Monday October 17, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Brad Dubbelman

Making headlines:

National police commissioner General Bheki Cele has not been fired by President Jacob Zuma, The Presidency said yesterday.
Independent newspapers reported that Cele had been axed and had been asked to take on a diplomatic post in Canada. He was expected to vacate his office by November 30. The dismissal was reportedly the result of a report, by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, which implicated him in controversial lease deals for buildings in Durban and Pretoria.

Liberia's main opposition candidate Winston Tubman, withdrew a demand for a recount of a presidential poll and said he will take part in a runoff. Tubman made his announcement after election authorities declared yesterday that no candidate had obtained an absolute majority.
A group of nine Liberian opposition parties had earlier asked the West African nation's election commission to recount the votes of the first-round presidential poll, alleging fraud in the results announced so far.

The uprisings that swept the Middle East this year have cost the most affected countries more than $55-billion, a new report says, but the resulting high oil prices have strengthened other producing countries. A statistical analysis of IMF data by political risk consultancy Geopolicity showed that countries that had seen the bloodiest confrontations – Libya and Syria – were bearing the economic brunt, followed by Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen. Between them, those States saw $20.6-billion wiped off their GDP and public finances eroded by another $35.3-billion as revenues slumped and costs rose.

Also making headlines:
Libyan government fighters battled to subdue pockets of resistance by pro-Gaddafi fighters, whose refusal to abandon the ousted leader's hometown of Sirte is delaying Libya's move to democracy.
And, Zambia's new President Michael Sata announced plans to overhaul the Constitution, the latest step in his top-to-bottom review of the way Africa's top copper producer is run.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.