Friday October 28, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma has been warned that the courts will be used to hold him to the eventual recommendations of the Seriti commission of inquiry into the arms deal. "If he irrationally refuses to implement sensible recommendations of the commission, we will be back in court," lawyer Paul Hoffman, who has been acting for arms deal campaigner Terry Crawford-Browne, said. Hoffman was speaking after the terms of reference of the commission were announced.

The Islamist Ennahda party was officially declared the winner of Tunisia's election, setting it up to form the first Islamist-led government in the wake of the "Arab Spring" uprisings. But the election, which has so far confounded predictions it would tip the North African country into crisis, turned violent yesterday when protesters angry that their fourth-placed party was eliminated from the poll set fire to the mayor's office in a provincial town. Ennahda has tried to reassure secularists nervous about the prospect of Islamist rule in one of the Arab world's most liberal countries by saying it will respect women's rights and not try to impose a Muslim moral code on society.

South Africa said that it would further relax foreign exchange controls to allow companies to top up capital in their offshore businesses and even invest outside their current business lines. The changes mark the latest step by Africa's top economy to move away from stringent controls over foreign exchange flows out of the country. The National Treasury said companies would be allowed to invest offshore – outside their core business – so long as they did not acquire more than 20% in a foreign entity. The latest measures could be negative for the rand in the short term but "the amount of outflows could easily be offset by new inflows in a risk-on environment, which is a longer-term positive" said Razia Khan, head of Africa Research at Standard Bank.

Also making headlines:

NATO is set to confirm a decision to end its Libya mission next week, but alliance States will be free to decide whether to give further security aid to Tripoli outside NATO command, officials said.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, fearing for his life if captured in Libya, has tried to arrange for an aircraft to fly him out of his desert refuge and into the custody of The Hague war crimes court, a senior Libyan official said.

And, Ahmed Shafiq, a former Egyptian air force commander and close associate of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, said that he planned to stand in the country's presidential elections.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.