Tuesday, April 13, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brad Dubbelman.

Making headlines:

The African National Congress (ANC) and its alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) resumed bilateral talks yesterday after they were put on hold last week.

ANC spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said that talks were suspended on Friday after both organisations agreed to do so. He denied reports that some top ANC members had snubbed the meeting. The Sunday Independent reported that Cosatu was upset by this because it felt that it was not being taken seriously. Mnisi said that the ANC wanted to meet with Cosatu to discuss relations and pursue the programme of action outlined in the party's election manifesto.
The bilateral meeting was concluded yesterday, but ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said that there was not enough time for all issues to be resolved and it was agreed that the Alliance Secretariat will urgently convene a series of further meetings.
These bilateral talks come after recent verbal sparring between Cosatu's secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi and the ANC.

Delegates from 175 nations agreed on two extra sessions of United Nations (UN) climate control talks this year, at the end of a tortuous meeting in Bonn that presaged big battles ahead over the nonbinding Copenhagen Accord, which seeks to limit a rise in average world temperatures to below 2°C over preindustrial times but does not spell out how.
Annie Petsonk of the US-based Environmental Defense Fund said at the end of the meeting in Bonn that the process has big problems. Delegates wrangled over a two-page plan to guide negotiations, but the final text skirted one of the biggest problems - the fate of the Copenhagen Accord. The December summit in Copenhagen disappointed many by failing to come up with a binding treaty.

The accord has backing from almost 120 of 194 member States, including top emitters China, the US, the European Union, Russia and India. It faces opposition led by countries such as Bolivia, Cuba, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Some developing nations complain that rich countries pledged insufficient action under the accord to stop disaster for millions of people from floods, droughts, heat waves and rising seas.

There are opportunities for businesses other than the official sponsors to benefit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup, said FIFA legal adviser David Gill yesterday. Speaking at the Licensing Executives Society International conference in Johannesburg, Gill admitted that these opportunities are limited.
FIFA wants a broad base of South Africans to benefit from the tournament, but it will not allow the use of its intellectual property or any undue association, as it has to protect the long-term value of its commercial rights. FIFA has been heavily criticised in recent months over the strict trademark and intellectual property rules that it has implemented for the event, particularly as it becomes apparent that there will be limited economic spinoffs from the event.
Gill says that the use of generic symbols of soccer, such as balls or vuvuzelas, as well as associations with South Africa, is allowable under FIFA's guidelines, as long as they bear no direct references to the tournament. However, the combination of a number of these generic symbols or elements often "infringed on FIFA's intellectual property rights", as it then links companies other than the official sponsors to the event. This is usually done through "ambush marketing", or by intrusion.

Also making headlines:

Zimbabwe prosecutors withdraw charges of illegal storage of grain against Movement for Democratic Change official Roy Bennett, who is already on trial for terrorism.
Uncertainty over a global treaty to cut carbon emissions slows investment in clean energy in South Africa.
Sudan extends voting because of delays in delivering ballots, while opposition parties call for the elections to be scrapped.
And, Nigerian Acting President Goodluck Jonathan promises fair elections in 2011.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.