Tuesday, October 21, 2008.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shona Kohler

Making headlines today:


South African Health Minister Barbara Hogan said on Monday that Africa should put more effort and resources into the fight against HIV/Aids.

Speaking at the opening of the seventh Pan-African conference of Red Cross Societies, Hogan also made a call to delegates to intensify efforts aimed at reducing the incidence of malaria on the continent.

Further, Hogan highlighted the problem of child-headed households, in which children miss out on education, and are exposed to sex work, and in turn, diseases.

Hogan indicated that the conference needed to established plans on issues of sustainable livelihoods and volunteer management relating to children.

An emergency regional summit aimed at ending the deadlock in the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe has been postponed until October 27, after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai refused to attend.

It was hoped that Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe would be able to agree this week on the allocation of Cabinet positions in the new government.

Tsvangirai snubbed the summit after Zimbabwe's government failed to issue him with a new passport. He was instead provided with a temporary travel document for Swaziland.

Tsvangirai has accused Mugabe's Zanu-PF party of trying to grab the most important Ministries in a bid to relegate the Movement for Democratic Change to the role of a junior partner in the government.





A top Nato commander indicated on Monday that members of the organisation are wavering in their political commitment to Afghanistan.

The alliance’s troops serve in Afghanistan under a United Nations mandate. As insecurity has increased in Afghanistan, Nato troops have steadily been drawn into more deadly operations, a factor that has dissuaded some countries from deeper involvement.

Military commanders have continually stated that the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily and that insurgents need to be drawn into dialogue.

The situation in Afghanistan is widely seen as being more precarious than Iraq, with the Taliban becoming more sophisticated in its ability to carry out ambushes and bombings.




Also making headlines:
The State tries to get Zuma back in the dock.
Barack Obama leaves the campaign trail to see his ailing grandmother.
And, eBay intends to ban the sale of ivory products.



Currently, the Speeches Section of polity.org.za contains African National Congress President Jacob Zuma’s address to the Tripartite Alliance’s economic summit.

Other key political leaders whose addresses are available on polity.org.za include South Africa’s newly appointed President Kgalema Motlanthe; South African Communist Party secretary-general Blade Nzimande; and World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit polity.org.za.