Monday June 06, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

African National Congress (ANC) MPs on Friday called for an extension of the looming deadline to complete drafting the Protection of Information Bill after ruling party ally the Congress of South African Trade Unions voiced strong opposition to the draft law. ANC MP LLewellyn Landers suggested that the new deadline be somewhere in the second week of the new parliamentary session, which starts on July 22. This move marks a turnaround for the ANC majority on the committee, which had in the past two weeks seemed determined to drive the bill through Parliament despite widespread calls that it was unconstitutional.

The United Nations (UN) Security Council has called on the Khartoum government to withdraw its forces immediately from the Abyei region, a key area of dispute in the north-south division of Sudan next month. There has been no agreement on which country the oil-producing region should belong to when south Sudan becomes independent on July 9, but the northern military seized it on May 21, sparking fears of a renewed civil war.
The north's move into Abyei followed an attack the day before on northern troops and UN peacekeepers that the Security Council itself has said was carried out by southern forces. The council has already deplored that attack.

China made its first confirmed contact with Libyan rebels in the latest diplomatic setback for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and France said it was working with people close to the veteran ruler to persuade him to leave power. The meeting in Qatar between a Chinese diplomat and the leader of the rebel National Transitional Council follows a spate of defections by high-profile figures last week, including senior oil official and former prime minister Shokri Ghanem. Libyan rebels and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation have made Gaddafi's departure a condition for agreeing a ceasefire in the conflict but he emphatically told visiting South African President Jacob Zuma he would not leave Libya.

Also making headlines:
The Trucking Wellness programme has received ten new mobile clinics, used to combat the spread of HIV/Aids in the trucking industry, taking its fleet to 15 units.
And, South Africa's "stability and predictability" of its institutions, free press and transparent Constitution and government, gives it an advantage over many developing countries to attract investment, according to Goldman Sachs International MD, Colin Coleman.
That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.