern Mpumalanga province, police said Tuesday evening.

The accident took place near the border with Swaziland. The cause of the crash and the exact number of passengers and fatalities were still unknown as police had yet to reach the scene of the accident.

Johannesburg - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Tuesday condemned the brutal slaying of a Somali family in South Africa and urged the government to take measures to protect foreigners from xenophobic attacks.

Sahra Omar Farah, her two teenage sons, one of whom was deaf and her 12-year-old daughter were stabbed to death on Friday in a frenzied attack at a small store run by fellow Somalis in rural Eastern Cape province.

Johannesburg - Nine people, including four children, died when their light aircraft crashed in mountains in north-east South Africa, police said Monday.

The plane was travelling from Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, near the renowned Kruger National Park, towards the central city of Bloemfontein, when it disappeared Sunday in bad weather.

Rescue workers on Monday found the bodies of the pilot and two families, each with two children, in a mountainous area of Mpumalanga province, which borders Mozambique.