The Chicago factory sit-in ends. The window-manufacturing plant sit-in by laid-off employees ended Wednesday, after a six-day standoff, with an agreement, according to news reports. Bank of America, which had cut off financing for Republic Windows and Doors, said it would lend the company $1.35 million to help pay the employees severance and continue their health care for two months as the workers had been demanding. Also, JPMorgan Chase, which owns 40 percent of the windows company, pledged an additional $400,000. The money will allow the company to pay 60 days of severance to more than 200 laid-off workers, who had been occupying the North Side Chicago  warehouse since the doors of the factory were padlocked before Thanksgiving. The deal also will pay the workers’ vacation time they had accrued but which the company had previously said it would not pay, union officials representing the workers said. The resolution ended six days of negotiations between the bank, company owners and union leaders. The workers voted to end their sit-in on Wednesday evening and emerging from the factory chanting, “Yes we did!”

Nigeria confiscates cash from Africans for Obama. The Nigerian government seized $630,000 (74m naira) raised by Africans for Obama, a group that backs U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, reports the BBC. The country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said that while the group did not break any laws, it will be giving the money back to the people who went to the organization’s fundraising gala dinner in Lagos last month.  Campaigns or political parties from the United States cannot receive contributions from groups overseas and the Obama campaign publically distanced themselves from the organization, according to reports.  Ndi Okereke-Onyuike, who leads the group (and is also chairman of the Nigerian Stock Exchange) insists the media got the group’s motives all wrong. The money, she says, actually was intended to be spent encouraging Nigerians in the United States to vote for Obama. “We never said we were going to donate money for the campaign. We paid for the hall and the entertainers and the surplus; we said it would be spent on advertisements aimed at persuading Nigerians to tell their relatives in America to register to vote,” she said, adding “There is not one Nigerian who doesn’t have a relative or friend in America.” But advertisements for the Aug. 11 gala (where it cost more than $21,000 for an eight-person table) didn’t really say what the group was going to do with the money. And, according to the EFCC, officials had told Okereke-Onyuike to “steer clear of such activities in future.”

South Africa signs oil agreement with Venezuela. South Africa and Venezuela signed a huge and historic oil agreement Tuesday, reports CNN. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez met up with South African leader Thabo Mbeki to sign a deal involving oil and gas. While both sides are mum about specific details surrounding the agreement, reports speculate that it probably involves Venezuela providing South African oil company PetrosSA crude at lower rates. “It will be a wonderful day, the day when the first Venezuelan tanker will stop by to leave oil for South Africa,” said Chavez. At the news conference announcing the agreement, Chavez applauded unity between the southern nations, saying that with times being hard worldwide, it was necessary for the countries to use a “new strategic agenda, to conduct a true strategic change in international relations.” He also said he would like to examine the African nation’s “gas-to-liquid” technology and is looking to use the nation’s oil storage facilities (capable of holding 45 million barrels). Mbeki said the agreements added to “the further empowerment of the countries of the south.” He also hinted at the motivation behind the agreement saying, “The object is to assist in reducing the costs of energy.”

Americans, Jamaican compete in British Grand Prix.

Tyson Gay has won the 200-meter dash in 20.26 seconds, while Asafa Powell grabbed a 9.87 victory in the 100 at the British Grand Prix. The sprinters, who both missed individual golds at the recent Beijing Olympics, shined during Sunday’s competition in London . Powell had anchored Jamaica ’s world-record-breaking, gold relay team in China , but was disappointed with his fifth-place finish in the 100. American Lauryn Williams, who was involved in the baton-dropping fiasco of the women’s 4×100 relay at Beijing , beat Olympics champ Shelly-Ann Fraser in the Grand Prix’s 100, a race that featured five Beijing finalists.

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Damon Dash dropped from deal.

More bad news for the Roc-a-Fella Records co-founder who recently had news of his pending home foreclosure hit headlines: Damon Dash recently lost his licensing agreement with Pro-Keds. Dash had actually given the impression that he bought the old-school sneaker company. He spoke of plans to make the lesser-name brand hip for a new generation. But now the brand has terminated Dash’s deal. The entrepreneur has yet to strike gold as he did when he helped found the record label that helped make his ex-partner, Jay-Z, a superstar.

Zimbabwe parties agree on crisis talks
Rival Zimbabwe parties, the ruling Zanu-Pf and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, have agreed on holding crisis talks, according to a United Nations representative. “There is a draft which we are informed the two negotiating parties have agreed to but the two principals, that is [President Robert Mugabe] and [Morgan Tsvangirai], would have to sign,” U.N. special representative to Zimbabwe Haile Menkerios told a South African station. “It hasn’t been signed yet, but once that is done, one you clear the way or the basis for the talks; then the actual talks begin.” Officials from both parties say that a deal could be signed within days, reports the AFP. The opposition along with many international leaders called last month’s runoff election between Mugabe and Tsvangirai a sham, since Tsvangirai had to drop out of the race because of what he called government-sponsored violence against his supporters. Mugabe was the only one on the ballot, and even then there were reports that citizens were forced to vote. Since the election, there have been meetings between the two parties mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, Menkerios and African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping. The two parties also started preliminary talks focused on setting up a framework for negotiations, reports the news service.