CHIRAC SLAMMED FOR MUGABE MEETING

PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac has met Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe in Paris despite criticism in London and Harare of the African leader’s crackdown on judges, journalists and white landowners. Britain’s Conservative Party criticised France for giving Mugabe “red carpet” treatment. The party’s foreign affairs spokesman Francis Maude called on Chirac to use the meeting to “read the riot act” over Mugabe’s human rights record. – AFP