This is a summit for Africans and we are Africans."The EU imposed a travel ban on Zimbabwe's political leadership last year amid the violence of the presidential elections. It can be waived only to allow attendance at meetings convened by international bodies such as the UN or Interpol. "This would be double standards of the most despicable, cynical and cowardly kind. In the face of Mugabe's evil there can be no compromise and no appeasement." Menzies Campbell MP, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "To allow Mr Mugabe to strut his stuff in Paris would be absolutely unacceptable. At a time when his country is in freefall, when millions are facing starvation, and when human rights are systematically flouted, there should be no welcome for Mr Mugabe anywhere in the European Union."The proposed invitation to Mr Mugabe was revealed by the French embassy in London. But in Paris one official insisted: "No invitation has been issued No decision has been made It's very unlikely Mr Mugabe will be invited.".

For generations, the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama, made their quilts using scraps of cloth and skills passed down from mother to daughter. The work of four generations of women has been recognised as contemporary American art and a sample of their quilts has formed the centrepiece of an exhibition at one of the world's leading galleries. "These quilts are an outstanding example of a great American art form," said Debra Singer, curator of contemporary art at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which is staging the exhibition."The quilts are of unique historical importance as they trace traditions and innovations handed down for generations."The making of quilts is a American tradition, highlighted in the 1995 film How to Make an American Quilt starring Winona Ryder and based on the 1991 novel by Whitney Otto. It tells of a young bride-to-be who bonds with a group of older women in her home town in northern California as they make her wedding quilt.The differences between northern California and Gee's Bend could not be more stark. Gee's Bend is a community of about 700 people, bounded on three sides by a bend in the Alabama River Until 1960 the village did not have a paved road. It was named after Joseph Gee, the first white man to stake a claim there before his family sold the plantation to the Pettway family. Most of the residents of Gee's Bend are descendants of slaves and many have the surname Pettway.Mary Lee Bendolph, whose work is displayed at the Whitney, remembers growing up in hardship.

"Chopping cotton, hoeing, picking cotton, pulling corn," she said.The womens' quilts were made from whatever scraps of cloth they could find – denim, corduroy, old work cloths, cotton sacks and fertiliser bags.Annie Mae Young, whose grandmother was a slave and whose mother taught her to sew, said: "I remember [my mother] praying and I prayed along with her I remember how she shed a tear. I was shedding tears along with her."The quilts gained recognition after Bill Arnett, an art collector from Georgia, saw a photograph of one of the Gee's Bend designs in a book and visited the village. Mr Arnett said: "African-American quilts – I'm certainly not the first to say this – are more like jazz in that each individual quilt maker knows exactly what she wants, but she's not totally sure how she's going to get it."The exhibition has received favourable reviews. Alvia Wardlaw, curator of modern art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, said: "This is a very little-known piece of American history and a singular body of work."The women of Gee's Bend said their new-found fame had changed their lives. Rather than a few dollars, Mrs Bendolph said, "Now I get paid $250.". At least 23 people were killed in Mexico on Tuesday evening, when a powerful offshore earthquake jolted the central Pacific state of Colima, bringing down scores of buildings and severing power lines. Babies were pulled alive from the rubble of one maternity hospital, but several other victims suffocated.Memories of the catastrophic 1985 earthquake, in which thousands were crushed to death when sub-standard buildings collapsed in the capital, still haunt many Mexicans.