Monday December 05, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

The window of opportunity is “wide open” for South Africa to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and simultaneously obtain a source of clean emission-free power, Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll said in Durban last night.  “With platinum at its heart, a fuel cell industry would support South Africa’s drive for jobs,” Carroll said. Carroll outlined how Anglo American had put an expert body to work in London, which had concluded that hydrogen fuel cells could drive development of a whole new industrial sector in South Africa and provide the country with the opportunity to become a major player in the global green economy.

Several animal species including gorillas in Rwanda and tigers in Bangladesh could risk extinction if the impact of climate change and extreme weather on their habitats is not addressed, a UN report showed. Launched on the sidelines of global climate negotiations in Durban, the report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) shows how higher temperatures, the rise in sea levels, deforestation and excessive land use have damaged the habitats of certain species, especially in Africa. "Many ecosystems have already been stressed by increasing population, historical and recent deforestation, unsustainable management practices and even invasive species," Eduardo Rojas-Briales, assistant director-general at the FAO's forestry department, said at the launch of the report.

Presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj may himself have broken the law he hopes will be used to prosecute journalists, City Press reported. The newspaper said that it had confirmed that Maharaj gave his biographer Padraig O'Malley access to a transcript of his secret Section 28 interrogation by the Scorpions in 2003. This may lead to him facing prosecution in terms of the same draconian law he has used in a criminal complaint against the Mail & Guardian newspaper and two of its journalists.

Also making headlines:

Convicted top cop Jackie Selebi's lawyers were expected to ask the High Court in Johannesburg to postpone his imprisonment, the National Prosecuting Authority said.

And, a coalition of Senegalese opposition parties failed to agree on a single candidate to challenge President Abdoulaye Wade in next year's presidential election, increasing Wade's chances of staying in power.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.