In today’s top news, music loses legend Jimmy Castor, boxing great Muhammad Ali celebrates his 70th birthday and the Occupy Movement marches on in Washington.

Funk legend Jimmy Castor dies at 64. [BET]

Muhammad Ali celebrates his 70th birthday today. [BET]

‘Occupy’ protesters plan to take on Congress. [MSNBC]

Gingrich gets grilled at a Black church. [AP]

Lil Boosie pens jailhouse letter to fans. [BET]

U.S. Border Patrol to toughen southern border policy. [AP]

Death toll rising in European cruise ship wreck. [CNN]

Holder vows to protect voting rights in an MLK day speech. [CNN]

Nigerian fuel agency is being investigated for corruption. [BBC]

2011 was a good year for beating down credit card debt. [CNN]

In today’s top news, Haiti marks the somber two-year anniversary of its history-making earthquake, a lawsuit pops the top on racial discrimination at Pepsi, Co., and Jay-Z’s and Beyoncé’s new baby girl is already making history.

Haiti marks two years since a devastating earthquake shook the nation. [BET]

Pepsi shells out $3.1 million in racial bias case. [AP]

Michelle Obama says she has tried to ignore attempts to portray her as an “angry Black woman.” [Sun-Times]

President Obama took in $68 million in campaign funds at the end of 2011. [AP]

Jay-Z’s and Beyoncé’s daughter, Blue Ivy, sets a billboard record just days after birth. [WSJ]

Survey: Conflict between rich and poor is strongest in years. [AP]

J-Cole’s “Work Out” goes platinum. [BET]

Director George Lucas says he found out how hard Black Hollywood has it through making Red Tails. [BBC]

Uncle Snoop plans to intervene in Waka Flocka, Wiz Khalifa beef. [BET]

Fuel protests in Nigeria intensify as oil union workers join the fray. [Bloomberg]

(Photo: Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)

In today’s top news, music legend Aretha Franklin gets a ring, two Black frats have Obama’s back and Georgia’s anti-fat ads attract bad flack.

The ‘Queen of Soul’ Aretha Franklin gets engaged. [BET]

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says poor Blacks shouldn’t get welfare handouts. [CBS]

FAMU Board approves anti-hazing plan. [CNN]

Some Memphis Black farmers say they have been shut out of a class action lawsuit. [WMC-TV]

Nigerians take to the streets to protest high gas prices. [BBC]

Diabetes during pregnancy may lead to ADHD. [CNN]

Two Black fraternities have joined forces to rally support for Obama’s re-election bid. [BET]

Senegalese musician Youssou Ndour eyes the country’s top post. [AP]

Georgia’s anti-obesity ads featuring children are ruffling feathers. [NYDN]

Hong Kong rings in 2012 with fresh fears of a Bird Flu outbreak. [WSJ]

The World Lens: Indian police break up fuel protests; food woes get worse in Ethiopia ; and soccer players get acrobatic. See the photos here.

Chinese in South Africa are Black?Chinese South Africans will soon be classified as Black, so they too can benefit from certain affirmative-action-like government programs. About 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in the African nation, and they claim they have long been the target of discrimination, reports the BBC. For this reason, the Chinese Association of South Africa filed suit against the government because Chinese were being classified as White. This caused them to miss out on business contracts and job promotions as part of the Broad-Based Economic Empowerment and Employment Equity Acts meant to abolish the country’s apartheid tradition. Under that act people classified as Black, Indian or of mixed race benefited. Chinese originally were placed in the mixed-race category, but today they are generally looked at and classified as being White. In court, the association brought up various incidences were Chinese people were denied opportunities because they were not cared for under the act. Years after apartheid, White South Africans still earn about 450 percent more than Blacks in the nation.

South African leader to meet with Zimbabwe president. Thabo Mbeki, South Africa ’s president, will visit Zimbabwe to meet with longtime leader Robert Mugabe, reports CNN. Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai are embroiled in a fight for the presidency with run-off elections (following the disputed one in March) set to happen next week. Each side claims the other side is responsible for violence in the country; Mugabe supporters stand accused of intimidating his opponent’s supporters through beatings, kidnappings, arrests and murder, while Mugabe accuses Tsvangirai’s party (Movement for Democratic Change) of inciting violence as well. Mbeki has been tapped as a mediator with the Southern African Development Community. But the MDC believes Mbeki is biased toward Mugabe. “We don’t even know what [Mbeki]’s agenda is. We can’t attach expectations to an agenda we know nothing about,”an MDC spokesman, Ngobizitha Mlilo, told The Association Press. Tsvangirai has even asked that Mbeki step down from the position as mediator, reports the news service. Mbeki was appointed in 2007 and helped get the sides to agree to post election results outside of polling stations.