Thursday April 28, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiators will meet in Geneva tomorrow to consider whether the much-delayed Doha Development Agenda can be reignited. The meeting follows a recent statement by WTO director-general Pascal Lamy in which he conceded that a successful conclusion was “at serious risk”, adding that differing views on market access for industrial products were “not bridgeable” at this stage. South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies has long questioned the likelihood of a conclusion to the round in 2011, stating that if it were concluded, it could be at a great cost to South Africa and other developing countries in general.

Uganda's main opposition leader, arrested and charged with inciting protests that have left at least five dead, was released on bail and immediately vowed to carry on the campaign. Kizza Besigye, runner-up to veteran President Yoweri Museveni in a disputed February election, was detained on Thursday as he walked to his office with hundreds of supporters to condemn soaring fuel and food prices. "On my part I can say very clearly that we will continue to engage in all activities ... that are within our civil rights," Besigye said after the ruling.

National police chief Bheki Cele's office insisted that recent reports of police brutality were isolated incidents. "It will be important for us to treat those as isolated incidents instead of bringing them into one issue and cloud the matter around the issue of police brutality," his spokesperson, major general Nonkululeko Mbatha, said. She was responding to several reports of police assaulting or killing unarmed civilians. The most recent was this week's deadly shooting of Jeanette Odendaal, outside the Kempton Park police station, east of Johannesburg.

Also making headlines:

Britain ordered Malawi's acting ambassador to leave the country soon after the African state expelled Britain's envoy over his criticism of its leader.
The leader of a militia that helped Côte d’Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara defeat rival Laurent Gbagbo was killed in a gun battle after he and his men refused to obey a presidential order to disarm.
And, the US took steps to throw a financial lifeline to rebels controlling eastern Libya while forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi focused their firepower on pockets of resistance in the west.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.