Friday January 10, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma says during an interview on SABC 1 that there has not been much progress in government's job creation project owing to the economic crisis that hit the world recently. "As you may know, this is one of the five priorities... In the other four, we have made progress, but this one still needs to be tackled, " he said. Speaking a day after addressing the 99th African National Congress (ANC) anniversary celebration in Polokwane, Limpopo, Zuma said that the issue of job creation was going to be a central issue at the upcoming ANC congress and how resources will be allocated to see to it. He added that, although there was economic growth in the country two years ago, this was not enough for the job creation priority.

Armed Arab nomads killed at least one person in a series of clashes in Sudan's contested Abyei region, stoking tensions at the start of an independence referendum in south Sudan, officials said on Sunday.
According to a United Nations source, a small group of Misseriya tribespeople, travelling on motorcycles, launched two attacks on police posts in the central oil-producing area on Friday and Saturday.
Senior Misseriya official Mohamed Omer al-Ansary said that there had been a clash, leaving an unknown number dead – but insisted that his men had been attacked first by southern soldiers. Analysts have said that Abyei is one of the most likely places that could see a resurgence of violence more than five years after a peace deal ended decades of north–south civil war.

The combined size of the seven-biggest emerging market economies (E7) is likely to exceed the combined size of the seven-biggest developed economies (G7) within a decade. So predicts global industry assurance, tax and advisory services group Pricewaterhouse Coopers in a report released on Friday and entitled The World in 2050. The company credits the global financial crisis with accelerating this process. On the basis of purchasing power parity calculations of gross domestic product (GDP), the E7 (China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey) will collectively overtake the G7 (the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada) in 2017. If the E7 and G7 GDPs are calculated in market exchange rates, then this point will come in 2032.

Also making headlines:

Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo ended a day of mediation in the Côte d’Ivoire's crisis, saying that he was optimistic that it could be resolved but not ruling out military intervention to oust incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo.
A peaceful, orderly referendum could help put Sudan back on a path towards normal relations with the US, and a chaotic vote will mean more isolation, US President Barack Obama said.
And, Communications Minister Roy Padayachie would “soon” announce the decision made by Cabinet on the preferred digital terrestrial television technology standard.
That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.