Tuesday, July 27, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman.

Making headlines:

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi describes South Africa's inability to deal with infant and maternal mortalities as "deplorable". This comes as the country is dealing with a series of infant deaths in various health facilities.
Speaking at the African Union (AU) Summit in Uganda, Motsoaledi acknowledged that South Africa was lagging far behind other African countries in curbing infant and maternal mortalities.
About two months ago, six premature babies died of gastro enteritis at Johannesburg's Charlotte Maxeke Academic hospital. Although Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu washed her hands of the deaths, saying that an investigation found that there had been "no specific acts of negligence", Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane reopened the probe two days later.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is expected to nearly double its infrastructure funding on the continent in five years' time to $10-billion in order to accelerate economic growth.
AfDB regional integration and trade director Alex Rugamba said that a recent increase in the bank's core capital had allowed it to allocate more funds for infrastructural projects. "There's a big interest in projects that can transform economies... for instance, there's big talk about railways," he said, adding that within five years, the AfDB would be committing up to $10-billion a year on infrastructure.
The bank, a key source of cheap credit for some of Africa's poorest economies, currently spends between $5-billion and $6-billion annually on infrastructure.

Reaching a binding climate deal at the upcoming United Nations (UN) conference in Mexico will likely be difficult, delegates from a group of developing nations said on Monday, spurring further doubts about a global climate accord this year.
Environment Ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China - known as the Basic group - meeting in Rio de Janeiro, said that developed nations have not done enough to cut their own emissions or help poor countries reduce theirs. South African Water and Environment Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica says that if US senators have not completed climate change legislation by the time of the Cancun conference, then the world will get less than a legally binding outcome.
The Basic nations held talks about upcoming climate negotiations, but the representatives said that those talks did not yield a specific proposal on emissions reductions to be presented at the Cancun meeting. Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said that countries are a bit wiser after Copenhagen, and their expectations for Cancun are realistic - "we cannot expect any miracles."

Also making headlines:

Egypt sounds a conciliatory note in a dispute over how Nile waters should be shared by the countries it passes through, after more than a decade of talks driven by anger over the perceived injustice of the previous Nile water treaty of 1929.
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has challenged Home Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa to give up his own ID until each one of the outstanding duplicate ID matters is resolved.
United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon says that there is a risk of increased instability in Sudan owing to a lack of a peace deal for Darfur and a looming referendum on whether South Sudan should secede from the North.
And, lobby group Global Witness says that it is taking the UK government to court for failing to refer companies trading in Congo 'conflict minerals' for United Nations sanctions.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.