AT HOME
The ANC suspends Jacob Zuma from taking part in party activities without specific permission.
The Reserve Bank leaves its key repo rate at 7% after the last meeting this year of its monetary policy committee.
Cabinet gives Gautrain a green light after considering a detailed presentation.
Six motor manufacturers and assemblers and their dealers are fined R31,65m and agree not to fix prices.
A department of transport spokesman says 91 000 drivers of public passenger vehicles and trucks, and 50% of all drivers, don't have valid drivers' licences.
The state drops corruption charges against Gopalang Makokwe and Tiego Moseneke over alleged bribery in their capacities as directors of New Diamond Corp, but they still face other charges.
Julie Krause (27) of Centurion will be first SA woman in space after winning a First National Bank eBucks competition - but probably not till 2008.
Zim confiscates the passports of Mail & Guardian CEO Trevor Ncube, who also has publishing interests there, and opposition politician Paul Nyathi, two of 64 people whose passports are to be seized under new legislation.
ABROAD
Two senior politicians decline posts in Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki's new cabinet.
Gold trades above US$540/oz for the first time since March 1981 in Asia on December 8.
Ex-stockbroker David Cameron (39) is elected leader of the UK opposition Tory party - the fifth since Tony Blair became PM in 1997.
A Lagos court halts the US$1,3bn Nitel privatisation pending a suit objecting to the proposed disposal of its stake in the SAT-3 underwater cable.
Boston Scientific offers US$25bn in stock and cash for Guidant, in an attempt to trump Johnson & Johnson's $22bn bid.
US pharma firm Eli Lilly plans to spend about US$2,5bn in a share buyback.
UK telecom company BT signs up the BBC, Warner Music and Paramount film studio to spearhead its entry into the TV market next year.
New York stock exchange members overwhelmingly vote in favour of purchase of electronic trader Archipelago and its conversion into a public company with a notional initial market cap of US$9,6bn.
The London stock exchange rejects as "derisory" a £1,5bn takeover proposal from Australia's Macquarie Bank.
The Pulitzer prize, top award in US journalism, is to change its rules to include material published on the Internet.
DEATHS
Veteran Jo'burg journo Mervyn Harris (67).
Polish-born Jerzy Pajaczkowski-Dydynski (111), who fought in both world wars and was thought to be oldest living Brit; Frits Philips (100), son of the founder and oldest surviving member of the family that founded the Dutch electrical concern, and its CEO 1961-1971; Dick Ashworth (94), weaponeer in charge of the atomic bomb Fat Man, dropped on Nagasaki on August 9 1945, who retired in 1968 as a US Navy vice-admiral; US Democrat ex-senator Eugene McCarthy (89), whose 1968 anti-Vietnam war presidential campaign helped drive Lyndon Johnson from office; Ed Masry (73), US lawyer made famous in Julia Roberts' film Erin Brockovich , in which he was played by Albert Finney; US comedian Richard Pryor (65).
An explosion at a coal mine in northern China kills 108. At least 107 die when a DC9 crashes as it comes in to land at Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria. At least 106 die when an Iranian military C-130 Hercules plane, which the pilot had apparently warned was faulty, carrying 94 people, explodes and crashes into a Tehran apartment block. At least 38 die when exploding fireworks set a bus on fire near the Pakistan city Lahore. At least 36 die when two women suicide bombers strike a Baghdad police academy.
SPORT
In only his second event since returning from injury, Ernie Els wins the Dunhill championship at Malelane.
Zim cricket chairman Peter Chingoka and MD Ozias Bvute are held and quizzed over forex and fraud allegations but released without being charged. National team manager Mohammed Meman (Z$1m) and players Vusi Sibanda (Z$800 000) and Waddington Mwayenga (Z$400 000) are fined for forex offences.
India's Sachin Tendulkar scores his 35th test century in the second test vs Sri Lanka, topping Sunil Gavaskar's old world test record of 34.
"Maternity leave? Whatever for?"
Manchester United, who recently lost captain Roy Keane and major sponsor Vodafone, fail to qualify for any European competition for the first time in a decade.
The Williams formula one team quit a possible manufacturers' breakaway and sign to extend their agreement with the existing championship managed by Bernie Ecclestone.
David Beckham is the richest UK soccer player, worth £75m, followed by Dennis Bergkamp (£37m) and Michael Owen (£30m), according to a survey by FourFourTwo magazine.
