SOUTH AFRICA

PIETERMARITZBURG – African National Congress president Jacob Zuma will hear on September 12 whether his bid to have the decision to prosecute him declared unlawful has been successful. Judge Chris Nicholson has announced that he has reserved judgement after hearing arguments from both the state and Zuma's legal team. Nicholson says that the provisional date for Zuma to stand trial is December 8, but that the dates for trial are still to be decided.

CAPE TOWN – Socioeconomic rights activist Irene Grootboom, best known for her legal battle to secure better housing for the poor, dies in a shack in the Wallacedene informal settlement, Cape Town. Grootboom, believed to have been in her 40s when she died after a short illness, was best known for leading a challenge to the Constitutional Court against her eviction and that of 900 others from privately-owned land in Wallacedene.

PRETORIA – South African President Thabo Mbeki says he has a clear conscience about the country’s multi-million rand arms deal. This follows a Sunday Times report which alleges that Mbeki was paid R30-million by a German shipbuilding company to guarantee it would receive a submarine contract in the arms deal. Mbeki commented that the country is fighting a hard struggle against corruption and that it is not possible to "fight corruption if we ourselves are corrupt".

AFRICA & WORLD

MEXICO CITY – Former leaders of African countries ravaged by HIV/Aids launch a regional campaign to put pressure on politicians who they say have not done enough to combat the virus. Former presidents of Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia and other well-known figures, including South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, are demanding more government action and public education campaigns to prevent new infections in countries where up to one in four people have HIV/Aids.

LUANDA – President Jose Eduardo dos Santos announces that oil-rich Angola will hold parliamentary elections every four years, after holding its first national vote for 16 years on September 5. The official campaign for the elections kicks off with ten parties and four coalitions competing for votes. Each party will be given five minutes of television time each day and 10 minutes on the radio to lure voters. A total of 5 198 candidates will fight for 220 parliamentary seats in a country that is Africa's biggest oil producer, but where two-thirds of the population live on less than $2 a day.

KIGALI – Rwanda formally accuses senior French officials of involvement in its 1994 genocide and calls for them to be put on trial. Among those named in a report by a Rwandan investigation commission are former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and late President Francois Mitterrand. Kigali has previously accused Paris of covering up its role in training troops and militia who carried out massacres that killed some 800 000 people, and of propping up the ethnic Hutu leaders who orchestrated the slaughter.

WASHINGTON – US President George W Bush signs into law legislation paving the way for Libya to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate US victims of bombing attacks that Washington blames on Tripoli. The Libyan Claims Resolution Act clears the way to resolve all outstanding US claims related to what Washington regards as Libyan terrorist acts. Under the arrangement, Libya would not accept responsibility for the acts, but would provide the money to compensate the victims. If Libya signs the agreement, the deal could end the legal liability to Libya stemming from multiple lawsuits by families of the US victims, and it could herald a further warming in ties between Tripoli and Washington.