July 15, 2014.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:
 

Brics countries will see the Bali trade deal implemented despite India’s agricultural concern.

Militia shellsTripoli airport while the UN pulls its staff out of Libya.

And, Nigerian leader Jonathan Goodluck assures Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai that the 219 kidnapped girls will be home soon.

Brazil's trade minister said on Monday the Brics group of emerging market nations is confident a global trade reform pact will be implemented. This is despite concerns by India over its food security.

The deal struck in December in Bali to lower trade barriers was the World Trade Organization's first global agreement since it was created in 1995 and revived global talks after the failure of the Doha round. But India has criticised the pact for putting trade facilitation ahead of a compromise on agricultural subsidies, a crucial issue for a country that needs to stockpile food for its poor.

Brazilian Trade Minister Mauro Borges said India's concern for the survival of its family agriculture on which millions depends is very understandable, but he said it was not an "ultimatum" against implementing the Bali agreement by the July 31 deadline.

A militia shelled Tripoli’s airport on Monday, destroying 90% of planes parked there, a Libyan government spokesperson said, as heavy fighting between armed groups prompted the United Nations to pull its staff out of the North African country.

At least 15 people have been killed in clashes in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi since Sunday, and a Libyan official said several Grad rockets hit the Tripoli International Airport on Monday, damaging the control tower.

Three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has slipped deeper into chaos with its weak government and new army unable to control brigades of former rebel fighters and militias who often battle for political and economic power.

 

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan promised on Monday that more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militants would soon return home, teenage Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai said after meeting him.

"The president promised me ... that the abducted girls will return to their homes soon," Malala, who has called the 219 missing students her "sisters", told a news conference after a 45-minute meeting with Jonathan at the presidential villa.

The Pakistani teenager, who turned 17 on Saturday, met parents of the schoolgirls snatched from the northeastern village of Chibok by Boko Haram militants fighting to establish an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria.

She said she would from now be counting days and would not stop looking. She vowed not to stop the campaign until she witnessed the girls return back to their families and continued their education. She added that Jonathan had also promised that once the missing girls were rescued, they would be given scholarships to go to school in any part of Nigeria.

Also making headlines

The Red Ants and the Department of Human Settlements have signed a pact on evictions, allowing 48 hours before executing an eviction.

State-owned electricity producer Eskom has confirmed that it has handed its ‘comprehensive sustainability plan’ to Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, who is a key participant in an inter-Ministerial process set up to deal with the utility’s financial problems.

And, Britain will expand funding for a programme to help coal-rich South Africa develop a carbon trading market in an attempt to rein in its rising greenhouse-gas emissions.

Also on Polity today:

Watch the latest Polity interview with Malaika wa Azania on her book ‘Memoirs of a Born Free’, as she recounts the experience of growing up through the end of apartheid and South Africa’s transition into a democratic nation.

Follow us on Twitter (@PolityZA) for updates on breaking news.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.