Mugabe backs down

* Former President Robert Mugabe, who had vowed not to vote for his old party in elections in July, on Thursday said he accepted the outcome of the disputed poll. Mugabe said on the eve of the ballot he hoped his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu-PF party would be voted out of power, complaining they had ‘tormented’ him when he was removed from power following a military intervention last year. But speaking on Thursday at a wake following the funeral of his mother-in-law in Harare, Mugabe said: ‘Mnangagwa is the winner. Things have been righted. We can't deny it.’