JOHANNESBURG – FIFA expresses its concern about the deadly attacks on foreigners in South Africa but says the violence will not have an effect on the 2010 World Cup. The attacks have raised concerns about the high crime rate in South Africa and the potential risk to foreigners who visit the country for the soccer tournament in 2010.

CAPE TOWN – Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad announces that he will not be available to serve in public office after the 2009 elections. Pahad is the latest government figure to announce his intentions after Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin publicised his resignation, also set to follow the 2009 elections. Pahad did not make it on to the African National Congress National Executive Committee at the party's elective conference last December.

SUN CITY – Following a meeting of Social Development MECs in the North West, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) will from this month, accept social grant applications from eligible applicants who are experiencing difficulty in obtaining official identity documents and birth certificates. As stipulated in the regulations of 2005, Sassa will accept sworn affidavits deposed before a commissioner of oaths testifying to, amongst other details, the names, age, parentage of the child and any other applicant. Although this policy shift was initially designed to accommodate applicants for the child support grant, the Department of Social Development has made a policy decision to extend its implementation to all grant types.

AFRICA

HARARE – Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will respect the will of voters if they end his 28-year rule in a run-off election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, reports the State-run Herald newspaper. Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the March 29 Presidential poll but failed to win an absolute majority. His Movement for Democractic Change, which has accused Mugabe's government of cheating in past elections, fears it will rig the results of the June 27 run-off.

INTERNATIONAL

BERN – Millions of people caught up in armed conflicts will be pinched hard by the global food crisis, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which vows to sustain aid to 52 countries. The Switzerland-based humanitarian agency says it is stepping up food distribution in Yemen and Somalia, where rising commodity prices and fighting are taking a heavy toll on destitute people. The ICRC spent 944-million Swiss francs last year for relief projects in hot spots including Iraq and Sudan where basic services such as healthcare have largely collapsed.

WASHINGTON – Republican Presidential candidate John McCain says that the US should stay the course in Iraq even though he is "sick at heart" at mistakes made in the conflict. The Presidential hopeful seeks to distance himself from President George W Bush and his handling of the unpopular Iraq war, now in its sixth year. McCain's two Democratic Party challengers repeated calls for a quick exit.

ROME – Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will soon meet with Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader who tried to block the appointment of a Minister over a T-shirt deemed offensive to Muslims. In May, Libya threatened to suspend cooperation on immigration after Berlusconi appointed Roberto Calderoli who, at the height of a 2006 row over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, sported a T-shirt showing an offending cartoon. Italy is Opec member Libya's main European trade partner and Italian oil company ENI holds stakes in pipeline, natural gas and oil projects in Libya. The country is also a major launching point for thousands of Africans who cross the Mediterranean every year to land on Italian shores as illegal immigrants.