South Africa

Robben Island - Soccer fans can expect the best of their teams' performance as the FIFA Executive Committee has increased the prize money by 60 percent for the best four teams.

Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma met with local musicians and artists on Tuesday to report back on how government was addressing the challenges they had raised in an earlier meeting.

Pretoria -Cape Town is a hive of excitement this morning ahead of this evening's anticipated 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Draw.

Pretoria - One person was found dead in a wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Hartebeespoort Dam area on Wednesday morning.

Pretoria - Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti says the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Bill seeks to transform land administration, with clear proposals to achieve equity, integration and sustainability in spatial planning.

Bushbuckridge - Matriculants from Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga are encouraged to apply for bursaries from the national Department of Public Works for the 2010 academic year.

Pretoria-The UN-backed high-level conference aimed at boosting South-South Cooperation ended in Nairobi, Kenya, with senior officials calling for the developing and expansion of the initiative.

Johannesburg - The Johannesburg Roads Agency says that the roads in and around the city will be of a world class standard ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Pretoria - Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica has condemned the recently uncovered illegal dumping of medical waste in Welkom, Free State.

Pretoria - Transnet acting chairman Geoff Everingham has labeled as misleading a media report which alleges the transport parastatal is in a R5.4 billion cover-up.

Pretoria - The Reserve Bank's new governor, Gill Marcus, has delivered her first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision on the repo rate, putting her unique stamp on the regular briefing.

Pretoria - Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin has welcomed yet another fraudulent driving licence syndicate bust, which brings the number of fraudulent licence breakthroughs to three in the past week alone.

Cape Town - Tension is building up in Cape Town, not just about the 2010 World Cup final draw - but due to bomb scares.

Pretoria - South African courts will extend operation hours during the FIFA World Cup to avoid possible backlogs, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said on Wednesday.

Cape Town - With just two hours to go before the much-anticipated 2010 Final Draw, FIFA and Adidas have unveiled the official match ball which will be used during the 2010 World Cup.