Monday, November 22, 2010

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

Making headlines:

South African President Jacob Zuma is expected to meet leaders in Zimbabwe's unity government this week for further talks on settling disputes over power sharing, said Southern African Development Community (SADC) executive secretary Tomaz Salamao on Saturday.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was been forced to share power with his rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and a small third party since last year, after disputed 2008 elections, but the government has been hobbled by feuds.
SADC leaders failed to discuss in detail the tensions in Zimbabwe at a summit on Saturday, after Zambian President Rupiah Banda - who is chairperson of the SADC Troika on Politics, Defence and Security - failed to attend the meeting held in Botswana. Zuma will therefore head to Zimbabwe to further mediation efforts.

A Congolese warlord goes on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) this week, accused of letting his troops kill and rape hundreds during a coup attempt in the Central African Republic.
Former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba is the most senior political leader to be put on trial at the ICC so far. His case will be the court's first chance to judge whether a leader, who might not have directly ordered or committed violence, can still be held responsible for atrocities. The case focuses on sexual crimes.
Bemba is charged with two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes for leading troops into the Central African Republic between late 2002 and early 2003, at the invitation of the republic's then President Ange-Felix Patasse to put down coup attempts.

Sudan's ruling northern party warned on Sunday that it may not recognise the result of a January 9 southern referendum on independence, if problems with registering voters are not resolved.
The vote marks the final stage of a 2005 peace process between the north and south of Sudan that ended Africa's longest civil war, and most people expect the south to vote to secede. However, the northern National Congress Party (NCP) said that the low registration of southerners living in the north will affect the credibility of any outcome. The NCP blamed the southern ruling party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), for telling southerners in the north not to register.
Two SPLM officials confirmed that the party had told southerners in the north not to register, saying that it feared that the NCP could manipulate results there. However, the SPLM publicly denied that this was official party policy, instead accusing the NCP of intimidating southerners.

Also making headlines:

The Southern Africa Development Community headquarters in Gaborone was officially inaugurated during the summit held in Botswana over the weekend.
Amnesty International says that Egyptian authorities are hindering opposition activists and clamping down on the media ahead of Parliamentary elections next week.
Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping signs several economic deals with Botswana, including one offering the Southern African country $6-million for development.
And, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore appealed to voters on Sunday to cast their ballot amid signs of a weak turnout in a Presidential poll where he is seen as the clear favourite.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.