September 3, 2012
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

South African prosecutors withdraw Marikana miners' murder charges for now.

The world's newest nation, South Sudan, names its UN ambassador.

And, Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos secures a big election win.

South African prosecutors provisionally withdrew murder charges on Sunday against 270 miners who had been accused of killing 34 striking colleagues shot dead by police. However, they said they could be recharged when investigations are complete.

Public anger had been mounting at the charges. The charges were made under an apartheid-era law under which the miners were deemed to have had a "common purpose" in the murder of their co-workers.

The police killing of the strikers last month at the Marikana mine, run by platinum producer Lonmin, was the worst such security incident since the end of white rule in 1994. It recalled scenes of state brutality from that era.

The acting national director of prosecutions, Nomgcobo Jiba, says final charges will only be made once all investigations have been completed. The murder charges against the current 270 suspects will be formally withdrawn provisionally in court.

The miners will be released from prison starting this week.

South Sudan has appointed its first ambassador to the United Nations. This bolstered a small and inexperienced diplomatic corps, which has been struggling to make the new nation's case in disputes with Sudan over oil and the shared border.

South Sudan seceded from its northern neighbour in July last year under a 2005 peace deal. It has been trying to build up state institutions after decades of devastating civil war.

Francis Deng, a respected scholar and former special adviser to the UN Secretary General on the prevention of genocide, has been appointed South Sudan's permanent representative to the United Nations.

Deng said he would work to improve the South's "waning" image abroad, but that it would not be easy.

According to provisional results, Angola's long-serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his MPLA party scored a landslide election on Saturday. The election has been criticised as one-sided and not credible by opponents and civil society activists.

The results from Friday's voting announced by the National Elections Commission showed the governing party with 74% of the vote. This was far ahead of its nearest rivals with votes counted from over 70% of polling stations.

Under a new constitution introduced in 2010, the MPLA win means Dos Santos, who turned 70 this week, is elected for a further five-year term on top of the nearly 33 years he has already served as leader of Africa's No. 2 oil producer.

Silver-haired Dos Santos is Africa's second-longest-serving leader after Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Also making headlines:

Kenya’s Muslim riots expose political and economic divisions.

Mali Islamists retake control of a northern town and extend their reach into the desert south.

And, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union says social challenges need to be addressed.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.