Monday May 9, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

Government will inject R90-million into Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, with some of the money earmarked for the relocation and housing of residents from Stjwetla township along the Jukskei river, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale announced. Sexwale’s visit on Sunday followed a door-to-door campaign in Alexandra last week, where feedback suggested that no influential African National Congress leaders had recently visited the area.  Government had identified 12 ha of land in Linbro Park, Botshabelo extension and Lombardy East for redevelopment.

The Obama administration took some heat off Pakistan on Sunday, saying it had no evidence that Islamabad knew Osama bin Laden was living in the country before he was killed by US commandos. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to "take the nation into confidence" in parliament today, his first statement to the people more than a week after the attack embarrassed the country and raised fears of a new rift between Islamabad and Washington. Suspicion has deepened that Pakistan's pervasive Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency may have had ties with the al Qaeda leader.

The Human Rights Commission is investigating why about 1 600 toilets in a Free State municipality have been left without enclosures for the past eight years, the Sunday Times reported. A complaint had been laid with the commission, its spokesperson Vincent Moaga told the paper. The toilets are located in Rammulotsi, near Viljoenskroon, in the African National Congress- (ANC-) run Moqhaka municipality. It would cost the council more than R8-million to cover about 200 toilets as part of the next phase of the project, but only R4,2-million was currently available.

Also making headlines:
France has expelled 14 Libyan diplomats loyal to the government of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the French foreign ministry said.
Europe should be doing more to support Tunisia to ensure swift reforms that will set an example in the rest of North Africa, the regional head of the Tunis-based African Development Bank said.
And, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called for political leadership in Africa in the campaign to improve the continent’s air transport safety record, which is by far the worst in the world today.
That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.