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Zimbabwe’s main political rivals headed to South Africa on Friday on the eve of a regional summit as negotiators aimed for a settlement to resolve the country’s crisis.

After power-sharing talks mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki stalled earlier in the week, Zimbabwe’s protracted crisis was high on the agenda for the 14-nation Southern African Development Community summit.

A spokesman for a smaller faction of Zimbabwe’s opposition led by Arthur Mutambara said earlier Friday negotiators had begun working on the eve of the summit in a bid to produce a deal before the heads of state meet.

But Mutambara’s secretary general Welshman Ncube disputed the comments from the spokesman, Edwin Mushoriwa, saying, “there’s been no negotiations today.”

The chief negotiator for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, had earlier said talks were to resume.

“The talks are going to resume on the sidelines of the SADC summit.”

A spokesman for the main opposition faction, Nqobizitha Mlilo, said “any dialogue that happens will happen within the context of the summit.”

A South African diplomatic source told AFP that Mugabe arrived in Johannesburg in the mid-afternoon.

Zimbabwean state radio earlier reported Mugabe was accompanied by his wife Grace, as well as Chinamasa and Labour Minister Nicholas Goche.

Pressure has built for Zimbabwe’s rivals to reach a negotiated solution to the crisis that intensified after Mugabe’s widely condemned re-election in June.

Power-sharing talks were stalled when three days of negotiations adjourned on Tuesday after the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he needed more time to consider a deal agreed by Mugabe and Mutambara.

Chinamasa told the state-run Herald newspaper there was pressure for the country to convene parliament and form a government.

“We cannot continue wandering around without direction, hence the need to swear in parliamentarians and open the house so that the elected members can continue to fulfil their constitutional mandate,” he said.

Tsvangirai arrived in South Africa on Friday after being temporarily blocked from flying out the previous day when authorities at Harare airport seized his passport.

He told AFP after the incident at the airport that he was “hopeful” talks to resolve the crisis would resume.

“The whole thing was going to be determined at this SADC summit,” he said.

Mugabe’s participation in the summit is controversial, and Botswana said Friday it does not recognise the Zimbabwean leader’s recent re-election and its president will not attend the meeting in Johannesburg.

Botswana had earlier threatened to boycott the summit if Mugabe participated without a negotiated settlement to the crisis, but said Friday its foreign minister would attend in the place of President Ian Khama.

Mugabe also faces protests from regional trade unions at the summit, and a group called the Zimbabwean Exile Forum (ZEF) said it was launching an urgent legal action at the SADC tribunal in Windhoek to block the 84-year-old president’s invitation to the meeting.

Tsvangirai boycotted the presidential run-off despite finishing ahead of Mugabe in the March first round of the election, citing rising violence against his supporters that had left dozens dead and thousands injured.

Mbeki conceded at the adjournment of the talks on Tuesday that “there is disagreement on one element over which Morgan Tsvangirai had asked for time to reflect.”

In comments broadcast on South African state television SABC on Thursday, Tsvangirai said, “we are taking a principled stand.”

“Anyone who accuses me of reneging on this and that has to ask Zimbabweans what they want. If I maintain a principled stand to defend the will of the people of Zimbabwe, what’s wrong with that?”

Mbeki is expected to brief his peers on the state of the negotiations at the summit.

Botswana’s President Seretse Khama Ian Khama will not attend a regional summit if Zimbabwe’s ruling party and opposition fail to reach a power-sharing agreement, Botswanan officials said on Thursday.

The stand underlines growing pressure from southern African leaders on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the opposition to secure an agreement aimed at ending Zimbabwe’s post-election political turmoil.

“If there is no agreement on the government in Zimbabwe, the president will not attend the summit,” Chris Maribe, director of information at Botswana’s foreign ministry, told Reuters. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit is due to take place at the weekend in Johannesburg.

Zimbabwean authorities briefly confiscated opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s passport on Thursday, threatening to prevent him attending the summit in neighboring South Africa, an MDC official said. Zimbabwe is likely to be high on the agenda.

Tsvangirai’s departure from Harare for the summit was delayed when Central Intelligence Organization agents confiscated the emergency travel documents he was using, along with the passports of other MDC officials in his party.

MEDIATION STRUGGLE

The MDC leader has been using emergency travel documents since the authorities refused in June to renew his passport after it expired.

Tsvangirai and his team left for South Africa on Thursday evening after his documents were returned, MDC spokesman Tapiwa Mashakada said.

The incident is likely to embarrass South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mediating in the Zimbabwe talks. He has dismissed criticism that he is too soft on the defiant Mugabe, saying a tougher approach will only aggravate problems.

The South African leader will face fresh domestic pressure on Saturday when the powerful COSATU trade union federation leads a march to the convention centre where the summit will be held to protest against Mugabe’s expected presence.

MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti said the airport incident should send a strong message to SADC leaders.

“We have been trying to tell President Mbeki about things like this, and people wouldn’t believe us. But now here it is … for all to see.”

The political stalemate has worsened an already dire economic crisis. Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate, 80 percent unemployment and shortages of basic goods.

Tsvangirai told reporters at the airport before the incident he was sure talks with Mugabe’s government would resume.

Asked if he was still optimistic about a deal, Tsvangirai said: “Oh, yes, of course, we got our independence after how many talks? Hundreds and tens of meetings had been held.”

The talks on power-sharing began last month after Mugabe’s unopposed re-election in a vote in June that was condemned around the world and boycotted by Tsvangirai because of attacks on his supporters. But three days of meetings in Harare failed to reach an overall deal.

Tsvangirai has said Zimbabwe’s post-election government should be based on the March 29 first-round presidential election — which he won, but not by a clear majority. Mugabe says the MDC should accept the result of the June 27 run-off.

“I am there (at the talks) to protect the will of the people and we are taking a principled stand. I maintain a principled stand to defend the will of the people,” Tsvangirai said on Thursday.

Arthur Mutambara, whose break-away MDC faction has 10 seats in parliament, has agreed to power-sharing with Mugabe, but a deal that excludes Tsvangirai would be unlikely to end the crisis.

he condition of the American mother of a former Olympian who was stabbed on the opening day of Olympics competition was improving Monday, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympics Committee told the AP.

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said Barbara Bachman’s condition has been upgraded from critical to serious but stable.

Mrs. Bachman was with her husband, Todd Bachman, both 62, when they were attacked by a Chinese man at an ancient monument in the heart of the Chinese capital on Saturday.

Todd Bachman was killed in the attack. The couple, from Lakeville, Minnesota, are parents of 2004 volleyball Olympian Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman and in-laws of U.S. men’s volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon.

Elisabeth Bachman was with her parents at the time of the attack, but uninjured. Their Chinese tour guide was injured, but Beijing authorities have declined to release any details about her condition.

Shortly after the attack, which took place at midday, the assailant, Tang Yongming, 47, leapt to his death from a 130-foot high balcony on the Drum Tower, just five miles from the main Olympics site, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Dale Bachman, Todd’s second cousin, told a news conference in Minneapolis that Todd Bachman was walking a few steps behind his wife and daughter at the Drum Tower when Barbara Bachman heard the commotion and turned to help her husband.

“That’s when she was attacked,” Dale Bachman said Saturday. “To me, that was a strong indication of her love. She is a fabulous person.”

The assault came only hours after China’s jubilant opening ceremony of the Summer Games and stunned the athletic community and embarrassed Chinese officials hosting President Bush.

Seibel said Monday that the Bachman family and the U.S. Olympics Committee members were “very, very, very happy to report her condition is upgraded.” He said family members, including two daughters who flew in from their home in Minneapolis, were at the hospital with her.

“They’re not at the point where they want to discuss the specific nature of the injuries,” Seibel said of the Bachman family.

In an open letter released Monday by the U.S. Olympics Committee, Elisabeth and Hugh McCutcheon thanked friends, family, U.S. and Chinese officials and Olympic officials for their help during a “tremendously difficult time.”

“We are extremely grateful for the outpouring of assistance and generosity that we have received and hope to convey our appreciation to everyone who has supported us and kept us in their thoughts and prayers,” the letter said.

AP reporters at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, also called Beijing Xiehe Yiyuan, were not allowed onto the eighth floor of the facility, a section of the hospital that has been designated for the Olympics.

The committee said Sunday that Mrs. Bachman suffered multiple lacerations and stab wounds. She underwent eight hours of surgery and initially was in life-threatening, critical condition.

McCutcheon sat out the U.S. men’s volleyball team’s opening game against Venezuela on Sunday — a match that the Americans won 3-2 — to be with his wife at the hospital.

Police investigating the stabbing death have said the suspect was distraught over family problems. Chinese authorities unsettled by the attack during the Beijing Olympics tightened security at tourist spots around the city.

Wang Wei, vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, said Sunday that security in and around Olympic venues was already sufficient but would be increased at scenic spots in the capital.

He said Chinese investigators and U.S. Embassy officials believe Saturday’s attack was “an isolated incident” and suggested such random acts are difficult to prevent. There was no indication the assailant knew his victims had any connection to the games, according to Olympic and Chinese authorities.

“Beijing is a safe city, but unfortunately we are not immune to violent acts,” Wang told reporters.

Bush, in the Chinese capital to attend some Olympic events and meet with Chinese leaders, thanked President Hu Jintao on Sunday for his government’s handling of the attack.

“Your government has been very attentive, very sympathetic, and I appreciate that a lot,” Bush said.

Hu said his government took the incident “very seriously” and pledged to keep Washington apprised of the investigation.

Violent crime against foreigners is rare in tightly controlled China, and the assault occurred despite major security measures that have blanketed the capital city during the Olympics. A 100,000-strong security force plus countless volunteers have been deployed to protect against any trouble.

Police said Tang went through his second divorce in 2006 and grew increasingly despondent when his 21-year-old son started getting into trouble, Xinhua reported. The son was detained in May 2007 on suspicion of fraud, then received a suspended prison sentence in March this year for theft.

Once-reclusive China commandeered the world stage Friday, celebrating its first-time role as Olympic host with a stunning display of pageantry and pyrotechnics to open a Summer Games unrivaled for its mix of problems and promise.

Now ascendant as a global power, China welcomed scores of world leaders to an opening ceremony watched by 91,000 people at the eye-catching National Stadium and a potential audience of 4 billion worldwide. It was depicted as the largest, costliest extravaganza in Olympic history, bookended by barrages of some 30,000 fireworks.

To the beat of sparkling explosions, the crowd counted down the final seconds before the show began. A sea of drummers — 2,008 in all — pounded out rhythms with their hands, then acrobats on wires gently wafted down into the stadium as rockets shot up into the night sky from its rim.

President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were among the glittering roster of notables who watched China make this bold declaration that it had arrived. Bush, rebuked by China after he raised human-rights concerns this week, is the first U.S. president to attend an Olympics on foreign soil.

Already an economic juggernaut, China is given a good chance of overtaking the U.S. atop the gold-medal standings with its legions of athletes trained intensely since childhood. One dramatic showdown will be in women’s gymnastics, where the U.S. and Chinese teams are co-favorites; in the pool, Chinese divers and U.S. swimmers are expected to dominate.

The run-up to the games had epic story lines — China investing $40 billion to build the needed infrastructure, reeling from a catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan province in May, struggling right up to Friday to diminish Beijing’s stubborn smog. China’s detentions of political activists, its crackdown on uprisings in Tibet and its economic ties to Sudan — home of the war-torn Darfur region — fueled relentless criticisms from human rights groups and calls for an Olympic boycott.

Second-guessed for awarding the games to Beijing, the International Olympic Committee stood firmly by its decision. It was time, the committee said, to bring the games to the homeland of 1.3 billion people, a fifth of humanity.

The games, said IOC President Jacques Rogge, “are a chance for the rest of the world to discover what China really is.”

The story presented in Friday’s ceremony sought to distill 5,000 years of Chinese history — featuring everything from the Great Wall to opera puppets to astronauts, and highlighting achievements in art, music and science. Roughly 15,000 people were in the cast, all under the direction of Zhang Yimou, whose early films often often ran afoul of government censors for their blunt portrayals of China’s problems.

He produced some majestic and ethereal imagery — at one point a huge, translucent globe emerged from the stadium floor, and acrobats floated magically around it to the accompaniment of the games’ theme song, “One World, One Dream.”

The show’s script steered clear of modern politics — there were no references to Chairman Mao and the class struggle, nor to the more recent conflicts and controversies. The ceremony was taped for broadcast 12 hours later in the United States.

A record 204 delegations were set to parade their athletes through the stadium — superstars such as basketball idols Kobe Bryant and Yao Ming, as well as plucky underdogs from Iraq, Afghanistan and other embattled lands. The nations were marching not in the traditional alphabetical order but in a sequence based on the number of strokes it takes to write their names in Chinese. The exceptions were Greece, birthplace of the Olympics, which was given its traditional place at the start, and the 639-member Chinese team, which lined up last with Yao as its flag-bearer.

Athletes from Japan, an old foe and current economic rival of China, were greeted coolly by the crowd even though they waved tiny Chinese flags. But cheers erupted for the next delegation, Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway province that should reunite with the mainland.

The U.S. team — second-largest after China’s with nearly 600 members — was welcomed loudly, with many in crowd recognizing the basketball stars who brought up the rear. Bush rose from his VIP seat to wave at the athletes, nattily dressed in white trousers, blue blazers and white caps.

The American flag-bearer was 1500-meter runner Lopez Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, who spent a decade of his youth in a refugee camp in Kenya. He’s a member of the Team Darfur coalition, representing athletes opposed to China’s support for Sudan. On Friday he avoided any criticism and said the Chinese “have been great putting all these things together.”

Abroad, human rights activists were less generous.

“The Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee have wasted a historic opportunity to use the Beijing Games to make real progress on human rights in China,” said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch.

For Chinese dissidents who have dared to challenge the Communist Party’s monopoly on power, the start of the Olympics meant tighter surveillance and restrictions.

“It’s not my Olympic Games,” said Jiang Tianyong, a human rights lawyer. “It’s not the games for the ordinary people.”

By all indications, however, most Chinese have embraced the games, buying up tickets at a record pace, volunteering by the thousands for Olympic duties, nursing expectations of triumphs by their home team.

To their eyes, the omens were good. The ceremony began at 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008 — auspicious in a country where eight is the luckiest number.

“It not easy to meet with such a date,” said Wang Wei, secretary general of Beijing Organizing Committee. “Hopefully this lucky day will bring luck.”

Exxon mobile closes over 2000 gas stations nation wide, they say they just are not profitable enough.

Most gas stations don’t make their money on gas, they make it on sales from food, drinks and incidentals.

Most make only pennies or break even after the cost of gas and cost of compliance with local,state and federal regulations. As fast as the cost is rising they probably don’t have the funds to make new purchases to replace the gas. They also have to pay a fee of about 3% when gas is purchased with a credit card, so they end up upside down.

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Well, in the state where I live, several of the stations closed. The probable reason was that their prices over the past 5-8 years were always higher than the other brands stations. The other stations were always busy at the pumps but the Exxon- Mobile pumps hardly ever had any business.