PRETORIA – South African President Thabo Mbeki suspends the head of the country's public prosecuting agency because of a "breakdown" in his relationship with the Justice Minister. The suspension of Vusi Pikoli as National Director of Public Prosecutions is effective immediately, says government spokesperson Themba Maseko. Mokotedi Mpshe, currently Pikoli's deputy, will take over the duties. The move comes amid a bitter turf war between the police and the Scorpions, an elite police unit that was under Pikoli's control, which has escalated to Cabinet level and soured relations with Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa's powerful Cosatu trade union federation says it will back controversial politician Jacob Zuma to be leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The decision could be a major blow to President Thabo Mbeki, who says he will stand for a third term as ANC leader if asked.
The ANC easily dominates South African politics and the party leader traditionally becomes State President. The ANC meets in December to name its next leader.

CAPE TOWN – South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu says that he is "devastated" by the human rights abuses of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government. But Tutu, who has criticised South African President Thabo Mbeki for his policy of 'quiet diplomacy' toward the Zimbabwean leader, stresses that he is growing more confident in Mbeki's efforts to coax the country toward political reform. Tutu admits that he struggles to understand how Mugabe, denounced as "tyrannical" by US President George Bush at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, changed so drastically after steering the former British colony to independence in 1980.

AFRICA

KHARTOUM – Oxfam's country director announces, amid reports of ten attacks in four days in Sudan's violent and remote west, that it could withdraw from Darfur if security worsens. Despite a peace deal signed last year by the government and one rebel faction and intense international focus on ending the conflict, Darfur has descended into chaos, forcing the world's largest aid operation to evacuate some areas and work at high risk in others to provide assistance to some four-million people.

GABORONE – Southern African nations line up behind Robert Mugabe in a row over whether the Zimbabwean president will be invited to an EU-Africa summit in December, saying they will boycott the event if he is banned. The meeting in Lisbon will be the first in seven years. Plans for an European Union (EU)-Africa summit in 2003 were put on hold after Britain and other EU States refused to attend if Mugabe did. They accuse him of rights abuses and rigging elections.

WORLD

NEW YORK – France calls a United Nations Security Council meeting on Africa following the 15-member body's authorisation to send European Union soldiers to Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians from violence spilling over from neighbouring Darfur. Outcomes from the unusual session on cooperation with Africa, chaired by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, included French offers to send a warship off the coast of Somalia, the US warning Sudan to honor a cease-fire and Belgium advocating the suspension of aid from nations that exploit child soldiers.

WASHINGTON – A civil rights group files a lawsuit accusing the Bush administration of stifling academic debate by routinely denying visas to critics, following the barring of South African scholar Adam Habib from the US because of his criticism of US policy in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay prisoner camp. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed the federal suit on behalf of four groups that invited Habib, a Muslim, to speak in the US. The lawsuit charges the government's decision to revoke Habib's visa last year, forcing him to turn down speaking engagements, thereby violating the First Amendment rights of US citizens who could not hear his views.