South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pleaded with Group of 20 (G20) leaders to ensure an inclusive global economic recovery when speaking at the virtual G20 Leaders' Summit on Saturday.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic hit Africa hard. "Economic activity on the continent is expected to contract by 3.2 percent in 2020, with the region falling into a recession for the first time in 25 years."

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 10 (NNN-Xinhua) — South Africa launched the country’s third COVID-19 vaccine trial, which tests whether an experimental vaccine can protect people from contracting the novel coronavirus or developing serious symptoms.

Phase 3 ENSEMBLE trial with Janssen Pharmaceutica, owned by American multinational corporation Johnson & Johnson, is expected to enrol 60,000 adult volunteers.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African pharmaceutical firm Aspen Pharmacare has announced a deal with U.S. firm Johnson & Johnson to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, if it is approved in South Africa and internationally.

In a statement issued on Monday, Aspen said that if ongoing trials bring international health authorities to endorse the J&J vaccine as effective and safe, it would be produced at Aspen’s manufacturing facility in Port Elizabeth in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor said her counterparts from Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan are scheduled to meet again in seven days over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue.

This comes after Tuesday's video conference discussion Pandor had with Foreign Affairs and Water and Irrigation ministers of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — President Donald Trump has tested positive for the coronavirus, joining a small group of world leaders who have been infected. Trump is 74, putting him at higher risk of serious complications. Here’s a look at other leaders who have been infected.

BORIS JOHNSON

JOHANNESBURG, Sep.28 (Xinhua) -- Former South African President Jacob Zuma's legal team on Monday wrote to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, demanding he recuse himself as the chair of the state capture commission because of his bias against Zuma.

"For the reasons to be fully set out in the application to be made, we are instructed to seek your recusal as Chairperson of the commission on the ground that our client (Zuma) reasonably apprehended that you have already adopted a biased disposition against him," the letter from Zuma's legal representative Eric Mabuza said.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — In a year of cataclysm, some world leaders at this week’s annual United Nations meeting are taking the long view, warning: If COVID-19 doesn’t kill us, climate change will.

With Siberia seeing its warmest temperature on record this year and enormous chunks of ice caps in Greenland and Canada sliding into the sea, countries are acutely aware there’s no vaccine for global warming.

CAPE TOWN, Sept 23 (NNN-BUANEWS) – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), called on governments, parents, and teachers across Eastern and Southern Africa, to urgently and safely re-open schools, as the costs of continued school closures escalate across the region.

Across this region of the nearly 65 million children remaining out of school, around one in two are not reached by any form of learning, while millions continue to miss what was their one nutritious meal of the day, according to UNICEF.

15 Sep 2020; MEMO: Authorities in South Africa were unaware that Iran was plotting to assassinate US Ambassador to the country, Lana Marks.

According to Bloomberg, a spokesman for the South African Foreign Ministry described the American reports on the case as “surprising”. The official said: “We knew about this report only this morning.”

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The legal team for “Hotel Rwanda” hero Paul Rusesabagina has filed a complaint with the United Nations special rapporteur on torture asserting that Rusesabagina faces an “immediate risk” of cruel treatment as he remains cut off from lawyers, consular officials and his family more than a week after he appeared in handcuffs in Rwanda.

The complaint filed Monday with Nils Melzer asks for an immediate investigation to make sure Rusesabagina, long an outspoken critic of Rwanda’s government, “is still alive.”