Locals run as an unusual snowfall hits some parts of Johannesburg, August 7, 2012.

JOHANNESBURG | Wed Aug 8, 2012 12:18pm EDT

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African couple married this week after a bout of unusually cold weather allowed them to fulfill a light-hearted promise to tie the knot the next time Johannesburg was covered in snow.

Portuguese emigre Rui Moca and Monique Joubert had planned to wed next year, but when South Africa's biggest city was shrouded in a rare blanket of snow on Tuesday, Joubert's sister called Jacaranda FM to tell them about the couple's dream of a "real" white wedding.

The radio station leapt into action, organizing a minister, lawyer, photographer, flowers, cake and limousine, and the couple were married on air in the studio in the early evening - with Moca's family listening in from Europe over the Internet.

"The entire wedding with all the bells and whistles was organized in just three hours," Jacaranda DJ Martin Bester said.

The snowfall was the first in Johannesburg in five years and the heaviest since 1981. Newspapers ran front-page photographs of snow-clad palm trees and a lion sitting disconsolately in its enclosure at Johannesburg zoo with snow gathering in its mane.

The cold snap also disrupted travel in Africa's biggest economy, with drifting snow and sub-zero temperatures shutting the motorway between the main port of Durban and the economic hub of Johannesburg for at least 24 hours.

(Reporting by Ed Cropley; Editing by Roger Atwood)

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1 of 4. Men chat as they drink beer at a sheeben (bar) in Soweto, southwest of Johannesburg August 8, 2012.

WORCESTER, South Africa | Wed Aug 8, 2012 10:08am EDT

WORCESTER, South Africa (Reuters) - On a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon in Worcester, a forlorn rural community near South Africa's southern tip, the queue at the liquor store is the longest in town.

It's a scene constantly repeated across South Africa and a number of other nations on the continent: the prelude to a weekend of binge drinking.

After years of turning a blind eye to alcohol abuse, politicians from South Africa to Kenya and Zambia are under pressure to tackle a problem that is adding to Africa's burden of HIV, birth defects, road accidents and violent crime.

Africa has the world's highest proportion of binge drinkers, even though its large populations of Muslims and evangelical Christians generally abstain from alcohol. As incomes rise, it has become a boom market for international brewers and distillers whose sales are often flagging in the wealthy world.

"It's true that most people in Africa don't drink for cultural, religious and economic reasons but those who drink, drink a lot," said Dr Vladimir Poznyak of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.

If governments finally crack down effectively, companies such as SABMiller, Diageo Plc and Heineken NV may find Africa no longer allows the spectacular sales growth they have achieved there in recent years.

The drinks firms say Africans are better off consuming their products than popular but sometimes lethal home concoctions.

However, the effects in Worcester of drinkers rapidly consuming dangerous - sometimes even fatal - quantities of alcohol are obvious. The liquor store queue snakes past a drunken man crumpled on the ground in a pool of vomit and in the evening drinkers cram into Worcester's numerous run-down bars.

"They drink and drink and drink. They don't stop when it is necessary to stop drinking liquor," said Berita Jones, a police captain in the town of about 130,000.

"Worcester's crime is almost entirely alcohol-related," said Jones, whose time is spent checking that its 166 licensed bars outlets comply with the law, and making regular raids of its more than 300 shebeens, or informal taverns.

UNQUENCHABLE THIRST

Home to some of the world's fastest growing economies, Africa's thirst for beer and spirits is almost unquenchable: analysts estimate beer volumes rose around 7 percent last year. Excluding the mature South African market, growth reached more than 10 percent.

Drinks companies want to keep up the momentum. SABMiller is investing up to $2.5 billion over the next five years to build and renovate breweries on the continent. Rival Diageo's African sales have risen by an average 15 percent in each of the last five years, and now account for 14 percent of the group's total.

But some public health officials say regulation of alcohol consumption and education about its abuse have failed to keep pace. "In parallel to this increase in commercial alcohol availability, the infrastructure and regulation for effective alcohol control have no strong tradition in many African countries," said Poznyak.

NEW LAWS

On average an African drinks about 6.15 liters of pure alcohol each year, about half of what a European consumes. However, more than 25 percent of Africans are binge drinkers, the highest proportion in the world, according to a WHO report.

Most African countries already have laws that prohibit underage drinking and drink driving, but critics say these are poorly enforced and often completely ignored.

South Africa is crafting a new law to restrict alcohol advertising, raise the minimum drinking age to 21 from 18 and get tougher on drink driving, Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini has said.

The bill would also propose warning labels on alcohol containers, raising taxes and stricter licensing laws for alcohol outlets, said a government official who declined to be identified because the bill has not yet been made public.

The bill will be discussed in South Africa's cabinet in the next few weeks before its release for public comment, the official said.

In Kenya authorities are also looking to raise the legal drinking age to 21 from 18, following on from a 2010 law that banned alcohol sales in grocery stores and in bars before 5 p.m.

The Mututho law, named after the legislator who crafted it, John Mututho, is credited for a 90 percent drop in alcohol-related deaths in Kenya.

"Even when we say we have succeeded up to that level, we are also saying we have failed 10 percent, so the age of drinking will be 21. We are amending the law," Mututho said.

Earlier this year, Zambia banned the manufacture and sale of spirits in relatively cheap small plastic sachets, which it blamed for increasing alcohol abuse by young people. Zambia's health department secretary told Reuters that alcohol-related road accidents and health problems are increasingly a concern.

In Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and a huge beer market, alcohol regulation does exist but critics say it is loosely enforced.

Adeline Osakwe, deputy director at the Nigeria Food and Drug Administration, said the country ensures consumers are aware of alcohol content through product labeling. It also regulates alcohol advertising.

"For TV commercials, as long as it will not lead people to abuse alcohol, we give approvals," Osakwe said.

HOME-BREW TO HEINEKEN

For years poor Africans were limited to home-brew sorghum or maize beer, sometimes made with dangerous ingredients such as battery acid to increase the potency.

Commercial alcohol is now widely available in most African states and premium brands such as Johnny Walker whisky or Heineken beer are increasingly in reach of the average drinker.

Rising incomes have also encouraged conspicuous consumption of premium brands. Even in Worcester's gritty nightclubs, some tables are weighed down by bottles of pricey spirits such Scotch whiskies Chivas Regal and Glenfiddich.

Drinks companies say commercially produced alcohol is safer than home-brews. "The alternative is that lower income people who wish to consume liquor will buy illicit and potentially dangerous alcohol," said Vincent Maphai, executive director of Corporate Affairs at SABMiller's South African unit.

SABMiller is already offering lower priced beer in order to win over drinkers from the home-brew market, which it says is about four times the $11 billion commercial market.

Higher alcohol taxes, which the South African bill is likely to impose, risk of pushing the poor back to potentially lethal home-brews. Nevertheless, public health officials say governments need to do more to warn about the dangers of alcohol abuse.

BIRTH DEFECTS

Even several months into pregnancy, Johannesburg resident Martha regularly drank until she passed out. She never worried about the effect until her son was born with a hole in his heart. "I would have stopped if I knew that it would harm my baby like this," said Martha, who declined to give her family name.

Her son, now 12 years old, was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, an incurable birth defect that has left him with the brain and body of a four-year old.

South Africa has the highest reported number of children with such birth defects: about 122 out of every 1,000 are born with the syndrome, compared with about 8 per 1,000 in the United States, according to South Africa's Foundation for Alcohol Related Research.

But experts say many Africans, like Martha, don't get proper education about the dangers of alcohol, especially in rural areas where access to hospitals and clinics is limited.

Alcohol also heightens the danger on a continent where driving is already perilous. Kenya's Kenyatta National Hospital treats up to 40 victims of road accidents, mostly caused by drunk drivers and pedestrians, on some Saturday nights.

But with little to do beyond drinking for entertainment in many parts of rural Africa, health officials face a tough battle.

"In spite of all economic benefits that increased investments in alcohol production and sales can bring, the health of the population should be properly protected and this should be a priority," the WHO's Poznyak said. "Health is the best investment, also from an economic point of view, in any society." ($1 = 0.6401 British pounds)

(Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi, Chris Mfula in Lusaka, Chijioke Ohuocha in Lagos; editing by David Dolan and David Stamp)

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* Second-quarter adjusted EPS $0.09 vs est $0.12

* Second-quarter revenue $105.1 mln vs est $113.3 mln

* Shares down 10 percent after the bell

Aug 9 (Reuters) - Enterprise software maker Pegasystems Inc's quarterly results fell short of analysts' expectations as customers in Europe delayed orders, sending its shares down nearly 10 percent after the bell.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 9 cents per share for the second quarter, while revenue rose marginally to $105.1 million.

Analysts on average were expecting Pegasystems to earn 12 cents per share on revenue of $113.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Pegasystems sells software that help companies manage business processes and customer relationships.

"Some larger deals are being split into smaller projects, which, while still planned, are being pushed into future quarters," Chief Financial Officer Craig Dynes said in a statement.

He said the delays also made it very difficult for the company to surpass its full-year revenue goal of $500 million.

Analysts had estimated the company's full-year revenue at $490.5 million.

Pegasystems had a net loss of $2.3 million, or 6 cents per share, for the second quarter, compared with a profit of $2.3 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier.

Operating expenses rose 13 percent.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company's shares, which closed down 3 percent at $27.02 on the Nasdaq on Thursday, fell further to $24.28 after the bell.

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n">(Reuters) - Australian writer and art critic Robert Hughes, whose works include "The Fatal Shore" and "The Shock of the New," died on Monday in New York, his publishers said.

Hughes, 74, died after a long illness, publishers Alfred A. Knopf said in a statement.

"We are very sad to report that the renowned critic and art historian Robert Hughes died today in New York after a long illness," the publishing house said.

Hughes, known for his acerbic wit and criticism of modern art, moved to New York in the 1970s where he lived until his death.

He began his career as a cartoonist and later an art critic in Sydney before moving to Europe and later the United States where he landed a job as art critic for Time magazine.

He also worked in television, producing a 1980 BBC series on the development of modern art called "The Shock of the New" and a book that were noted for their insight and wit.

He also made TV documentaries on the painter Francisco Goya and a 1997 U.S. TV series called "American Visions" on the history of U.S. art since the American Revolution.

But he was perhaps most famous for his 1987 book "The Fatal Shore," a study of the early settlement of Australia and its roots as a British penal colony, which went on to become an international best-seller.

"The Fatal Shore" was rated in 2011 as among the top 100 non-fiction books written in English since 1923 by Time magazine, which called it "a staggering achievement."

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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n">Aug 9 (Reuters) - A former U.S. lawmaker who lobbied for China's second largest telecommunications-equipment maker, ZTE Corp, severed ties with the company last month after reports that the FBI is investigating ZTE for allegedly selling banned computer equipment to Iran, according to a lobbying disclosure report.

Former Representative Jon Christensen, a Nebraska Republican, filed a termination report to the U.S. Senate's lobbying disclosure database saying he stopped representing the company as of July 13, a day after news broke of the FBI investigation.

Christensen, who served in Congress in the 1990s, did not respond to phone calls or emails on Thursday.

"ZTE doesn't comment on personnel matters," said Anna Hughes of Ogilvy Public Relations, speaking on behalf of ZTE.

Christensen's departure was first reported by Politico.

The FBI probe and a separate one by the U.S. Department of Commerce were triggered by a Reuters report in March that Shenzhen, China-based ZTE had sold Iran's largest telecom a surveillance system capable of monitoring landline, mobile and Internet communications.

A day after the Reuters report, the Commerce Department issued a subpoena to ZTE. The company's general counsel in Texas, Ashley Kyle Yablon, told FBI agents that ZTE officials at that point discussed shredding documents relevant to the subpoena, according an FBI affidavit first reported by the website The Smoking Gun.

Yablon told the FBI the company used "sub companies" to buy sophisticated U.S. telecommunications equipment to get around restrictions on selling to countries like Iran.

ZTE, which sells equipment in 140 countries, according to its website, reported revenues in 2010 of $10.6 billion.

Primarily known for its smart phones, ZTE has a subsidiary specializing in surveillance and security technology.

The United States first imposed trade sanctions on Iran in 1979. More recently, the United States has joined other nations in additional trade sanctions based on its alleged nuclear weapons program.

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LONDON | Wed Aug 8, 2012 11:51am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - An impressionist portrait by French painter Edouard Manet will stay in Britain after an eight-month campaign raised nearly 8 million pounds ($12 million) to buy it.

The "Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus" will be on display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, which launched the campaign to stop it going abroad.

The painting was sold to a foreign buyer last year for 28.35 million pounds. However the British government placed an export bar on the work which allowed it to be bought by a British public institution for a quarter of its market value.

"The public's response to the campaign for the Manet has been overwhelming," said Ashmolean Director Christopher Brown.

"This is one of the most important pictures of the 19th century which has been in Britain since its sale following the artist's death in 1884," he added in a statement.

The campaign saw donations from more than 1,000 members of the public, trusts and foundations, along with 5.9 million pounds from the Heritage Lottery Fund and 850,000 pounds from the Art Fund charity.

Manet painted the portrait of musician Fanny Claus, his wife Suzanne Leenhoff's closest friend, in 1868.

The painting will be lent to public museums and galleries as part of a nationwide tour next year.

(Editing by Steve Addison)

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* Panoramic view shows rust-colored surface strewn with gravel

* First 'self-portrait' reveals pebbles kicked up on top of craft

* NASA engineers prepare vehicle for four-day software upgrade

PASADENA, Calif., Aug 9 (Reuters) - The science rover Curiosity took a break from instrument checks on its third full day on Mars to beam back more pictures from the Red Planet, including its first self-portrait and a 360-degree color view of its home in Gale Crater, NASA said on Thursday.

The panoramic mosaic, comprising 130 separate images that Curiosity captured with its newly activated navigation cameras, shows a rust-colored, pebble-strewn expanse stretching to a wall of the crater's rim in one direction and a tall mound of layered rock in another.

That formation, named Mount Sharp, stands at the center of the vast, ancient impact crater and several miles from where Curiosity touched down at the end of an eight-month voyage across 352 million mile (566 million km) of space.

The layers of exposed rock are thought to hold a wealth of Mars' geologic history, making it the main target of exploration for scientists who will use the rover to seek evidence of whether the planet most similar to Earth might now harbor or once have hosted key ingredients for microbial life.

But mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles are exercising caution immediately following Curiosity's jarring, death-defying descent to the surface on Sunday night.

They plan to spend weeks putting the nuclear-powered, six-wheeled rover and its sophisticated array of instruments through a painstaking series of "health" checks before embarking on the thrust of their science mission in earnest.

The $2.5 billion Curiosity project, formally named the Mars Science Laboratory, is NASA's first astrobiology mission since the Viking probes of the 1970s and is touted as the first fully equipped mobile geochemistry lab ever sent to a distant world.

EQUIPMENT CHECKUPS

After three full days on the Red Planet, "Curiosity continues to behave flawlessly" and has "executed all planned activities" without a hitch, mission manager Michael Watkins said at a JPL news briefing.

The latest round of equipment checks included an instrument designed to determine mineral composition of powdered rock and soil samples; one to analyze soil and atmospheric samples for organic compounds; one to detect traces of water locked in shallow mineral deposits; and another that uses particle X-rays to identify chemical elements in rocks and soils.

The very delivery of Curiosity to the surface of Mars already has been hailed by NASA as the greatest feat of robotic spaceflight.

The car-sized rover, which flew from Earth encased in a protective capsule, blasted into the Martian sky at hypersonic speed and landed safely seven minutes later after an elaborate, daredevil descent combining a giant parachute with a rocket-pack that lowered the rover to the Martian surface on a tether.

Since then, the rover has been sending a string of early images back to Earth, relayed by two NASA satellites orbiting Mars, providing glimpses of a terrain that scientists say appear reminiscent of the Mojave Desert in Southern California.

One shot beamed back late Wednesday night, the first taken by Curiosity of itself, shows the rover's top deck strewn with dark pebbles apparently kicked up from the ground when the craft landed. NASA scientists said the gravel does not appear to pose any risk to instruments on the vehicle.

Two separate high-resolution "Navcam" images taken of the surface show that thrust from the sky-crane rockets during descent carved out a 1.5-foot (0.5-meter) trench in the surface, exposing what appears to be Martian bedrock underneath.

When Curiosity wakes up for its fourth day on Mars, early Friday California time, mission controllers plan to conduct additional instrument checks and prepare the craft for an upgrade of its main computer software for surface operations. All other activities will be suspended during that upgrade, which will begin on day 5 of the mission and last four days. (Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

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* Prototype NASA landing vehicle goes up in smoke

* Engineers still looking into cause of fiery accident

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug 9 (Reuters) - A small NASA lander being tested for missions to the moon and other destinations beyond Earth crashed and burned after veering off course during a trial run at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, officials with the U.S. space agency said.

There were no injuries after the prototype, known as Morpheus, burst into flames near the runway formerly used by NASA's space shuttles.

The insect-like vehicle, designed and built by engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, had made several flights attached to a crane before Thursday's attempted free-flight.

Morpheus' engines, which burn liquid oxygen and methane, appeared to ignite as planned, lifting the 1,750-pound (794 kg) vehicle into the air. But a few seconds later, Morpheus rolled over on its side and plummeted to the ground.

NASA video showed the vehicle engulfed in flames and then rocked by a spectacular explosion, presumably due to the fuel tanks rupturing.

“"Failures such as these were anticipated prior to the test, and are part of the development process for any complex spaceflight hardware," NASA said in a statement.

An investigation is under way, the statement added.

Project Morpheus began in partnership with privately owned Armadillo Aerospace, which is developing re-usable, suborbital vehicles that take off and land vertically.

NASA, which has spent about $7 million on the project over the past 2-1/2 years, is interested in developing technologies that could be used to fly cargo to the moon and other future missions beyond Earth orbit.

Project Morpheus was an example of what the former project manager called "“Home Depot engineering" - low-budget projects that use existing resources and partner with non-traditional aerospace companies.

“"The Morpheus lander is kind of our poster child. It's one of our first attempts to do these kinds of projects," former project manager Matt Ondler said in an interview with Reuters last year.

“"Instead of building some elaborate test structure, you go to Home Depot and build something very quickly that gets you 80 percent of the answer and allows you to keep moving forward," he said.

Morpheus arrived at Florida's seaside space center in July for three months of increasingly rigorous test flights, including automated landings in a mock moonscape, complete with craters and boulders.

The lander was designed to deliver about 1,100 pounds (500 kg) of cargo to the moon, NASA said on its Project Morpheus website.

Technologies being developed include a propulsion system that uses liquid oxygen and methane -- green fuels that could be manufactured on other planetary bodies, NASA said.

The accident happened as NASA scientists were still hailing the Mars rover Curiosity's descent and landing on the Red Planet earlier this week as a "“miracle of engineering."

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