SOUTH AFRICA

JOHANNESBURG - Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula reveals that the South African government fears tourists could fall prey to armed robbers, many from neighbouring states, at the 2010 soccer World Cup. South Africa is concerned an influx of foreign criminals will exacerbate already high crime levels. Police say that many local crimes are committed by citizens of neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe and Mozambique who operate in South Africa where the pickings are richer.

JOHANNESBURG - South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa denies any interest in becoming the country's president after a report that he had entered the race. The report, in a Sunday newspaper, claimed that one of the ruling African National Congress' most powerful regions would nominate Ramaphosa for the presidency.

PRETORIA - South African President Thabo Mbeki expresses confidence that next year's general elections in troubled Zimbabwe will be free and fair, despite fears to the contrary. Mbeki says that he has received assurances by both Zimbabwe's leadership, civil society and nongovernmental organisations that they will be able to agree on procedures to ensure a fair poll.

CAPE TOWN - The leader of South Africa's main opposition party says floorcrossing will not change the balance of power in Cape Town, the only major city not controlled by the ruling African National Congress. At the outset of a two-week period allowing councillors and parliamentarians to switch parties without losing their seats, Helen Zille, who leads the Democratic Alliance (DA) and is mayor of Cape Town, says that the coalition is stable. The DA opposes floorcrossing, which it says favours the ANC and weakens democracy.

AFRICA

KHARTOUM - Sudan's president promises to let sick Darfur rebel chief Suleiman Jamous travel abroad for medical treatment. United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says that Jamous will be released from effective house arrest as soon as possible. The personal pledge by Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is the strongest sign yet that Jamous could soon be allowed to travel. The UN moved Jamous to a UN hospital near Darfur more than a year ago without informing Khartoum. Sudan has called him a criminal and has threatened to arrest him if he leaves UN care. The elderly Jamous is respected in Darfur and considered a consensus builder who could help peace efforts and unify fractured rebel groups.

WORLD

LONDON - The leaders of France and Britain revive the spectre of sanctions against Khartoum if progress is not made on a Darfur cease-fire and upcoming political talks. In a joint editorial, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, say that they will work to deploy by the end of the year a 26 000-strong UN-African Union (AU) force to replace a struggling AU mission which has failed to stem violence in western Sudan. Brown and Sarkozy also urge all rebel groups to attend renewed peace talks due to begin in October. The rebels fractured into more than a dozen factions following an imperfect May 2006 peace deal signed by one of three negotiating factions.

OSLO - Norway says it might cut about one- third of its direct state aid to Ethiopia following the expulsion of six Norwegian diplomats from Addis Ababa. The diplomats have been told by the Ethiopian authorities to leave by mid-September amid accusations that Norway is undermining Ethiopia's national security and spreading instability in the Horn of Africa. Reports in the Norwegian media suggest that Oslo's efforts to help cool tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a 1998/2000 border war that killed 70 000 people, is the cause of Ethiopia's expulsion of the diplomats.

VIENNA - Industrial nations shy away from fixing stiff 2020 guidelines for greenhouse gas cuts, in what environmentalists say will be a vote for "dangerous" climate change. A draft text at the UN talks drops mention of steep cuts in greenhouse gases of from 25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 as a non-binding "guide" for rich nations' work on a pact to fight global warming beyond 2012. The European Union and many developing nations such as China and India want industrial States to use the stringent 25% to 40% range to guide future talks to force a shift away from fossil fuels, but Russia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland object to setting so stringent a range. The talks are the first chance for Kyoto Protocol backers to see if they can agree a range for industrial nations' talks on a new climate pact that many governments want to agree in 2009.