Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa died in a French hospital Tuesday at 59, nearly two months after he was hospitalized for a stroke, the country's vice president said. “It is with deep sorrow that I have to tell the people of Zambia that our president ... has passed away this morning,” Vice President Rupiah Banda said on radio and television. He announced a weeklong period of national mourning. Banda did not give the cause of death. But he said that Mwanawasa had taken a turn for the worse on Monday. The president was evacuated to Percy Military Hospital in Paris after he collapsed June 30 on the eve of an African Union summit in Egypt. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Mwanawasa's death “a great loss for the African continent” and for democracy.
