BET announces host and performers for Celebration of Gospel. The BET Celebration of Gospel, the nation’s largest showcase of Christian music, has announced the host and performers for this year’s extravaganza. Hosted once again by comedian/actor Steve Harvey, the show features such notables as Heather Headley, Smokie Norful, Vickie Winans, Hezekiah Walker, Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin, Trinitee 5:7, Louis Gossett, Jr. (for spoken word), Dr. Bobby Jones, Muyiwa & Riversongz,  Shirley Caesar, LL Cool J, and Kurt Carr & The Kurt Carr Singers. The Celebration of Gospel premieres on BET on Jan. 25.

At least 300 die in political fighting in Nigeria. Fighting has calmed in Jos, Nigeria, after days of clashes between supporters of political parties left hundreds dead, reports CNN. Crowds of people, upset that the results of a local election (the first in Jos in over 10 years) were not posted yet gathered Thursday near ballot collation centers. Riots hit the area the next morning and after local leaders made pleas for peace on Saturday, the streets were mostly clear by that afternoon. At least 300 dead bodies were brought to the local mosque for burial, according to the imam, and it’s likely the final death toll will be a lot higher since many Christians are believed to have died during the clashes as well. Police arrested hundreds of people since the riots started, they say. Fighting between the groups of supporters fell along religious and ethnic lines and the country is no stranger to religious violence. Clashes between Muslims and Christians in 2004 led to 700 people being killed in Plateau State and rioting in Jos in 2001 killed more than 1,000.  In a country where Muslims live in the north and Christians in the south, the city of Jos lies in the middle of the nation and in many areas Muslims and Christians live side by side. After the streets were calmed, hundreds of women and children set out in search of water while thousands took shelter in schools and army barracks.

Zimbabwe drought leaves hundreds dead. Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, is suffering from an extreme water shortage, reports the BBC. This comes as the nation is suffering from an outbreak of cholera, which has killed 425 people in the last few months. The disease has also infected 11,000 people in the nation since August. Cholera is spread by water that is contaminated and a lack of water purification chemicals is the reason behind the water shortage, local authorities said. The nation’s Health Minister David Parirenyatwa suggested citizens stop shaking hands to stop the spread. “I want to stress the issue shaking hands. Although it’s part of our tradition to shake hands, it’s high time people stopped shaking hands,” he said.

Smoking causes more cancers than once thought 

Infamous Klansman will rally troops in civil rights capital

Renowned ex-Klansman David Duke is uniting his troops in Memphis, the home of the National Civil Rights Museum. Duke, the Louisiana White supremacist politician who came a stone’s throw from landing in the U.S. Senate, has announced his Euro-International Conference to be held in the historic city on Nov. 8. But it is unclear exactly where the event will be held, according to Kevin Kane, an official with the convention and visitors bureau. At the convention, Duke will address the presidential election. “We will assemble to say clearly that neither Black radical, Barrack Obama, nor Mr. Amnesty, John McCain, truly represent the will of the American people,” says Duke, who left the Democratic Party several years ago to join the Republican ranks. Before his run for the Senate in 1990, Duke left the KKK – officially – and he formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People, NAAWP. He says he didn’t pick Memphis because it is the infamous site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or the home of the National Civil Rights Museum, but because it is the most centrally located cities in the United States.

Police seek noose planter at Texas University. Police want to know who put a noose on the chair of the student body president at Abilene Christian University last week. When Daniel Paul Watkins, and African-American senior political science major, returned to his office on Wednesday, somebody had put the racially insensitive symbol there. University President Royce Money said the action is nothing short of a hate crime and campus cops are working to solve the case. Only about 13 percent of the student body at Abilene Christian, a campus of 4,700 students, is Black.