Police in South Africa shot rubber bullets at protesters near Johannesburg. Things turned ugly when about 200 people hit the streets near a settlement to rally against the areas poor living conditions, the BBC reports. “Police had to use rubber bullets to disperse the violent crowd. A police officer was seriously injured when a stone was thrown at him during their protest,” said a police spokesman, according to the South African Press Association. In addition, protestors (who police say were mostly young people without jobs) set a library and municipal vehicles ablaze. Residents are upset that they are without housing, running water and electricity. President Jacob Zuma has spoken out against the attacks. “There can be no justification for violence, looting and destruction of property,” he said. He also said he will address the needs of the protesters to stop the violence, reports the BBC.

Fight Anti-foreigner Violence, Group Tells Zuma
A year after a surge in attacks on immigrants in the country, a group is asking new President Jacob Zuma to do more to confront xenophobia, reports the BBC. The organization, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants, says that the attacks have not ceased and called on authorities to investigate the problem. “Little has been done by authorities to address the root causes of the violence and as a result, threats of violence against foreigners remain common in some communities,” a statement from the group read. Last year, more than 60 immigrants (mostly from neighboring Zimbabwe and Mozambique) were killed and thousands were displaced when they were attacked by mobs, many of whom blamed them for the nation’s lack of jobs and crime problem. Twenty-one native South Africans, thought to be foreigners, were also mistakenly killed, reports the BBC. Officials in the country, however, said there have been few attacks since then and that they had done all they could to prevent them from occurring in the future.
 

Peacekeeper Murdered in Darfur Attack
An African Union-United Nations Mission peacekeeper was shot and killed in Darfur late last week while being carjacked, reports CNN. The man, who served as a military observer, was shot by gunmen as he was opening the gate to his Darfur home and died soon after going to receive medical attention. Officials from the group are condemning the attack on one of their members, calling it “deplorable.” The mission is “here to assist the people of Darfur, and any attack on them is totally unacceptable …I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of the peacekeeper who lost his life” Rodolphe Adada, a special representative, said in a statement. The group, along with Sudan’s government, is investigating the murder. The peacekeeper is the 15th killed since the mission was deployed in the nation last year, reports CNN.

Kenyan Man Sues Over Sex Boycott
A Kenyan man, James Kimondo, is suing the activists in the nation who asked women to boycott sex for seven days, claiming that the sex ban caused him stress, mental anguish, backaches and lack of sleep, reports CNN. The sex boycott, called for by the country’s women’s rights groups, was to protest the increasing rift in the country’s coalition government. But Kimondo claims that the action, or lack thereof, negatively affected his marriage and his lawsuit is asking for undisclosed damages from an umbrella group for women organizations, according to the Kenya Broadcasting Corp. At least on Kenyan activist can’t wait to take a look at the court papers. “I have not been served with the papers, but I was told they are coming and I am eagerly waiting. It will be interesting to see the face of a man who is not willing to abstain for the sake of his country,” Ann Njogu, executive director of Center for Rights Education and Awareness told CNN. After post-election violence in the nation killed more than 1,000 people in 2008, a coalition government between the former opponents and current President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga was created. Since then, the infighting and disagreements within the government has upset Kenyans, prompting the boycott to get the two sides to meet with each other. And, according to Njogu, it looks like it worked. “The prinicipal leaders met as a result of the boycott, and I understand that they are setting up reforms to look into the country’s internal security,” she told the news service.
 
South Africa Swears in New Leader
South Africans celebrated the inauguration of popular African National Congress leader and new president Jacob Zuma at Union Buildings in Pretoria Saturday. Other leaders and former presidents, including Nelson Mandela, were among those in the crowd. The crowd was excited and sang songs during the ceremony, reports CNN. South Africa’s parliament, where the ANC still holds the majority, elected Zuma last week.  Unlike the more reserved former leaders Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, Zuma has a more colorful personality. A Zulu, he often wears traditional clothing, which have included leopard skins and a spear, to events reports CNN.

Nation names fourth post-apartheid prez. With over 12 million votes counted, Jacob Zuma was expected to take over the presidency of South Africa Thursday night. The African National Conference was ahead of the two-thirds majority needed for power in its parliament. Zuma, who is the fourth post-apartheid president elected in South Africa addressed celebrating spectators in Johannesburg. “The people have spoken with their vote,” Zuma said. At 67, Zuma will be South Africa’s first Zulu president.

 Overthrown sheikh is back in Somalia. Having fled to exile in Eritrea after Ethiopian troops crushed his religious movement two years ago, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is home again in Somalia. Branded a terrorist by the United States, the sheikh arrived in Mogadishu on Thursday. Among his significant moves during exile was Aweys’ parting of ways with the current Somalia president. Both had been officials in the Islamic Courts Union. The sheikh reportedly met with his supporters who remained in Somalia, following his airplane’s landing.

Mandela Supports Zuma
Former South African leader Nelson Mandela surprised about 100,000 supporters of the African National Congress party Sunday when he made a rare appearance, just days before the nation’s presidential election. In a glowing endorsement of the ANC’s candidate, Jacob Zuma, Mandela wore a shirt with Zuma’s face on it as he rode around a field in a golf cart seated next to Zuma, reports The Associated Press. The 90-year-old political icon was then helped on stage and seated next to another ANC leader and ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, where he waved at the crowd and watched his pre-recorded message praising the ANC.  The party is the best suited to help Black South Africans, who suffered the effects of apartheid, out of poverty, the message said. Zuma, an overwhelming favorite to win Wednesday’s election, joined the ANC in 1959 and was imprisoned with Mandela in Robben Island for 10 years. And many in the nation have high hopes for Zuma. “All the people love Jacob Zuma,” one ANC supporter told the AP. “He’s the man who’s going to deliver – deliver water, electricity, houses, jobs, everything.” At the rally, Zuma said his administration would “do things differently” from the previous one led by Thabo Mbeki, who was forced to resign late last year.

 Jamaican Teachers Ponder Strike
Teachers in Jamaica are considering going on strike, after the government informed them that they would not be able to make retroactive salary payments this month, reports the BBC. The government had agreed to pay the teachers the due salaries in a deal signed by the Jamaica Teachers Association and the nation’s finance ministry. An official from the union recently met with Ministry of Finance officials and will decide Friday if the school system would be affected by a strike, reports the news service.

As the nation’s presidential elections near, South African prosecutors dropped corruption charges against African National Congress (ANC) leader and popular presidential candidate Jacob Zuma, reports AFP. The investigation, which has been going on for eight years, probed whether Zuma accepted bribes from a Thales, a French arms company. The leader faced 16 counts of fraud, racketeering and money laundering, reports the news service. Zuma supporters rejoiced in the news, and speculated the charges might have been an effort by some to keep him from being president. “The Zuma case has all the hallmarks of a vindictive politically motivated prosecution,” the ANC said. However the decision to drop the charges was not due to a weak case against Zuma, but rather the misconduct of a former investigative official, Leonard McCarthy, said Mokotedi Mpshe, chief of the National Prosecuting Authority. McCarthy was caught be wiretap plotting a way to profit politically from a Zuma conviction. This “abuse of power” made it impossible for him to have a fair trial, Mpshe said. So the dropped charges don’t “amount to an acquittal,” he said. Still, in spite of his legal drama Zuma comes out on top in the polls; the most recent, made public last Friday, had him with 64 percent of the vote, reports the news service.

Zambia elects and swears in new president. Zambia swore in a new president Sunday. The country’s newly elected leader, Rupiah Banda, 72, already had been serving as interim president after the nation’s popular leader, Levy Mwanawasa, died in August. Banda was sworn in right after the close poll results were announced. “I promise to be an agent of continuity, good governance and will campaign against corruption. I also promise to fight poverty because poverty is demeaning,” Banda said during his inauguration, reports CNN. The vote was not without controversy, however. Opposition leader Michael Sata (who won 38 percent of the vote to Banda’s 40 percent) accused the ruling party of attempting to rig the ballot before the results were released and said he’d challenge the results. But international observers say the poll was legit.  Leaders from Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe (of whom Mwanawasa was very critical) attended the inauguration ceremony. Banda, who will serve out the last three years of Mwanawasa’s five-year term, will keep Zambia’s economy a priority; the nation saw foreign investments skyrocket from $71.7 million in 2001 to $4 billion in 2008 under Mwanawasa’s rule.
South African leader blasts ex-party members. Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), didn’t mince words when talking about ex-party mates. In the past few days, Zuma called former ANC members who plan to launch a breakaway party in December poisonous snakes and even compared them to bigamists, reports CNN. “Even before the divorce has been concluded, they have now announced that they will be getting married to the Democratic Alliance and other opposition parties to form a coalition,” he told rally goers in Soweto. And because they are planning to unite with other opposition groups, he called them “bigamists.” His comments came as members of the breakaway party held a meeting this weekend. The new party, which currently has no name, has lofty goals- including winning next year’s presidential elections, according to Mbahazima Shilowa, who was the premier of Gauteng. But the odds of that happening are slim because ANC has been a dominant force in the country ever since 1994, the year apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela became president. But members of the breakaway faction accuse ANC of going against the ideals of Mandela, and if the new party unites with other opposition parties, the coalition could be a force in various local elections.