Thursday March 15, 2012

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

Making headlines:

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema lodged an appeal against his recent sentence by the party with the ANC's national disciplinary committee of appeal late yesterday afternoon, SABC news reported. The committee would consider argument in the next three days, according to the broadcaster. Appeals were also lodged by spokesperson Floyd Shivambu and secretary general Sindiso Magaqa.

Sudan and South Sudan have stepped back from the brink of all-out confrontation and the world community should seize on this to win humanitarian access to food-starved regions and press for broader reconciliation, senior US officials said. Princeton Lyman, the top Obama administration official for Sudan, said the announcement that Sudan President Omar al-Bashir would visit South Sudan in coming weeks could signal a new phase between two uneasy neighbours seen as being at risk of reigniting one of Africa's bloodiest wars. "The two countries decided to step back from the brink. They looked at each other and said we are going in the wrong direction," Lyman told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Zimbabwe's government faces a shutdown because projected revenue from the diamond industry has failed to come through, the finance minister warned. "Diamonds will have to deliver, otherwise the only thing we have to do will be to pay wages and government will have to close," Tendai Biti said. Biti said according to the Mining Ministry, diamond auctions had not taken place in 2012 before March. Biti is a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change which is in an uneasy coalition government with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

Also making headlines:

Zambia was thrown into political uncertainty that risks stoking social tension after the government deregistered the leading opposition party, which ruled the country until last year, for not paying registration fees.

And, Mauritania dispatched its top diplomat to neighbouring Mali to counter media reports that it was backing Malian rebels fighting for independence in the desert north.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.