Harare

Zimbabwe’s ruling party has won the majority of seats in local elections held in the countryside on the weekend, confirming its continuing popularity in its traditional stronghold despite biting economic problems, it was reported on Wednesday. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced late on Tuesday that the ruling Zanu-PF party won 765 seats out of 849.

The Zimbabwean government has intensified its use of torture and arbitrary arrests to suppress opposition to President Robert Mugabe, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday. ”When Zimbabweans engage in peaceful protest, the government responds with brutal repression,” said Georgette Gagnon, deputy Africa director of the New York-based rights group.

Cemeteries in the Zimbabwean capital Harare are almost full and it is getting increasingly difficult to find space to bury people. The Harare city council has six cemeteries — Warren Hills, Pioneer, Mabvuku, Greendale and Granville A and B — but two are no longer accepting burials and the remaining four are up to 75% full.

Lawyers for Zimbabwean labour union leaders facing charges of trying to launch an illegal protest against President Robert Mugabe’s rule sought on Monday to have the case scrapped. Lawyer Alec Muchadehama told a magistrate’s court that the law the 30 leaders and members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions were alleged to have breached actually violated basic constitutional rights.

Tourist arrivals to often-shunned Zimbabwe are up by 45% so far this year and there are high hopes the once-booming industry’s decline is now over, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief was quoted as saying on Friday. The first nine months of 2006 saw a 45% rise with 1 596 364 tourists in Zimbabwe compared with 1 104 368 in the same period in 2005.

The trial of a white security expert in Zimbabwe charged with illegally possessing weapons has failed to take off, a lawyer said on Friday. Defence lawyer Trust Maanda told the media that state prosecutors on Thursday applied to amend the charges against Michael Hitschmann before proceeding to trial.

South Africa has toughened its requirements for Zimbabweans wishing to travel to the country, demanding a Z 000 () security deposit, it emerged Thursday. The state-controlled Herald newspaper said the fee was refundable and would be used to cover the costs of repatriation should the need arise.

Trade between Zimbabwe and its eastern ally China surged to -million last year and will be greater still this year, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. Total trade volume for bilateral trade for the first eight months of 2006 reached -million according to a report carried by the Herald.

Child mortality is on the increase in crisis-ridden Zimbabwe, where at least one in 10 children will die before they reach the age of five, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday. Health Minister David Parirenyatwa has blamed the rising number of deaths of minors on the soaring cost of health services in the Southern African country.

At least 40 more white farmers face eviction in Zimbabwe after they received orders from the government to cease operations and vacate their land, a farmers’ union said on Monday. ”So far 40 eviction notices have been given out by the government,” Emily Crookes, a spokesperson for the Commercial Farmers’ Union, said.

President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party will table a motion in Parliament demanding the sacking of Zimbabwe’s top union leaders, in what insiders say is the first step by the ruling party to annexing the powerful but pro-opposition labour movement.

Zimbabwe on Tuesday postponed for the second time the trial of 31 trade union members accused of holding an illegal protest to allow the state to furnish more details of the charges to defence lawyers. The lawyer for the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions also complained that police were yet to investigate several officers on charges of assaulting union members after the September 13 protest.

Zimbabwe is trying to persuade close ally China to help construct houses for more than a million people in need, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo told the head of a visiting Chinese delegation that providing housing in Zimbabwe’s towns and cities was his government’s biggest challenge, reported the Herald daily.

A senior Zimbabwean judge has rapped local courts for inefficiency after he found 10 suspects languishing for up to nine years in jail while awaiting trial or sentencing, a state-run daily said on Monday. ”This is quite embarrassing and disturbing,” Justice Makarau was quoted as saying by the Herald.

Zimbabwe, shunned by the West, is trawling ever wider for business partners, but analysts say new deals are unlikely to yield meaningful benefits for the country. The Zimbabwe Central Bank summoned reporters to a press conference last week to attend the signing of a series of memorandums of understanding with Russian conglomerate Rusaviatrade said to be worth -million.

Zimbabwe on Tuesday shut down its main money transfer agencies handling hard currency, mostly sent home by Zimbabweans abroad, after the state central bank accused them of trading irregularities. The Reserve Bank alleged at least 16 agencies, including Western Union, helped in the diversion of hard currency into the thriving currency black market.

Publishers of a popular Zimbabwean daily shut down by state authorities three years ago, on Monday asked a court to grant them the right to publish until the long-running dispute was resolved. A state-run media commission has twice refused to grant the Daily News a licence despite a Supreme Court ruling in March last year that threw out the ban on the newspaper.

President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union — Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party won two parliamentary by-elections at the weekend, Zimbabwe media said on Monday, confirming its grip on the country’s rural areas. The MDC, which marked its seventh anniversary with a rally in the capital Harare at the weekend, is still struggling to make inroads into rural areas.

The Zimbabwe government has denied claims by the main labour union that more than a dozen of its members were assaulted in police custody following foiled street protests last month, it was reported Friday. Members of the union were injured while trying to resist arrest by jumping off police vehicles, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Reuben Marumahoko told Parliament on Thursday.

A Zimbabwean court on Tuesday ordered a probe into allegations that labour union leaders were tortured by police while in custody awaiting trail for attempting to protest against President Robert Mugabe’s rule. Harare magistrate William Bhila ordered an investigation into claims that leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions were beaten up in police custody.