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/ 30 December 2007
Bare supermarket shelves, bank queues and burst riverbanks — for many Zimbabweans a bad year ended in a bad way. At least 27 Zimbabweans died in floods this month while thousands have spent precious holiday days in bank queues, waiting for scarce cash.
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/ 29 December 2007
Zimbabweans formed queues at banks on Saturday to beat a December 31 deadline to hand in a currency series phased out by the central bank. Reserve Bank chief Gideon Gono declared that the Z$200 000 note would become worthless as he introduced three new banknotes in a bid to tackle a shortage of the local currency in the country.
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/ 28 December 2007
Two sons of a former ruling party MP have been arrested on charges of siphoning about -million out of Zimbabwe as police in the country start targeting people linked to President Robert Mugabe’s powerful Zanu-PF, reports said on Friday. Police have also placed the head of the parliamentary finance committee on their wanted list.
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/ 27 December 2007
After a year which saw the official inflation rate surge to 8 000%, shelves run dry and opposition leaders beaten up, few people in Zimbabwe can wait to see the back of 2007. While President Robert Mugabe hopes to secure a seventh term of office in elections next year, he is unlikely to trade heavily on his government’s recent economic performance.
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/ 25 December 2007
Zimbabweans stood in long, chaotic lines outside banks on Monday, desperate to draw money before stores close for the holidays in a country crippled by economic and political crises. With cash itself in short supply, the central bank has supplied new high denomination notes, the largest worth Z 000.
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/ 24 December 2007
For many in inflation-riddled Zimbabwe this year, Christmas isn’t quite what it used to be. In a glitzy department store on Harare’s main First Street, there are no customers at the almost bare perfume counters. Upstairs in the toy department, Santa has disappeared from his grotto. Outside, about 500 weary customers queue for cash at a bank.
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/ 21 December 2007
President Robert Mugabe said on Friday that foreign mining firms that invest in Zimbabwe would be allowed to retain a majority stake under controversial ownership regulations. Mugabe commended the Zimbabwe Platinum Company for building houses and roads, urging other companies to take a cue from the firm.
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/ 21 December 2007
Workers in one of Harare’s big department stores stock shelves with luxury goods only the rich can afford, while at an adjacent bank ordinary Zimbabweans are clamouring for cash, which is the latest thing in short supply. Despite the store’s tinsel, Christmas trees and Santa Claus figurines, for most Zimbabweans celebrations will be muted in this Southern African country.
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/ 20 December 2007
At least nine people have drowned across Zimbabwe after several days of heavy rain caused flooding in many parts of the country, reports said on Friday. Most of the deaths have been in the low-lying districts of southern Masvingo province, where people have drowned in flooded rivers following heavy downpours.
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/ 19 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s top banker announced on Wednesday the immediate introduction of higher denominations of banknotes in a bid to tackle cash shortages fed by runaway inflation. With effect from Thursday, Z 000, Z 000 and Z 000 notes will come into circulation.
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/ 18 December 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s government has amended security and media laws that critics say have helped him entrench his rule. The changes to the Public Order and Security Act were agreed at talks, brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
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/ 17 December 2007
Zimbabwe has struck a deal to import crude oil from Equatorial Guinea and is planning to reopen a refinery to process fuel and ease acute shortages, state media reported on Monday. Crunch shortages of fuel, foreign currency and food are a sign of the Southern African nation’s deep economic crisis.
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/ 17 December 2007
The main faction of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said on Sunday it remained committed to talks with the ruling Zanu-PF but hinted there were still sticking points. The declaration came after claims in Zimbabwe’s state-controlled media that talks between President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and the MDC were now over.
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/ 15 December 2007
President Robert Mugabe has suspended Zimbabwe’s attorney general while he is investigated on charges of abusing his office, state radio reported on Saturday. Sobusa Gula-Ndebele was last month briefly detained by police over allegations he promised to help a fugitive banker who had fled the country. Gula-Ndebele denies the accusations.
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/ 13 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s veteran President Robert Mugabe, accused of allowing attacks on his political opponents, appealed on Thursday to his supporters not to engage in violence in next year’s elections. In a keynote address at his Zanu-PF conference in the capital, Harare, he also urged the party to remain united in the countdown to elections.
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/ 12 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party will formally endorse President Robert Mugabe this weekend as its candidate for re-election next year, a choice that critics say will prolong the economic crisis ravaging the country. Mugabe (83) has overcome a half-hearted attempt by some top Zanu-PF officials to force him to retire before the March 2008 poll.
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/ 11 December 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe claimed that his country had ”defeated the British” after he attended an Europe Union-Africa summit in Lisbon at the weekend, state media reported on Tuesday. ”We defeated the British, we were the victors over the British,” the state-run Herald quoted Mugabe as saying.
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/ 10 December 2007
A hero’s welcome was being prepared on Monday for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, with state media portraying his visit to Portugal for a weekend summit as a triumph despite the criticism he faced there over his human rights record.
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/ 9 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party will on Tuesday begin an extraordinary congress and President Robert Mugabe is expected to be endorsed as its sole presidential flagbearer in next year’s poll, party officials said. The four-day congress is also expected to draw a roadmap for Zimbabwe’s political and economical policies.
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/ 7 December 2007
Half-centuries by Runako Morton and Marlon Samuels guided West Indies to a one-day series win over Zimbabwe at Bulawayo on Friday. West Indies won the fourth match by five wickets to take an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. Zimbabwe scored 232-9 after being put in to bat, and the West Indies replied with 234-5 to win with three overs to spare.
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/ 6 December 2007
A professional hunter has been arrested on suspicion he turned Zimbabwean bank notes into business cards and handed them out at a tourism fair. Zimbabwe is struggling with the world’s highest inflation rate of about 8 000% because of an economic crisis.
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/ 5 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s former colonial master lost the stand-off over whether he or the British prime minister would attend an upcoming European-African summit, Robert Mugabe declared on Tuesday. Mugabe also said his nation, suffering chronic shortages of basic goods and worsening power and water outages, continued to defy predictions of economic collapse and social upheaval.
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/ 4 December 2007
Stand-in captain Dwayne Bravo hit 45 runs in 24 balls to see the West Indies home after the tourists flirted with danger in their third one-day international in Harare on Tuesday. Bravo’s knock helped the West Indies to take their score to 142-4 in just 27.5 overs, and this has given them a series lead of 2-1 with two to play in the five-match series.
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/ 4 December 2007
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday expressed his gratitude to European Union and fellow African leaders for enabling him to see off a bid to have him excluded from an EU-Africa summit. ”The sinister campaign led by Britain to isolate us, including the recent attempts to bar us from attending the EU-Africa summit … continues to disintegrate,” Mugabe said in a State of the Nation address in Parliament.
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/ 3 December 2007
The Zimbabwe state airline doubled its fares on Monday and the cost of a new passport went up thirty fold. Spiralling prices also saw restaurant and bar prices double over the weekend. A new spate of price increases in the crumbling economy dealt a further blow to official efforts to combat black-market dealing.
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/ 2 December 2007
Chris Gayle and Runako Morton scored half-centuries in West Indies’ 110-run win over Zimbabwe in the second one-day international on Sunday. Gayle scored 58 before retiring injured and Morton hit 79 as the visitors levelled the five-match series at 1-1.
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/ 1 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe launched a new attack on Britain on Friday after it failed to prevent him being invited to a European Union summit next month, telling London to stop interfering in its former colony. He also thanked fellow African heads of state for their diplomatic support in what he called an ”onslaught” by Britain and its allies.
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/ 30 November 2007
Thousands of Zimbabwean war veterans gathered in Harare on Friday to lead a ”million-man march” in support of President Robert Mugabe’s bid to extend his rule despite a severe economic crisis blamed on his government. Mugabe (83) and in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980, is seeking re-election in presidential and parliamentary elections set for March 2008.
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/ 30 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s 2008 budget seems bereft of concrete measures to curb hyperinflation and ill suited to provide the economic rebound it promises a population faced with growing hardship. The Southern African country, facing the uncertainties of presidential and parliamentary elections next year, is in the grip of a punishing recession.
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/ 30 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s finance minister proposed cutting taxes for the growing number of poor, increasing taxes on some manufacturers and cracking down on the black market as cures for his nation’s economic crisis. Samuel Mumbengegwi’s budget speech on Thursday was televised — but unavailable to many because of power failures.
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/ 29 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s economy is forecast to grow by 4% next year, which would be the first expansion in nearly a decade, while inflation should slow, the finance minister said on Thursday. Samuel Mumbengegwi did not devalue the Zimbabwe dollar as expected but analysts quickly dismissed the growth and inflation expectations.
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/ 29 November 2007
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, caught in a standoff with Britain which has cast a shadow over an European Union-Africa summit, said on Wednesday he had no objection to dialogue between the two countries. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will boycott the December 8 to 9 Lisbon summit because Mugabe will attend.