Mugabe defies demands to quit as Zimbabwe's leader after party fires him
By Cris Chinaka, MacDonald Dzirutwe and Joe Brock HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Sunday defied his own ZANU-PF party and hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding his resignation by pledging in a television address to preside over the party's next congress in December. Two sources - one a senior member of the government, the other familiar with talks with leaders of the military - had told Reuters Mugabe would use the address to announce his resignation after ZANU-PF earlier sacked him as its leader in a step precipitated by an army takeover four days earlier. ZANU-PF had given the 93-year-old, who led his country to indepndence in 1980, less than 24 hours to quit as head of state or face impeachment, an attempt to secure a peaceful end to his tenure after a de facto military coup.