SOUTH AFRICA

JOHANNESBURG - A new study, by the Institute for a Democratic Alternative in South Africa (Idasa), claims that Aids is having a politically costly effect on a number of fledgling democracies in Africa. "There are a number of worrying revelations in this study," says Kondwani Chirambo, editor of the study. The study, titled The Political Costs of Aids in Africa, found that in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, deaths from undisclosed diseases among Members of Parliament below the age of 55 was the main cause of vacancies in national Parliaments over the past 15 years.

AFRICA

TRIPOLI – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi urges African governments to reject Western aid that is accompanied by conditions, insisting that world powers are attempting to dictate democratic standards to the world's poorest continent. Gaddafi has also hit out at constitutional limits on the number of terms the Presidents of African countries can serve. Gaddafi is visiting Uganda to address an Afro/Arab conference of 5 000 youths that he sponsored, and to formally open a new mosque in the capital Kampala.

NAIROBI - Kenya's Parliament unanimously passes the first of two laws required to enact a power-sharing deal designed to end the country's bloody post-election crisis. With 200 votes to nil, the legislature has approved the constitutional amendment making positions in the Cabinet for a Prime Minister and two deputies. Parliament must next debate and pass a law that will create those posts in a new unity government agreed as part of a deal at peace talks last month to end a crisis in which at least 1,000 people were killed.

ABUJA – It is revealed by an investigative panel that former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration paid nonexistent companies over $50-million meant to finance a revamp of the moribund power sector. Nigeria's Parliament set up a committee earlier this year to investigate money spent on the energy sector between 1999 and 2007, funds which have done little to end constant nationwide blackouts. Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest oil exporter, has a fraction of the domestic energy capacity it needs and is plagued by blackouts that can last anything from hours to months. The country’s generating capacity has remained stagnant at 3000 MW


WORLD

WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Clinton charges that the Iraq war may end up costing Americans $1-trillion and further strain the country’s economy, thereby making her case for a prompt US troop pull out from a war "we cannot win." She says the war has sapped US military and economic strength, damaged US national security, taken the lives of nearly 4 000 Americans and left thousands wounded.

BELGRADE - Serbia appeals to nations not to recognise the month-old republic of Kosovo, saying the breakaway state is part of its territory. Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia are to become the first neighbours of Serbia to recognise the republic. The three countries say their decision is based on "thorough consideration" and have noted the importance of protecting the Serb minority in the overwhelming ethnic Albanian territory.

LHASA - China accuses the Dalai Lama of orchestrating Tibetan riots to wreck Beijing's Olympic Games, but the exiled spiritual leader has denied the charge and vows to stand down if the violence spirals out of control. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has defended the security crackdown in Lhasa, capital of the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan region, and in neighbouring Chinese provinces where copycat rioting by Tibetans erupted over the weekend. It is believed that 99 people have died in the past week.