Nigerian man is put in jail for being lazy.

To all the lazy young people out there: Lying around the house and doing no good could get you jailed in Nigeria. A 20-year-old Nigerian man was sentenced to six months in jail and 30 strokes from a cane for being idle, reports the BBC. And it was the young man’s own father who turned him in. Jamilu Samaila refused to attend school or look for a job and joined a gang, his father told the court in the country’s Bauchi state. He was “bringing shame on the family,” said the father, Samaila Tahir. He also told the court that his son wouldn’t listen to him and that he’d grown “sick of his nefarious deeds.” “Please put this boy in prison so that I can be free,” he pleaded, adding that his son should be jailed “for as long it deems fit.” Jamilu was ultimately sentenced for “having no job and also for associating with bad friends, which is an offense contrary to the Sharia penal code,” according to the court’s clerk. Jamilu got the 30 cane strokes immediately. Bauchi, along with several states in the nation with mostly Muslims, re-introduced the Islamic Sharia law eight years ago. The penalties under this system are a lot harsher than those in the previous system.
 Zimbabwean opposition leader can’t attend talks. Zimbabwean opposition leader and designated Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai can’t attend negotiations with leaders. The talks, which will be held Monday with other regional leaders in Swaziland, will focus on breaking through the deadlock in the country’s power-sharing negotiations. But Tsvangirai didn’t have all of the travel papers he needed to travel to the nation, reports the AFP. Member countries of the Southern African Development Community’s Organ on Defense, Politics and Security – which include Swaziland, Mozambique and Angola -  are attending the meeting. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mediating power-sharing talks between Tsvangirai and longtime Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe, will brief attendees on progress.  Members of Tsvangirai’s party, Movement of Democratic Change, have cited Mugabe’s unwillingness to fairly divide key cabinet posts as the reason for the standstill.

Zimbabwe leaders resume power-sharing talks. On Monday, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai resumed their power-sharing talks, mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, reports The Associated Press. The talks, which follow June’s disputed run-off election, have been at a standstill. The main point they can’t seem to agree on is how much power Mugabe should give up. Tsvangirai (who believes he fairly won the first round of elections in March, and says he dropped out of June’s race because of government-sponsored violence against his supporters) wants Mugabe to be only a ceremonial president while he holds most of the power. If that doesn’t happen, he wants “elections under international supervision and see who will carry the day,” he said at a Movement for Democratic Change party rally Sunday.  Mugabe, the country’s longtime leader, is opposed to relinquishing power and recently threatened to go ahead and appoint a Cabinet without help from Tsvangirai. But the opposition leader made it clear he’s not budging. “We should not be pushed into a deal. We would rather have no deal than get a bad deal,” he said at the rally. He has also been vocal about the South African president’s effectiveness as a mediator, saying that President Mbeki is biased toward Mugabe and should be relieved of his duties, reports the news service. “The biggest problem we have is there are people who are putting pressure on the MDC, not (on) Mugabe,” Tsvangirai said at the rally.

Swaziland king catches heat for flossin’ at his party. Last weekend’s party in Swaziland , celebrating both King Mswati III’s 40^th birthday and the African nation’s 40^th independence day, left many up in arms. The lavish event, which could have cost anywhere between $2.5 million and $12.5 million, have many people wondering why so much money would be spent on a single shindig while most of the nation is struggling. Swaziland has the highest AIDS rate in the world and, ironically, only 25 percent of citizens reach the age of 40. Hit hard by the AIDS epidemic, life expectancy in the nation is less than 31 years, reports CNN. Despite those depressing stats, King Mswati III was driven around a stadium in a BMW in front of thousands of cheering people during the celebration. Before the event, people protested against its high cost. “I’m aware that many in the world might be wondering why we are so excited about the celebrations of our 40^th anniversary. The answer is simple. We are celebrating our nationhood,” King Mswati told the audience. That was the closest he came to acknowledging his citizen’s general discontent, adding that citizens should do more to fight AIDS and appealing to tourists. “We are telling a world full of prejudices that we are a happy nation in spite of the challenges that face us,” he said. Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe made an appearance as well and was greeted by cheers from the crowd. A controversial and unpopular figure in the international community, many in the region like Mugabe for his stance against the West. The king and his 13 wives have been criticized for their expensive lifestyle. Adding fuel to those concerns, eight of his wives hopped a plane and flew to Dubai ahead of the party to buy birthday outfits.

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.

Talks break down over agricultural imports
Hopes of saving a world trade deal were dashed when the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks collapsed last night in Geneva , dealing a major blow to the global economy and raising questions over the worth of the WTO. The meeting was the last chance to strike a deal on cutting tariffs and subsidies in agriculture and manufactured goods before the U.S. presidential election in November. Talks collapsed when the main protagonists – the United States and India , with the latter supported by China and Indonesia – failed to reach a compromise on a measure to shield developing countries against massive agricultural import increases. South Africa ’s chief trade negotiator, Xavier Carim, said essential gains would be lost, which could have grave implications for the trading system and the WTO. Multilateral trade talks are likely to go into hibernation indefinitely as elections in the United States throw negotiating mandates into disarray, while a slowdown in the global economy already has dampened the appetite for further trade reforms. Carim said WTO chief Pascal Lamy had done “as much as he could have on the main issues. In the end this broke down on issues in agriculture.” He said the round’s ultimate direction had veered off the developmental route promised at the start of the talks seven years ago in Doha , Qatar . “We cannot be under any illusion that what was on the table was a package for very modest reforms in agriculture. The price South Africa was being asked to pay until the point of the collapse was just exorbitant, and not worth the gains,” he said. Trade ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7) bloc, consisting of Australia , Brazil , China , the European Union (EU), India , Japan and the United States , yesterday mulled over a new compromise text Lamy put forward on Monday. But the talks failed to break an impasse on a clutch of key issues, notably what is called the special safeguard measure, a mechanism to allow developing countries to increase tariffs on farm produce in the event of import surges or price collapses.

The east African country asks the U.N. to suspend al-Bashir’s indictment.
South Africa , supported by China , is trying to persuade the United Nations Security Council to suspend the attempt to prosecute Sudan ’s President Omar al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes in Darfur . The United States , while opposing South Africa ’s current efforts, has hinted that it might support the move if the Sudanese government makes concessions to help bring peace to the region, reports AllAfrica.com. This plan has emerged from briefings in Pretoria and New York over the past two days, the news agency says. The prosecutor of the newly established International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, asked the court two weeks ago to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir. The Security Council has the power, under the statute which established the court, to defer ICC investigations and prosecutions for a year at a time. South Africa ’s deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, told a briefing on Sunday that he hoped the Security Council would “consider very seriously” the view of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council and the Arab League that the prosecution of Bashir would jeopardize peace efforts in Darfur . Pahad said the international community should deal with the issue “in a much better way that will not undermine the ICC and will enable us to deal with impunity in the broader context of reconciliation and finding solutions.” Speaking after Security Council consultations in New York on Monday, the U.S. representative at the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, said South Africa , supported by China and other countries, was trying to introduce the deferral of the prosecution into a resolution extending the mission of the U.N.-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). The United States believed this was “unwarranted,” he said, and the Security Council was divided on the issue. However, he left open the possibility of a deferral in future, saying “the situation is such that to move forward at this point … is premature. We think that there is more work to be done. …”