Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader sounded optimistic as negotiations on a power-sharing deal paused, preparing for a restart yesterday.
The latest round of talks opened on Monday at a Harare hotel with the mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, flying in to push negotiators past a major block: The question of whether Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe or main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should have the top position in a unity government.
“There’s been a positive development,” Tsvangirai said as the negotiators went home for the night on Tuesday.
He said talks would resume yesterday.
MEETING POSTPONED
Meanwhile, the Southern African Development Community’s defense committee postponed a meeting to discuss the political crisis in Zimbabwe.
The meeting was due to take place in Swaziland yesterday, South African Foreign Ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said in a phone interview.
He did not give a reason for the postponement.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is still expected to attend the meeting in Swaziland today, Mamoepa said.
The members of the SADC committee, known as the security troika, are Swaziland, Mozambique and Angola.
Tsvangirai’s party won the most votes in legislative and presidential elections in March. Mugabe subsequently was the only candidate in a presidential runoff that followed an onslaught of state-sponsored violence against Tsvangirai’s supporters and was widely denounced as a sham.
Tsvangirai had said he should be head of government and Mugabe should be head of state — a largely ceremonial position. Mugabe, though, appears unwilling to surrender much of the power he has wielded since independence from Britain in 1980.
MAJOR SPEECH
In his first major speech since negotiations began, Tsvangirai said at a party rally on Sunday that Mugabe should accept a ceremonial presidency or “let’s go for elections under international supervision and see who will carry the day.”
“We should not be pushed into a deal,” Tsvangirai said. “We would rather have no deal than get a bad deal.”
Mugabe has threatened in recent days to name a Cabinet without input from Tsvangirai. The opposition says that would undermine the talks.
‘BIGGEST PROBLEM’
Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, has objected to Mbeki’s mediation in the past, calling the South African president biased toward Mugabe and asking that he be replaced.
On Sunday, Tsvangirai said: “The biggest problem we have is there are people who are putting pressure on the MDC, not [on] Mugabe.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese