Thursday February 3, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

South African Mining Minister Susan Shabangu says that the government would act to ensure sufficient coal supplies for power generation, but urged industry to sort out the supply problem first. State-owned power utility Eskom has been struggling to secure all the coal it needs to power Africa's biggest economy, after coal miners have increasingly been focusing on exports owing to the promise of higher returns from shipments to Asia. The shortage has been exacerbated by a pick-up in power demand as the overall economy recovered from a 2009 recession and mines in the top platinum producing sector ramped up output. South Africa relies on coal for nearly all it’s power, although it plans to diversify into nuclear and greener sources such as wind and solar.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that the world faces a broader trend of increasing food and commodity prices and more countries should wake up to the need to curb price volatility. Zoellick called on Group of 20 global leaders to "put food first" to tackle the surge in prices and increased volatility threatening the poor and driving up inflation in developing countries, mainly in Asia. "We are going to be facing a broader trend of increasing commodity prices, including food commodity prices," Zoellick told Reuters. "This can put on pressure but also create opportunities," he added, noting that developing nations could boost revenues by increasing food production to meet rising global demand.

Kenya's Prime Minister played down concerns that the coalition Cabinet would collapse over a dispute about judicial appointments with the President but warned that there could be instability ahead of elections in 2012. President Mwai Kibaki provoked a political storm by nominating senior judicial figures, with Prime Minister Raila Odinga accusing Kibaki of violating the country's new constitution by not consulting him. The row has divided Kenya along the tribal fault lines that fuelled lethal violence following the disputed general election of December 2007.

Also making headlines:
Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak opened fire on protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Thursday, killing four people and wounding 13, witnesses and television stations said.
Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi urged Tunisians to return to work to prevent the economy collapsing after fears of growing lawlessness kept many people at home in recent days.
And, European and African election observers said that they were broadly satisfied with Niger's Presidential election despite a number of technical problems, and called on candidates to respect the results.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.