Friday, December 11, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader Julius Malema walked out of a South African Communist Party (SACP) conference in Polokwane yesterday after being booed by delegates.
Malema said that the environment was hostile and "not conducive to persuasion" because "delegates had wrongly perceived ideas about the leadership of the Youth League and the ANC."
The Youth League leader said that he could not understand how delegates could jeer at him and ANC executive member Billy Masetlha, while a "monopoly capital[ist]" Standard Bank executive received a warm welcome. "This is a contradiction," he said.
He vowed to complain to President Jacob Zuma.

US President Barack Obama accepted the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize yesterday, acknowledging the controversy over the choice of a wartime President and saying that he reserved the right to take action to protect the US.
In his address to Oslo academics, Obama said that the use of force was sometimes justified, especially on humanitarian grounds, and in the case of al Qaeda, negotiations would not cause them to lay down their arms.
He also called for tough action against countries that broke international laws, such as sanctions that "exact a real price." Iran and North Korea, which are in nuclear standoffs with the West, could not be allowed to "game the system," he said, referring to tactics employed by both countries in the past to draw out negotiations.

Attacks on foreigners in South Africa are "gravely alarming" and the government should implement laws to prevent further outbreaks of violence, said the United Nations (UN) Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay at the sixty-first anniversary of the Declaration on International Human Rights yesterday.
A South African native herself, Pillay said it was worrying that South Africa has failed to protect its foreign residents. "New forms of xenophobia are on the rise," she said, "particularly against refugees and migrants."

Also making headlines:
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemns a disruption of peacful protest in Sudan.
The South African Communist Party says that the proposed National Health Insurance scheme is under threat.
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos signals a three-year presidential poll delay.
And, experts say that Somali piracy tribunals are unlikely despite calls for international justice.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today. Creamer Media would like to wish its podcast listeners a happy festive season and a prosperous 2010. We will resume podcasts in the New Year.