Monday, January 4, 2010
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
Air travellers from 14 countries will face full-body pat downs before boarding airliners under new security screening procedures targeting foreign passengers announced by the US yesterday.
This follows a failed Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound US airliner, which was blamed on a Nigerian man who US officials believe was trained by Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
The Obama administration said that passengers traveling from or through nations listed as "State sponsors of terrorism" will face heightened screening. These countries include: Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. Nearly all of these are Muslim nations.
The announcement of the new security measures comes amid rising criticism by US Republicans and others that American diplomatic and intelligence officials failed to prevent the December 25 incident despite having evidence about the Nigerian man accused of carrying a bomb onto the airliner.

The Presidency said yesterday that the media must stay away from President Jacob Zuma's wedding to his fifth wife, Thobeka Madiba, to take place today at his homestead in eNkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
The Presidency said in a statement that the wedding is "a private family ceremony".
The couple are already married under South African law and have three children together. Madiba has also been appearing with the President at official events.

Also making headlines:
The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo says that more than 150 people were killed last week in fighting between government troops and armed insurgents.
And, Sudanese opposition Popular Congress Party nominates a southern Sudanese as presidential candidate for the country's first multiparty elections in 24 years.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.