In news from Africa, The Guardian reports Western governments are working to split Zimbabwe’s ruling party in an attempt to topple Robert Mugabe’s government. European and U.S. officials have been meeting with Zimbabwe’s former army chief, Solomon Mujuru, who is part of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF ruling party. According to The Guardian, Mujuru’s emissaries have been in talks with the main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. They are talking about creating an interim power-sharing government that would sideline Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since it became independent in 1980. On Friday, Mugabe vowed to survive any Western attempt to dislodge him from power.

Robert Mugabe: “Nothing frightens me, not even little fellows like Bush and Blair. I have seen it all. I don’t fear any suffering or any big struggle of any kind.”

Pressure on Mugabe is also being applied within the religious community in Zimbabwe. Last week Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube called for mass protests against the government.

Pius Ncube: “Human rights are God-given, and the government is our property. They ought to be answerable to us, not that they control us and hold us, hold us so tight that we can’t move. They’ve no right to do it.”