President-elect Obama to resign from Senate. President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he will resign from the Senate effective Sunday. In a statement, the junior Illinois senator called his four-year term “one of the highest honors and privileges” of his life and said the people of Illinois will stay with him as he leaves the Senate to begin “the hard task of fulfilling the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans as our nation’s next president.” Obama won the presidency last week over Republican John McCain. He takes office on Jan. 20. Under state law, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich will name Obama’s replacement for the remaining two years of his term. Blagojevich has said he expects to make a decision by year’s end. Obama’s election in 2004 made him the only Black senator. Among the possible replacement is Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

South African president calls it quits. South African President Thabo Mbeki officially announced his resignation Sunday during a televised speech.  He did not reveal the actual date he would leave office, saying that the nation’s powerful political party, the African National Congress, will decide when, reports CNN. “I would like certainly to thank the nation and the ANC for this opportunity to serve first as deputy president and then president,” Mbeki said in his address. “I depart this office knowing that many men and women in South Africa have worked to achieve better lives for all.” Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela, led the nation for almost 10 years. While he was in office, South Africa saw its longest period of economic growth ever, Mbeki said. The ANC asked Mbeki to resign after corruption charges against his political rival and current ANC president, Jacob Zuma, were recently thrown out. The judge accused the government of interfering in the case and some said Mbeki was the one pushing it forward. Mbeki agreed to resign after he was asked. According to Gwede Mantashe, the ANC’s secretary-general, the party wanted Mbeki to resign “for the citizens of South Africa, so there could be stability within the country” and so the movement would stay “stable and unified.” Mbeki’s term in office would have been up in the spring, and he would have been unable to run for another term, under the country’s constitution. Zuma, who is quite popular in the country, is considered a favorite by many to win the office next year. Jamaican opposition leader wins another term. Former Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller won another term as president of the People’s National Party (PNP), reports the BBC. Simpson-Miller, who was the nation’s first woman prime minister (she lost re-election last year to current Prime Minister Bruce Golding), called her most recent win a form of breaking through Jamaica’s political “glass ceiling.” She beat out party vice president Dr. Peter Phillips, who also served as national security minister before Golding took office. Bringing the party together after this tough fight for leadership could prove to be a major challenge for Simpson-Miller. Phillips, though, congratulated her on the win Saturday.