Getting international aid for the struggling nation is a #1 priority.
It’s official: Zimbabwe leaders sign historic deal. Surrounded by cheers, Zimbabwe’s president and opposition leader inked a power-sharing deal after two disputed elections. The two leaders, President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, agreed on a deal that would let longtime leader Mugabe retain the presidency (with lessened power) but would also allow Tsvangirai to be prime minister, reports CNN. After June’s very violent runoff election season, which he says caused him to drop out of the race for his and his supporters’ safety, Tsvangirai seemed ready to move forward with the brand-new government. “Divisions, polarizations and hatred belong to the past. Let us not be divided by our past, but united by our hope for the future,” he said after signing. In what he called a “compromise,” Aruthur Mutabara, a third party leader, will become deputy prime minister. South African President Thabo Mbeki (who helped mediate the power-sharing talks) attended the signing along with leaders from the Southern Africa Development Community. Mugabe used the opportunity take a few jabs at western influences, saying that the United States and Britain need to stay out of the Zimbabwean government. “As we move forward, as long as certain salient principles are recognized, we will find room for agreement, he said.” The country is in a financial crisis, with an 11.2 million-percent inflation rate, making it hard for Zimbabweans to buy basic goods. Tsvangirai urged other countries to send aid to his nation; aid has been slowed with the post-election violence. After a new constitution is drafted in the next year and a half, they will decide whether or not to have new elections.

Black Americans heading to Africa? Get more on the trend plus pics from the documentary “Blacks Without Borders” here.

World Lens: Barack Obama’s Kenyan grandma shows her support, flood waters leave Haitians stranded and Usain Bolt is still dominating. Get these pictures and more here.

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Nigeria is hooking up HIV positive couples. One Nigerian state has decided to match up HIV positive couples in an effort to slow the spread of the disease. “Suitors who have tested positive and are willing to wed each other, can reduce the spread of the virus and also cushion the psychological trauma of isolation,” the executive secretary of the Bauchi Action Committee on AIDS, Dr. Lirwan Mohammed, told the BBC. In recent weeks, about 70 couples have been matched by the country’s Bauchi state government. The couples are (confidentially) hooked up during counseling sessions and have the freedom to accept or reject prospective mates.  Under the Islamic laws the state operates under, condom use is not encouraged. But members from UNAids not only think this is a bad idea, but also a dangerous one. “There may be a very big danger in terms of the spread of the disease,” a spokesman said. Since two people could have differing strains of HIV that could interact, they should still use condoms, he added. He also believes it would be bad for kids. “The chances are that child would become a double orphan, they would lose both parents.” At least one HIV groom is happy, though. “If we should fear God, we should stop spreading the HIV virus through indiscriminate marriage, thereby infecting innocent people,” he told the news service anonymously. An estimated 2.4 million Nigerians are living with HIV.

Thousands of Zambians mourn late president. Thousands came out in Zambia Wednesday to pay their final respects to late President Levy Mwanwasa. After suffering a stroke in June, Mwanwasa passed away at age 59 last month in a French hospital. The ceremony brought the country to a standstill - businesses closed and millions of Zambians watched a live telecast of his funeral on state television, reports Reuters. As he was buried, Mwanawasa was honored with a 21-gun salute by five air force jets. “The flag has been lowered and a gallant fighter is gone, but Zambia must pick up the bits and pieces and forge ahead so that his legacy can live on,” Zambian pastor, Peter Ndhlovu said. Mwanawasa, respected for his strong financial reforms in his country, was a strong critic of longtime Zimbabwe leader, Robert Mugabe, whose country is in financial crisis. Mugabe, along with other African leaders (including presidents of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Malawi) attended Mwanawasa funeral. “Mwanawasa was a very courageous leader. He was very frank and wanted to change not only his country but the entire southern African region. We will greatly miss him,” Mugabe told a Zambian radio station. Mwanwasa left behind his widow Maureen and six children. At the service, she spoke of her late husband’s willingness to take care of orphans at his church. “He was the father of all. It is the orphans he took care of that bring pain to my throat, they are orphaned again,” she said. Rupiah Banda, the country’s vice president, is currently serving as acting president.

Death toll in Somali minibus attack rises fThe death toll in Friday’s attack on two Somali minibuses by Ethiopian troops has risen to 60 after people in the neighborhood discovered 16 more bodies, reports the BBC. The attack happened near Mogadishu when Ethiopian forces were hit by a roadside bomb and retaliated by shooting, according to witnesses. “Ethiopian convoys opened fire into different areas where thousands of displaced people were living; they killed everyone on the road,” Sahra Nor Osma, a witness, told The Associated Press. Ethiopia is in the country supporting Somalia’s transitional government, and trying to rid the country of insurgents. But Mogadishu has been prone to attacks. On the same day of this attack, insurgents fired on President Abdullah Yusuf’s convoy while it was leaving the country for Ethiopia for ceasefire talks. Government troops then fired back, killing five civilians.

Still no Zimbabwe power-sharing deal after summit

This weekend’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit came to a close Sunday without a power-sharing deal between Zimbabwe’s president and opposition leader, reports the BBC. South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki hosted the summit (which includes 14 member nations) and is also the lead mediator of the talks between longtime Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. “It’s clearly not possible to say when negotiations will be concluded. It’s a matter of negotiating parties reconvening,” he told reporters following the summit. Other leaders at the summit were optimistic that there is a base for a deal, though. Hundreds of protesters, upset that Mugabe was even invited to the summit, protested outside of the meeting Saturday. They, along with Botswana’s President Ian Khama, who actually boycotted the meeting, don’t think Mugabe should be recognized as president of Zimbabwe after June’s runoff election, which many in the international community called a sham. Days before the runoff, Tsvangirai dropped out of the race because of violence against his supporters.

Police are wondering how he got his hands on that much money.
Nigerian official allegedly spent $4 million on a witch doctor. Nigerian police arrested a government employee for allegedly hiring a witch doctor to kill a fellow employee, reports CNN. Sam Edem, the head of the Niger Delta Development Corporation, was suspended after the local press got word that he allegedly spent $4 million on the witch doctor to hex and kill another official in his agency. Edem wanted him killed because he believed the employee had ill will against him, police say. He also wanted the witch doctor to influence a state governor to give him “juicy contracts,” said a police statement. Edem became upset when none of the things he asked the witch doctor to do actually happened, and demanded a refund which the witch doctor refused to give him. Both police and those in the federal government are trying to figure out how Edem got his hands on that much money to give to the witch doctor in the first place. He, although not available for official comment, has not denied any of the charges against him, according to the government. Since the nation’s independence from Britain in 1960, about $400 billion of the Nigerian government’s money has been stolen or wasted, according to investigators.

Rival Zimbabwe leaders will resume talks later today. This weekend’s power-sharing negotiations between Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai ended without an agreement, reports CNN. But they are scheduled to resume the talks later today. “We have not finished. We obviously have sticking points like in any talks, but we look forward to overcome them,” Mugabe told the press after talks adjourned early on Monday. Tsvangirai did not answer any questions, instead referring reporters to the meeting’s mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki who also had no comment. In June, following violent weeks which saw people killed and beaten, longtime leader Robert Mugabe was re-elected in a runoff election that many in the international community dismissed as a sham. Tsvangirai had dropped out of the runoff days before voting, saying that he was fearful for his life and the lives of his supporters. Tsvangirai’s party, Movement of Democratic Change, says that 100 of its supporters were killed by members of the president’s political party, Zanu-PF. But just last week, in a written statement, both parties took responsibility for the violence that occurred ahead of the runoff and pleaded with their supporters to stop fighting, reports the news service. “We further reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that the law is applied fairly and justly to all persons irrespective of political affiliation, to take all necessary measures within our power to eliminate all forms of political violence,” the said statement.

All parties report progress in reaching a deal.

A negotiated political settlement that addresses the problems besetting Zimbabwe could be agreed to as soon as this week, The Standard of Kenya is reporting. The negotiators representing the three parties at the talks resume their negotiations in Pretoria, South Africa, on Sunday. Two weeks ago when the leaders of Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC signed a Memorandum of Understanding, they committed themselves to concluding the talks within two weeks. Tomorrow (Monday) marks the last day of the two-week timeline the parties set themselves to reach an agreement. But The Standard was told that while an agreement might not be reached within the next couple of days, the deal will not be too far off the deadline the parties committed themselves to as they were inching toward a final agreement. While there was some groundwork to be covered, the parties to the negotiations were in agreement that there were no insurmountable obstacles to a final settlement, according to The Standard. The optimism on a final agreement being reached this week is indicated in the statements of the three leaders and the arrival here of the chief mediator, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. After Mbeki’s visit, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters that he was “fairly satisfied” with the talks, while acknowledging there were “sticking points.” Professor Arthur Mutambara, who heads the other MDC formation, has used pretty much the same language, saying his side remains committed to finding a settlement to the impasse. President Robert Mugabe spoke of the “talks progressing well” and pledged his party’s total commitment to the “speedy conclusion and successful outcome of the talks so that we can focus on the recovery of our economy.” Tsvangirai and Mutambara are in South Africa, but there was no immediate indication suggesting their presence there signaled imminent conclusion to the talks.

African media wrongly reports president’s death
After Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa suffered a stroke last week, reports of his death surfaced at a South African radio station. The station had even quoted a spokesman who claimed he was from Zambia’s High Commission, and South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki called for a moment of silence during a public ceremony, reports the BBC. The problem is Mwanawasa is not dead and Zambian leaders say they are angry that media outlets would come to such an unsubstantiated conclusion. “It’s extremely unfortunate,” said Zambia’s information minister, Mike Mulongoti. “It’s malice.” Mwanawasa, 59, is actually in intensive care at a French hospital; his vice-president says he is in stable condition. “We expect people to be sensitive to issues like that, because the death of the president of a republic is a serious matter, and in so doing they’ve caused a lot of panic and damage in the minds of the Zambian people,” Mulongoti continued. The reports were later retracted and South Africa’s ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement saying that Mbeki was remorseful for the “misunderstanding” and wished Mwanawasa a quick recovery. Mwanawasa suffered a stroke back in 2006 as well, but officials say they are optimistic about his recovery. “The doctors attending to [him] are happy with progress he has made so far and his condition remains stable,” Vice-President Rupiah Banda said in a statement.

The African nation’s election crisis was a hot topic at this year’s summit.

Following last month’s controversial presidential runoff elections in Zimbabwe, U.S. and U.K. leaders are pushing for sanctions against the nation. “I care deeply about the people of Zimbabwe. I am extremely disappointed in the elections, which I labeled a sham election,” President George Bush told other world leaders at the G-8 summit in Japan, reports CNN. Longtime Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe won re-election last month in a runoff against Movement of Democratic Change opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai and many human rights groups in the nation allege that there was widespread violence against his supporters in the weeks ahead of the runoff, so much so that Tsvangirai says he had to drop out of the race out of fear for his and his supporters’ safety. Mugabe ended up being the only candidate in the election. And because many nations are refusing to recognize his government, “there is growing support for sanctions against the Mugabe regime,” said UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking at the summit. The president of Tanzania and head of the African Union, Jakaya Kikwete, has a different approach on how the situation in Zimbabwe should be rectified; he supports a coalition government. “We are saying no party can govern alone in Zimbabwe and, therefore, the parties have to work together in a government and look at the future of their country together,” he told The Associated Press.

Zimbabwean president gets luke-warm welcome
Robert Mugabe, fresh from being declared the winner in Zimbabwe’s controversial presidential runoff election, received a mixed welcome Monday as he faced other African leaders at a meeting in Egypt. The elections in Zimbabwe were widely criticized because of widespread violence ahead of the runoff, accusations of voter intimidation and several arrests of opposition party candidates. At the African Union (AU) meeting in Egypt, Mugabe reportedly received a warm welcome from some, reports CNN. “He was hugging everyone, pretty much everyone he could get close to,” one of the delegates told to the AP. But he also faced sharp criticism from AU elders. The elections “occurred under the cloud of targeted political violence, precipitating the withdrawal of one of the two candidates. The African election observers left no doubt: The elections were neither free nor fair,” the Elders said in a statement. The leaders, as a whole, are divided on how to deal with the situation. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga (himself involved in an election controversy before reaching a power sharing deal) has openly blasted Mugabe, saying the ruler of 28 years shouldn’t be recognized as Zimbabwe’s official leader. Mugabe responded to criticism by saying that some leaders should be weary of throwing stones. “Some African countries have done worse things,” he said. The president of neighboring South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, believes Mugabe and opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai should come together and form a coalition government. And the longtime Zimbabwe leader recently announced he’d be open to talking to the opposition. “It is my hope that sooner rather than later we shall, as diverse political parties, hold consultations towards such serious dialogue [that] will minimize our differences and enhance the areas of unity and cooperation between us,” he said. Tsvangirai is optimistic for a solution because he feels Mugabe has no other option. “As far as we are concerned, we are nearer a solution than we have ever been because where does he go from here? He cannot solve the economic problem, he cannot solve the 8 million-percent inflation by continuing to be in this intransigent mood,” Tsvangirai said.

Kidnapped aid workers are released in Somalia
The two aid workers kidnapped this weekend in Somalia were released hours after being captured, reports CNN. The two workers, one Swedish, the other Danish, were taken by militants from the Islamist Courts Union. The members of the Swedish Rescue Services Agency (SRSA) were not physically harmed, according to a spokeswoman from their organization. “They are all right physically. They are a bit shocked,” she said. The charity group was in Somalia teaching citizens about the risks of landmines as requested by the United Nations, said their director of international operations, Kiell Larson. They, along with others on their team, will leave the nation, says the SRSA spokeswoman.

Musicians rev up for Nelson Mandela concert
Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, and South African musicians are set to perform. Se the photos and more at BET.com/News.

Zimbabweans head to the polls today to vote in run-off election
Voters in Zimbabwe head to the polls today to vote in the country’s presidential run-off election. Following what he claimed were violent attacks against his supporters in the weeks leading up to the election, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai dropped out of the election Sunday. But the government says it’s too late to take his name off the ballot. Tsvangirai spoke out against today’s election, which he had previously said could not be free and fair. “Today is not an election. Today is a shameful humiliation, another tragic day in our nation’s history. Today’s results will be meaningless because they do not reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe,” he said, reports CNN. International leaders and the United Nations also have spoken out against the run-off election, which has been deemed unfair by many from the start. Some nations have called for the government to delay the poll. According to Tsvangirai’s party, Movement for Democratic Change, 86 of his supporters have been killed, 10,000 wounded and 200,000 made homeless in the weeks leading up to the run-off. But Mugabe’s party, Zanu-PF, accuses the MDC of exaggerating the violence. An aide to longtime leader and presidential candidate Robert Mugabe believes Mugabe will win re-election, and also hinted at a willingness to share power with Tsvangirai and his party. “When the process is done (Friday), as a country, we (will) have a win that I think should include all the other players,” a spokesman for Zanu-PF told CNN. “This is the reason why my president says, ‘Look, Zimbabwe is too big a cake to eat for Zanu-PF; bring everyone in.’ As a country… we can mend bridges.” In related news, MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti, who was arrested earlier this month on charges of treason (which could result in him being executed if he is convicted), was released on bail Thursday.

South African police exchange bullets
In South Africa, national police officers and local police officers exchanged bullets as the national officers attempted to break up a strike held by local forces. Metro officers were striking because of issues with pay and nepotism, but since they were blocking and disrupting traffic, national officers had to get involved. That’s when things turned even uglier. According to the South African Police Service Superintendent Eugene Opperman, the national officers fired rubber bullets to disperse the protest, but “they fired back with live bullets…we only used rubber bullets all through,” he said. But officials on the other side deny the allegation. “If our members had fired live bullets at the SAPs, there would have been a bloodbath,” Vincent Vena, a member of the South African Municipal Workers Union, said in response. The incident left seven metro officers injured, they said.

Zimbabwe will proceed with run-off elections.
Even though opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai announced Sunday he would pull out of Friday’s runoff, the Zimbabwean government is still going ahead with the election, reports CNN. Tsvangirai, who is currently taking refuge at the Dutch Embassy in the country’s capital city, Harare, dropped out of the second round of votes because of what he says were government supporters’ violent acts and intimidation toward his supporters. Such acts included arrests, beatings and murder. He didn’t want his supporters to risk their lives by going to vote for him in Friday’s poll, he says. The government hasn’t received a formal withdrawal from Tsvangirai’s party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but party officials say they are drafting a formal letter. But even the letter might not stop the elections. “There is nothing on this good Earth that will stop the elections on the 27th,” said a spokesman for Tsvangirai’s opponent, longtime Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe. Even if Tsvangirai were to withdraw formally, which he hasn’t done, the elections will still proceed. Meanwhile, MDC headquarters reportedly were raided by the Zimbabwean government. Sixty people were arrested and an opposition party spokesman told reporters that the government gave no reason for the raid.

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.