Wednesday, November 10, 2010

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

Making headlines:

African National Congress (ANC) Members of Parliament on Tuesday accepted changes to the Protection of Information Bill to protect whistle-blowers that disclose State secrets, but hesitated at doing the same for the media.
Opposition lawmakers on Parliament's ad hoc committee redrafting the controversial bill, reiterated a call for a so-called public interest defence to be introduced. Such a clause would allow journalists who publish classified information under pain of lengthy prison sentences, to argue that they had done so for the public good, and has been advocated by rights groups, lawyers and media houses. But the idea was slapped down by ANC committee chairperson Cecil Burgess who said that the topic is not up for discussion at this stage.
The bill is being redrafted following an outcry over the far-reaching powers that it gives the State to classify information. Deliberations on the bill, described by opponents as a bid to silence criticism of the State, is likely to continue next year.

France's highest court on Tuesday reopened the way for a legal investigation into tens of millions of euros worth of assets held in the country by three African Presidents or their families.
The ruling means that an inquiry can now look into dozens of bank accounts, luxury properties and cars that a police probe in 2007 found were among assets held in France by the Presidential families of Gabon, the Congo Republic and Equatorial Guinea. It overrules an earlier rejection by a Paris appeals court of a case brought by independent antigraft group Transparency International (TA) into the source of the assets. TA alleged that the assets were acquired with embezzled public funds.
At the time of the 2007 inquiry, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Congo Republic, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea and Omar Bongo, Gabon's then-President and the father of current President Ali Ben Bongo, denied any wrongdoing.

South Africa's history of colonisation and apartheid created a culture where people see resorting to force as normal, a report from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation revealed on Tuesday.
Commissioned by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa in 2007, the report states that "the ability to operate and achieve credibility within [South Africa's] culture [of violence and criminality], is strongly related to one's readiness to resort to extreme violence with a weapon." It lists poverty, a weak criminal justice system, firearm proliferation and poor socialisation of the youth as factors that sustain a culture of violence.
Members of Parliament on the portfolio committee on police questioned the value of the research, saying that it failed to answer the fundamental question of why South Africa was so afflicted by violence. The report's chief author Dave Bruce suggested that delving into the causes of crime would only go so far towards finding a solution to the problem.

Also making headlines:

Partial preliminary results show that Guinea's former premier Cellou Dallein Diallo holds a slight lead over his rival Alpha Conde after Sunday's Presidential runoff.
The Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans says that the judgment in the ongoing case against the South African National Defence Force for unlawful dismissal after an illegal strike last year, will not stop the force from disciplining soldiers.
Tanzania's re-elected President Jakaya Kikwete will have to overcome party rifts if he is to push through policies to curb corruption after a lacklustre Presidential vote last week.
And, European Union chief trade negotiator Karel De Gucht says that he expects a successful conclusion to the Doha Round of trade talks by the end of next year.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.