Tuesday March 22, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

President Jacob Zuma on Monday warned against foreign military intervention in Libya, saying United Nations (UN) members may not go beyond the terms of a March 17 resolution to enforce a no-fly zone.
"South Africa recommits itself to the position of the African Union Peace and Security Council of 10 March, which reaffirmed Africa's strong commitment to the respect of the unity and territorial integrity of Libya, and underscores Africa's rejection of any foreign military intervention, whatever its form," he told a Human Rights Day rally in Athlone, outside Cape Town.
"The UN Security Council resolution should be implemented in letter and spirit by all members of the UN Security Council.

An elaborate shadow boxing match is under way over whether the North Atlantic Treatiy Association (Nato) should take command of military operations in Libya, but it suits both the US and France to keep the Western alliance out of the limelight. Washington, keen to extract itself from two other wars in the Muslim world, wants as low a profile as possible in the North African conflict, even though it has quietly taken the lion's share of missile and air strikes so far, diplomats say. Paris believes that putting the US-led defence alliance in charge would alienate the Arab world, already alarmed by the first bombs falling, and burn bridges with Russia, China and developing nations that let the United Nations resolution pass.

China signed nearly $700 million in loan deals with Zimbabwe, its biggest loan package to date, and urged the government to protect Chinese firms from nationalisation plans. Shunned by the west, President Robert Mugabe has increasingly sought help elsewhere. China, meanwhile, covets the mineral resources of the southern African country as Zimbabwe struggles back from economic collapse. Zimbabwean Vice-President Joice Mujuru gave details of the loan agreements during a visit by Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, the second high-level Chinese visitor to Harare in little over a month.

Also making headlines:
The Côte d’Ivoire’s descent into violence risks wiping out hard-won security gains in West Africa unless a post-election power struggle is resolved, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said.
Italy urged its European partners to take a greater share of the immigrants pouring across from North Africa as hundreds more people arrived in boats on the southern island of Lampedusa.
And, Zimbabwe is sliding into a police state and regional leaders should intervene to save the unity government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said as police banned a weekend rally he was due to address.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.