South Africa has suspended almost all of its oil imports from Iran and intends to abide by a US request to significantly drop supplies from the state.

South Africa is pushing its campaign for Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to head the African Union, a key post to be decided next week.

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane's refusal to scan her bag at an airport costs taxpayers R235 000 plus.

President Kgalema Motlanthe has invited the Southern African Development Community to send a team to observe the country's upcoming elections.

The reason for the detention of two South Africans in Uganda will only be known after the SA high commissioner visits them.

A South African has been killed in unclear circumstances in Iraq, in a week of violent clashes which has claimed the lives of more than 100 people, the Foreign Affairs Department said Thursday. Spokesperson Manusha Pillai said the department had no details on the circumstances of the man's death.

According to the United States embassy, 14 Americans in the past 12 months have been robbed at gunpoint after landing at the OR Tambo international airport in Kempton Park, a media report said on Tuesday. The embassy said that gangs of robbers targeted people arriving at airport and robbed them either at their destinations or on the way to their destinations.

A Cape Town nurse who was detained in Saudi Arabia would soon be brought back to South Africa, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. Dannelene Noach (54) reportedly went missing in November last year from a hospital in Riyadh.

South Africa was not swayed by any major power to vote in favour of a new United Nations Security Council resolution imposing further sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. The resolution was approved on Monday by a vote of 14-0, with Indonesia abstaining.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy will be accompanied by 40 key French business chief executives during his visit to South Africa, director general in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Gert Grobler, said on Tuesday. Sarkozy will arrive in Cape Town on Thursday where he will meet President Thabo Mbeki to discuss political, economic and business ties.