Top stories from DAWNS Digest.
Somalia Gets a New President…And He’s a Progressive
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a former UNICEF official, was elected the new president of Somalia by the federal Parliament on Monday. It was the first presidential election held in the country in over two decades. “Lawmakers overwhelmingly elected an academic and civic activist as president of Somalia on Monday, in a United Nations-backed effort to put the country’s lawless past behind it and forge its first stable central government in more than two decades. Hassan Sheik Mohamud defeated about two dozen other candidates, including two outgoing leaders, President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali. The victor, a former UNICEF official and founder of the opposition Peace and Development Party, is seen as a progressive…Questions remain about whether Mohamud will face violent opposition from clan warlords and whether the losing candidates will accept the results. Mohamud faces a delicate task in appointing a new government that will balance the interests of Somalia’s competing clans.” (LAT http://lat.ms/NliIy3)
Labor Unrest Spreads in South Africa Mines
The situation is as volatile as ever for South African miners.These strikes come just three weeks after 34 miners were shot to death by police in a demonstration. “Labor unrest spread in South Africa on Monday with a wildcat strike by more than 10,000 workers halting operations at a gold mine while few workers reported for duty in the fourth week of a violent stoppage over poor pay at the world’s third largest platinum mine. Gold Fields International said its strike started Sunday night and that senior managers met Monday with strikers at the west section of its KDC mine demanding the removal of National Union of Mineworkers’ shop stewards and a minimum monthly wage of R12,500 ($1560). Some 12,000 miners at east KDC staged a weeklong illegal strike to demand the removal of shop stewards that ended Sept. 3. At a second platinum mine, Implats, 15,000-plus workers are demanding a 10 percent pay rise although they are continuing to work, spokesman Johan Theron said.” (FoxNews http://fxn.ws/NljgUy)