Friday, November 5, 2010

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

Making headlines:

Members of Parliament (MPs) redrafting the controversial Protection of Information Bill on Thursday cemented an agreement that the State will not be allowed to classify commercial information nor use the vague notion of national interest to keep anything secret.
Ad hoc committee chairperson Cecil Burgess said that the issue of national interest was a "sore point," after an outcry prompted State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele to suggest that such clauses be removed.
However, the African National Congress (ANC) indicated that it would not be prepared to heed calls from the media, rights activists, opposition parties and former Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils to include a so-called public interest defence in the draft act. Such a clause would protect whistle-blowers and journalists who make classified information public, allowing them to argue in court that they did so for the public good. The absence of such a clause and the introduction of long prison sentences for those who contravene the legislation, have contributed to charges that the bill is an attempt to cover up wrongdoing and silence criticism of government.
After the meeting, ANC MP Llewellyn Landers stated unequivocally that "there is not going to be a public interest defence."

Oil-rich Norway remains the best country in the world to live in, while Zimbabwe, afflicted by economic crisis and HIV/Aids, is the least desirable, according to an annual United Nations (UN) rating released on Thursday.
The assessment came in a human development index, a measure of wellbeing published by the UN Development Program (UNDP), which combines individual economic prosperity with education levels and life expectancy.
The UNDP placed Norway, Australia and New Zealand at the top of the range, and Niger, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe at the bottom, as Western countries again led the list, while sub-Saharan African nations trailed.
Overall, the index contained some significant changes near the top compared with last year, with the US rising from 13th to fourth place, and Iceland - hard-hit by the global financial crisis - plummeting from third to 17th. But UNDP officials said that the figures are not fully comparable owing to changes in calculation methods this year.

The global economy is threatened by "dark clouds" of intensifying protectionist pressures, the heads of three international organisations said on Thursday, in a warning to Group of 20 (G20) leaders. These pressures are driven by high unemployment, macroeconomic imbalances and tensions over foreign exchange rates.
World Trade Organisation director-general Pascal Lamy, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development secretary-general Angel Gurria and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development secretary-general Supachai Panitchpakdi, urged G20 governments to "address these risks".
In a summary of reports ahead of the G20 summit in Seoul next week, the three leaders said that the "stability of the trading system will be put at considerable risk if currencies move in what some perceive as the pursuit of an exchange-rate-induced comparative advantage."

Also making headlines:

Nigeria aims to pass a Petroleum Industry Bill by the end of the year, aimed at overhauling its energy industry and rewriting the country's relationship with its foreign oil partners.
Restitution of Land Rights commissioner Sbusiso Gamede says that uncertainty among farmers caused by government's delayed land restitution programme has resulted in the decline of food production.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit is to visit Washington in an effort restore direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
And, Zimbabwe says that it will soon start selling diamonds from its controversial Marange fields, even though the Kimberley Process said that it had not yet approved the sale.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.