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/ 28 November 2007
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said on Wednesday he would push to create a group of African leaders to resolve a stand-off between Zimbabwe and Britain, which has cast a shadow over a European Union-Africa summit. Wade arrived in Harare after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would boycott the planned December 8 to 9 Lisbon summit.
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/ 28 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s government newspaper offered a chilly, racially tinged welcome on Tuesday to the new United States envoy. The Herald‘s political editor Caesar Zvayi said James McGee had criticised Zimbabwe’s human rights record in statements to the US Senate and, as an appointee of US President George Bush, was likely ”to turn out to be the house Negro”.
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/ 27 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s latest inflation figures have been delayed because there are not enough goods in the shops by which to measure price increases, it was reported on Tuesday. There was an ”unavailability of required information, such as prices of goods, due to their shortage”, the Herald quoted Moffat Nyoni, director of the Central Statistical Office, as saying.
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/ 26 November 2007
Zambian Airways is to halt direct flights between Harare and Lusaka next month as the route is no longer profitable, an airline official said on Monday. Zambian Airways chief executive officer Mutembo Nchito said the last flight on the Harare-Lusaka route will be on November 30.
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/ 23 November 2007
Zimbabwe prepared on Friday to slash three more zeros from its currency for the second time in a year, as inflation soars in the crippled economy. Central bank Governor Gideon Gono said after months of planning, the issue of new currency bills was ”imminent”, state television and radio reported. The television showed a sample of a new Z note.
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/ 22 November 2007
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday he was ”very confident” that mediation efforts between Zimbabwe’s government and the opposition would produce a solution to the country’s political crisis. ”They [the talks] have gone very well,” Mbeki said after meeting the two sides.
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/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabwe will soon issue new bank notes, for the second time in as many years, to try to control rampant inflation and curb black-market trade, central bank Governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday. The Southern African country is in the grips of a severe economic crisis and battling the highest annual inflation rate in the world, at nearly 8 000%.
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/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s central bank governor said on Tuesday the country would not impose new price controls, easing fears of deeper shortages of basic goods. President Robert Mugabe’s government imposed a blanket freeze on prices of all goods and services in June in a desperate bid to contain the world’s highest inflation rate.
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/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabweans endured hours in long queues at banks on Tuesday as a cash shortage forced limits on withdrawals, with the country in the midst of an economic crisis. ”Things have gotten worse since the weekend,” said an official at a bank in central Harare where a queue of customers snaked outside the building.
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/ 21 November 2007
Ian Smith, who defied the world in 1965 when he led 270Â 000 white Rhodesians in a unilateral declaration of independence from Britain rather than accept moves to black-majority rule, has died in South Africa aged 88. State-owned radio ZBC, reporting his death, said ”Smith will be remembered for his racism and for the deaths of many Zimbabweans.”
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/ 19 November 2007
Zimbabwe said on Monday it had put its military on high alert against a possible British invasion after the former armed forces chief of its old colonial master revealed London had considered such a move. "We are aware of plans by Britain to invade our country and assassinate our leaders," Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said.
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/ 19 November 2007
Zimbabwe on Monday delayed the release of inflation data and said it might not be available ”for a while”, fuelling concerns the government had failed in its bid to hold back runaway prices. President Robert Mugabe has made the battle against inflation the cornerstone of his government’s effort to reverse a deep economic slide.
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/ 19 November 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s government published a draft Bill on Monday forcing mining firms to transfer majority shareholdings to local owners, including giving the Zimbabwe government a free 25% stake. The Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill is expected to be presented to Parliament and to be approved before the end of the year.
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/ 18 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s government on Sunday accused Britain of plotting to invade the Southern African state and to kill President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe’s spokesperson, George Charamba, said Harare was ”well aware” that former British prime minister Tony Blair had considered plans for an invasion of Zimbabwe.
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/ 18 November 2007
Robert Mugabe’s vice-president has endorsed the veteran Zimbabwean leader’s candidature for presidential elections next year and has suggested he should even rule until he dies, a report said on Sunday. Joseph Msika said no-one was so far challenging Mugabe’s bid to seek a sixth consecutive term and urged supporters to endorse him at a ruling party congress.
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/ 16 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation shot to almost 15 000% last month, almost double the previous month’s rate and the worst mark yet in the country’s struggle with hyperinflation, according to reports on Friday. The Zimbabwe Independent quoted official sources as saying annual inflation in October reached 14 850%.
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/ 11 November 2007
Zimbabwe marks the 10th anniversary this week of ”Black Friday”, when its currency plunged a record 72%, an episode widely regarded as the precursor of its subsequent economic meltdown. Under pressure after street protests, President Robert Mugabe ordered unbudgeted payouts for 50 000 of war veterans.
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/ 9 November 2007
Zimbabwe police on Friday brought in for questioning an editor and two executives from two leading independent media houses. Hama Saburi, editor of financial weekly the Financial Gazette, said he and the newspaper’s chief executive were on their way to a police station for apparently violating government price controls.
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/ 9 November 2007
Poachers have shot dead three black rhinoceroses — a species listed as the most highly endangered large mammal — on a private conservancy in Zimbabwe. Owner John Travers said poachers armed with AK47 rifles on Wednesday night evaded the armed guards surrounding the rhino at the Imire game park.
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/ 8 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s Attorney General has been arrested and charged with corruption in connection with allegations he promised to help a fugitive banker who had fled the Southern African nation, police said. Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele was arrested on Tuesday and then released after a statement was recorded.
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/ 8 November 2007
A week-long strike by Zimbabwe magistrates over pay could be joined by more disgruntled state employees, increasing pressure on President Robert Mugabe ahead of elections next year, analysts said. The country is grappling with a severe economic crisis that has pushed inflation past 7 900%.
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/ 2 November 2007
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is ignoring approaches from former South African president Nelson Mandela to step down, reports said on Friday. The Zimbabwe Independent, quoting unnamed sources, also said that former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan had tried to meet with Mugabe to discuss his retirement.
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/ 1 November 2007
A failed British bid to exclude Robert Mugabe from an upcoming European summit played straight into the hands of the Zimbabwean president, who gained instinctive support from his African peers, analysts said. Portugal said on Wednesday that invitations would be issued to all African states who would be free to decide themselves on the composition of their delegation.
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/ 1 November 2007
A decision by the European Union to allow Robert Mugabe to a summit is a rare diplomatic coup for Zimbabwe’s leader whose relations with the West have plummeted almost as fast as his country’s economy. In power since the former British colony won independence in 1980, Mugabe has shown no sign of mellowing in his old age.
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/ 31 October 2007
Zimbabwe has registered a 2,5% decline in the prevalence of HIV to 15,6% of the population, the authorities revealed in Harare on Wednesday. The latest decline is from 18,1% of the population in 2006 to 15,6% this year, or one in every seven people, Health Ministry officials were quoted as saying.
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/ 31 October 2007
Zimbabwean authorities are to consider an application by a daily newspaper to resume publication four years after it was banned. Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the Media and Information Commission would consider an application by the Daily News and its sister paper the Daily News on Sunday.
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/ 30 October 2007
A top Zimbabwean banking executive, arrested after three years on the police wanted list, has appeared in court charged with breaching exchange controls and immigration laws, reports said on Tuesday. James Mushore, a former deputy managing director for NMB Bank, appeared before a Harare magistrate on Monday.
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/ 28 October 2007
An escalating energy crisis has pulled the plug on hopes of reviving Zimbabwe’s economy as production grinds to a halt in a manufacturing sector already battling sky-high inflation. Although central bank chief Gideon Gono said that shelves would soon be full again after a pricing crackdown, analysts say the power deficit will accelerate the meltdown as inflation nears 8Â 000%.
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/ 27 October 2007
President Robert Mugabe has dismissed claims by the Zimbabwe opposition that its supporters are victims of politically motivated violence, state media reported on Saturday. Mugabe challenged the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to substantiate allegations of attacks on its followers, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.
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/ 26 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has launched an intelligence academy named after him, saying it would produce officers able to counter growing threats from Western powers. Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, is fighting isolation from the West, which accuses him of human rights abuses.
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/ 25 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s home affairs minister has dismissed as hearsay claims by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that MDC members are being targeted in violent attacks by ruling party supporters, state media said on Thursday. A delegation from the MDC was on Wednesday summoned to meet Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi.
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/ 24 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it had secured a promise from the government on Wednesday to investigate charges of escalating violence against their supporters. After a meeting with Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, senior MDC figures said they had been assured they were not regarded as ”enemies”.