Zimbabwe takeover seems like a coup, African Union says

The Zimbabwean military's takeover of power and detention of President Robert Mugabe "seems like a coup", key regional bloc the African Union says.

Its head, Alpha Conde, said the AU demands an immediate return to constitutional order.

The military denies staging a coup, saying that Mr Mugabe is safe and that it was acting against "criminals" surrounding him.

Their move follows a power struggle over who might replace Mr Mugabe.

His vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa was fired last week, making Mr Mugabe's wife Grace the president's likely successor - but leaving top military officials feeling sidelined.

Mr Mugabe, 93, has dominated the country's political scene since it gained independence from the UK in 1980.

• What we know so far
• How can you tell a coup is happening?
• Zimbabwe media slow to cover takeover

Responding to the developments, Mr Conde, who is also Guinea's president, said Zimbabwean soldiers "had obviously attempted to take power".

The AU had "serious concern" at the situation and "reiterates its full support to the country's legal institutions", the statement said.

The BBC's Anne Soy in Zimbabwe points out that Egypt was ejected from the AU after its 2013 coup, so it may be the Zimbabwean military is trying to avoid antagonising the bloc by not describing their actions as a coup.

How the drama unfolded

After days of tension and rumour, soldiers seized the state broadcaster ZBC late on Tuesday.

A Zimbabwean army officer, Major General Sibusiso Moyo, went on air to say the military was targeting "criminals" around President Mugabe.

"This is not a military takeover of government," he insisted.

Maj Gen Moyo also said Mr Mugabe and his family were "safe and sound and their security is guaranteed". It is not clear who is leading the military action.

Since then, military vehicles have been out on the streets of Harare, while gunfire has been heard from northern suburbs where Mr Mugabe and a number of government officials live.

In a statement, the office of South African President Jacob Zuma, said: "President Zuma spoke to President Robert Mugabe earlier today who indicated that he was confined to his home but said that he was fine."

There has been no direct comment from President Mugabe, nor his wife Grace, whose whereabouts are unclear.

How we got here

The rivalry between Mrs Mugabe and Mr Mnangagwa has split the governing Zanu-PF.

Following a call for his dismissal from Mrs Mugabe, Mr Mnangagwa was removed from the vice presidency.

But on Monday, army chief Gen Constantino Chiwenga said the army was prepared to act to end purges within Zanu-PF.

Gen Chiwenga is a close ally of Mr Mnangagwa and both are veterans of the 1970s war which ended white minority rule.

A supporter of Mrs Mugabe, Zanu-PF youth wing leader, Kudzai Chipanga, had responded by saying the military should "stay in the barracks".

But he has now apologised to Gen Chiwenga and other top military officials, saying "we are still young and make mistakes", ZBC reports.

• Robert Mugabe - hero, or villain?
• Mnangagwa: The 'crocodile' who snapped back
• The rise of Grace Mugabe

An extraordinary gamble

By Andrew Harding, BBC Southern Africa correspondent

A quick show of military force, a few arrests - and then what?

These are, of course, unpredictable times for Zimbabwe and yet there is a chance that the army's extraordinary overnight gamble will pay off, and that President Robert Mugabe, humiliated and powerless, will nonetheless be allowed to retire with at least the pretence of dignity.

It is important to remember that Mr Mugabe is not being challenged by the Western governments he has warned against for decades, or by Zimbabwe's political opposition, or by a mass uprising against economic hardship.

This is, fundamentally, an internal power struggle within Zanu-PF and whoever emerges victorious can expect a newly purged party to fall obediently into line.

Mr Mugabe's mistake, at 93, was to assume he was still powerful enough to build a dynasty to back his wife, Grace, to succeed him.

Instead, his once loyal deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, may be poised to take control. If so, many foreign governments are likely to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he can rescue Zimbabwe from years of misrule

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Why I chose to donate my eggs

Why would anyone donate their eggs to help a stranger have a child? Elaine Chong explains her reasons.

I first heard about egg donation when I was at university in the US. We studied the sociology, psychology and biology of sperm and egg donation, and I was really inspired by the gift-giving nature of it - I knew it was for me.

The professor told us that egg banks wanted young, healthy women who were well-educated, but that there was a real shortage of women of colour.

I thought about people like me - from a Chinese background - who might have fertility problems and want to have children really badly. I thought about my gay male friends who spoke at length about wanting to be good parents and how my gift could help them, too.

The professor talked about how each egg could be worth up to $3,000 (£2,280) which made the lecture hall go: "Ooooooh!"

I decided to give it a go and registered via a website decorated with pictures of cheerful, chubby babies.

Unfortunately, I failed the screening process almost immediately - anyone who lived in the UK for more than six months from 1980 to 1997 is ineligible because of the possible risk of transmitting the human form of BSE (vCJD). This also meant I couldn't donate blood, or be put on the organ donor list.

But the idea stayed with me, and when I came back to the UK for my postgraduate degree, I decided to try again here.

One big difference is that donors here receive a one-off compensation fee of £750 ($990) to cover costs - but I wasn't doing it for the money.

I want to make families feel complete

I registered through another website decorated with cute baby pictures and was invited to take part in a rigorous screening process.

They asked me lots of questions - the administrator, the nurse, the doctor - everyone wanted to know why I wanted to donate my eggs.

I boiled it down to: "I want to make families feel complete."

I found out that in the UK there is also a shortage of donors from ethnic minorities.

Find out more

• The HFEA says the shortage of ethnically-matched donors is an issue that has been raised in consultations and surveys they have carried out in the past
• Although there are donors from all ethnicities in proportion to the UK population, the number of available eggs from white donors is far greater
• Nina Barnsley, Director of the Donor Conception Network, says that finding a matching donor can be challenging because would-be parents have to apply to individual clinics to see if they have a match - perhaps there could be a better way of sharing information
• Asian egg donor shortage in UK 'forcing couples abroad'

As far as I know, there's nothing in Chinese culture that prohibits egg or gamete donation, but it still took me ages to tell my mother that I wanted to do it.

My mum has always insisted that if she were to die, she wanted to donate any organ that could be useful to people. Eggs though! That's a bit different, because people would be walking around with our genes. Would my parents think of them as their grandchildren?

When I eventually told her, her immediate reaction was, "Let's not tell your dad."

When I was approved as a donor, they explained that it wasn't like in the movies and that after the donation I really wouldn't get any news about possible offspring until they were adults - and then only if they asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for information about their egg donor.

I thought that seemed reasonable.

How would parents know if their kid might turn out to be sporty or like wearing black?

I found myself thinking a lot about how I was presenting myself to the potential parents. On the forms I filled in my height, my weight, my eye colour and medical history, but that doesn't really capture me as a person.

How would parents know if their kid might turn out to be sporty, fond of Thai food, kind to animals or like wearing black?

The clinic did ask about my hobbies and whether I played a musical instrument, but it felt like I was writing a pretty dry CV, to be honest.

Over the next few weeks I had lots of medical tests. I really hate having blood drawn so I always treated myself to a samosa afterwards - as a consequence, samosas now taste like cheering myself up.

I had to inject myself with hormones twice a day, which was a bit like playing doctor. I kept the needles in our family fridge - nobody asked me what was in the strange-looking pack.

The syringe worried my mother though, so she had to leave the room while I did it.

Being on hormones was like having premenstrual syndrome, but 100 times worse - I was told that women "experience cramps" but I promise you, there was a lot more going on. I put on weight, I felt bloated. Jeans? Forget it - elasticated waists all the way.

I got tearful easily over anything - pop songs, animal videos. The visits took up a lot of time, the appointments themselves were short but there were a lot of them - luckily I was only working part-time, and mostly in the evenings. The overall process took over three months.

When I was close to donation - or "extraction", as it is sometimes known - I got a text from a nurse in the middle of the night.

A terrorist attack had happened that evening near the clinic, and the entire area was taped off as a crime scene. None of the staff could get to work and the more urgent patients had to be diverted to a Harley Street clinic. I only had a few days to go, so they needed to rearrange my appointment as soon as possibl

On the way to the clinic the next morning, I found myself thinking: "If I'm killed in a terrorist attack, can it please be after I donate, because I've got these precious eggs in my tummy that need to go to families who are relying on me."

The importance of what I was doing hadn't quite sunk in until that moment.

The Harley Street clinic was so plush that the waiting room had a mural. The magazines were proper fashion magazines and instead of having to crane my neck to look at the ultrasound, I could see it on a huge plasma screen on the wall.

The technician counted my egg sacs. I'd got pretty good at counting them myself over the weeks. They decided I was ready and told me about the donation procedure, which involved fasting the night before.

I had to come back early the next morning. I decided to dress up for the occasion because I didn't want to feel like a patient - plus, it was Harley Street!

I was put in a waiting room and through the curtains I could hear a steady stream of women who were also there to donate. I couldn't see them, but when I heard someone refer to me as "the Chinese lady" I assumed the others weren't.

I'd never been put under a general anaesthetic before, or even worn a hospital gown. The nurses were concerned for my modesty but I was taking selfies in the bathroom pretending it was a backless dress.

Going into the theatre I put my legs in the stirrups and tried to peer around the operating theatre - I wanted to remember everything, but they counted me out and the next thing I knew, I was in a chair in the recovery room. The surgery had taken 15 minutes.

I was quite drowsy, and slept on and off. A nurse came to ask if I wanted a biscuit - even in my half-conscious state I was a diva and asked her to bring me a selection.

I got a box of chocolates and a "Thank you for donating" card.

They told me they had taken 11 eggs in total - one short of a dozen. It would be cool if even one became a person.

I was told to write a goodwill letter to the parents and potential offspring. It would be the only thing they got from the donor until any children were old enough to decide whether or not they wanted to contact me.

I wrote a letter on my phone, as soon as I left the clinic. I suddenly got so emotional about all these hypothetical kids that I started to cry.

I told them that they were the result of much planning and love, and that my family, my partner, my friends all cared about them - even though they don't know them.

I also told them a bit more about me - about my passion for social justice and that I don't suffer fools gladly.

I hope that in about 18 years' time I'll find out how it went.

Would I do it again? Maybe. I do think I made the right decision and it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined.

Australians decisively support same-sex marriage

Australians have overwhelmingly voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in a historic poll.

The non-binding postal vote showed 61.6% of people favour allowing same-sex couples to wed, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

Jubilant supporters have been celebrating in public spaces, waving rainbow flags and singing and dancing.

A bill to change the law was introduced into the Senate late on Wednesday. It will now be debated for amendments.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said his government would aim to pass legislation in parliament by Christmas.

"[Australians] have spoken in their millions and they have voted overwhelmingly yes for marriage equality," Mr Turnbull said after the result was announced.

"They voted yes for fairness, yes for commitment, yes for love."

The issue only went to a voluntary postal vote after a long and bitter debate about amending Australia's Marriage Act.

• Penny Wong: Tears of joy from gay Australian senator
• Celebs celebrate Australia gay marriage result
• The result on Wednesday brings an end to what was at times a heated campaign. The vote itself had been criticised by same-sex marriage supporters, many of whom said it was unnecessary when parliament could debate the issue directly.

  How did the vote unfold?

  The survey was voluntary, unlike Australia's compulsory elections.
  More than 12.7 million people - about 79.5% of eligible voters - took part in the eight-week poll, which asked one question: "Should the marriage law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?"
  • Was the vote worth the trouble?
  • How the two-month debate became heated
  The Yes campaign argued that it was a debate about equality. The No campaign put the focus on the definition of family, raising concerns about how issues like gender will be taught in schools.
• 
  
  

Egyptian singer Sherine banned for 'mocking' River Nile

Egypt's musicians' union has banned a leading singer from performing in the country for "mocking" the River Nile.

It came after video emerged showing Sherine Abdel Wahab being asked at a concert to sing Mashrebtesh Men Nilha (Have You Ever Drunk From The Nile).

She responded by saying "drinking from the Nile will get me schistosomiasis" - a disease caused by parasitic worms that is commonly known as bilharzia.

Abdel Wahab then advised the fan to "drink Evian water" instead.

On Tuesday, the Egyptian Musicians Syndicate announced that it had reviewed the video and decided to suspend the 37 year old over her apparent "unjustified mockery of our dear Egypt".

The union said it had opened an investigation and would not grant Abdel Wahab the necessary permits to perform until she had been questioned.

Abdel Wahab later issued a statement apologising for her "foolish joke" at the concert, which she said took place in the Gulf emirate of Sharjah more than a year ago.

"My beloved country Egypt and and sons of my country Egypt, I apologise to you with all my heart for any pain caused to any of you," she added.

Schistosomiasis is an acute and chronic disease caused by a parasitic worm that lives in fresh water in subtropical and tropical regions.

People become infected when larval forms of the parasite penetrate the skin during contact with infested water. In the body the larvae develop into adult worms that live in the blood vessels, where the females release eggs. Some become trapped in body tissues, causing immune reactions and progressive damage to organs.

The parasite is most commonly found throughout Africa, but also lives in parts of South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia.

In recent decades national control programmes have successfully reduced prevalence of schistosomiasis in many countries, including Egypt.