Thursday April 14, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

Africa needs $480-billion for infrastructure development over the next ten years, President Jacob Zuma said. "Over the next ten years, Africa will need $480-billion for infrastructure development which should interest the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) business communities," he said in an address for delivery at the third Brics leaders meeting at Hainan Island in China. "Already, Africa is projected as the third fastest growing economy in the world, while the Brics countries now constitute the largest trading partners of Africa and the largest new investors.”

Diplomats will make a new effort to bring an end to the Libyan civil war, after agreeing to call for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to leave power but failing to forge a unified strategy to force him out. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and officials from the African Union and Organisation of the Islamic Conference will discuss Libya at Arab League headquarters in Cairo. Foreign ministers from a group of Western powers and Middle Eastern States met on Wednesday in Qatar and jointly called for the first time for an end to Gaddafi's 41-year rule.

The five Brics nations took another step towards cementing their global influence on Thursday, calling for a broad-based international reserve currency system "providing stability and certainty". In a statement released at a Brics summit, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said the recent financial crisis had exposed the inadequacies and deficiencies of the current monetary order, which has the dollar as its linchpin. "The era demands that the Brics countries strengthen dialogue and cooperation," Chinese President Hu Jintao says.

Also making headlines:
US re-engagement in combat operations in Libya could help break a stalemate between rebels and Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, but Washington appears reluctant to fully commit to an already messy conflict.
The Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara pledges to quickly restore security and prosperity to a nation broken by civil war as life in the main city slowly returned to a normality of sorts.
And, the South African Police Service has distanced itself from a top secret intelligence report that allegedly revealed plots by a string of senior African National Congress members to oust President Jacob Zuma as the party's president at its elective conference next year.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.