Wednesday April 06, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The building cost per kilometre of the Gauteng toll road project is between 106% and 228% more expensive than that of equivalent global road improvement projects, according to research by economist Mike Schussler. The research report presented at the third round of public consultations and engagement on the tolling of the Gauteng freeway system and public transport improvements, requested an independent probe into the building costs and asserted that it would be “inappropriate” to hold consumers and road users responsible for these costs. The report found that the monthly income of R300-million that the South African Roads Agency Limited would receive from Gauteng toll fees was significantly higher than the monthly requirement of R193-million to finance the project’s cost of R20-billion over 20 years.

The head of Libya's rebel army has accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) of being too slow to order air strikes to protect civilians, allowing Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces to slaughter the people of the besieged city of Misrata. Nato officials have said their six-day-old air campaign is now focused on Misrata, under daily attack by army tanks and snipers as the only big population centre in western Libya where a revolt against Gaddafi has not been crushed. The rebels say it is not enough.

The African National Congress Youth League's (ANCYL) attack on the Press Ombudsman was aimed at boosting a faction of the ANC bidding for a media appeals tribunal, the Press Council said on Tuesday. "This gratuitous attack on the Ombudsman is clearly aimed at promoting the aims of a faction in the ANC which proposes that Parliament should investigate the establishment of a Media Appeals Tribunal," said council chairman Raymond Louw in a statement. Louw said ANCYL spokesman Floyd Shivambu had confirmed this by saying: "Our call for an urgent establishment of the Media Appeals Tribunal has now gained more weight and should be placed on the agenda of Parliament.''

Also making headlines:

The Côte d’Ivoire’s Laurent Gbagbo was negotiating the terms of his departure from power on Tuesday following a fierce assault by forces loyal to his presidential rival backed by United Nations and French helicopter airstrikes.
Concerns over financing, security and the neutrality of poll organisers are casting a shadow over planning for Congo's second post-war election, raising the risk of delays and street unrest.
And, South Sudan's government renewed an amnesty offer to rebel militia groups on Tuesday to try to calm tensions in the region before its expected independence in July.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.