Monday December 6, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines:

Former South African leader Thabo Mbeki sought on Sunday to mediate an end to a dispute over Ivory Coast's presidential election that has threatened to trigger unrest in the divided West African nation.
The November 28 poll, designed to reunite a country split after a 2002 to 2003 civil war, has raised tensions as both incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and his challenger Alassane Ouattara have claimed victory and taken presidential oaths.
South Africa's envoy to Ivory Coast, Zodwa Lallie, told Reuters that a situation like Rwanda or Kenya would be a nightmare, which they are working tirelessly to avoid. Lallie noted similarities with Kenya's election in 2007 when a disputed result degenerated into ethnic bloodshed that killed at least 1 300 people.
Mbeki was expected to hold talks with Gbagbo on Sunday and meet Ouattara at the UN-guarded Abidjan hotel he is using as headquarters. South African officials said the Mbeki visit was due to last one day.

Clashes between rich and developing nations over the future of the Kyoto Protocol for fighting global warming clouded UN climate talks on Saturday despite glimmers of progress in some areas.
Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa urged negotiators to look for compromise, as the 189-nation talks seek a modest package of measures to slow climate change.
Wrangling over whether to extend Kyoto, which obliges almost 40 developed nations to cut greenhouse emissions until 2012, overshadowed a review of work halfway through the talks that end on December 10.
Extending Kyoto "is indeed the cornerstone of a successful outcome in Cancun," said Abdulla Alsaidi of Yemen, who chairs the group of developing nations at the talks, which are meant to avert more floods, droughts, desertification and rising sea levels.
Developing nations note that Kyoto imposes a legal obligation on its supporters to extend the pact. But Kyoto backers – especially Japan, Canada and Russia – want a new, broader treaty that also binds emerging economies to act.

Eskom senior GM for regulatory affairs Mohamed Adam said that a more structured decision-making framework to ensure implementation of the second integrated resource plan (IRP2010), including the decisions on potential projects, was required.
Speaking at the public hearings into the IRP2010 on Friday, Adam noted that the success of the country’s electricity plan lay in the implementation.
The Department of Energy has referred to an ongoing review of the IRP2010, and Adam said that Eskom supported that, but suggested that it be done in a predictable clear process, that all stakeholders were aware of.
In raising the concerns of the electricity utility with regard to the IRP 2010, Adam also stated that the price path trajectory for nuclear “may be understated”, and the rate of return expected for independent power producers may not be as much as the 12,5% alluded to in the IRP 2010.
He added that regional options for power generation should be reviewed and brought on sooner than articulated in the IRP2010.

Also making headlines:

Rights organisations claim that Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale misunderstood the Constitution and the reasons that poor people crowded into shack settlements and inner city buildings.
Egyptians vote in a run-off after the opposition party quits.
And, Sudan's south rejects a bid for a delay of the January 9 vote.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.