Harare

Zimbabwe’s health minister on Tuesday said the country was on high alert after a cross-border trader died in the prime tourist resort of Victoria Falls on Christmas Day from a suspected viral haemorrhagic fever. Johannesburg virologists were testing samples for various haemorrhagic fevers including ebola.

A suspected case of deadly ebola fever has been reported in Zimbabwe’s prime resort of Victoria Falls, state media said on Sunday. Specimen samples have been taken and sent to a laboratory in South Africa for tests after a trader from Angola died at the town’s main hospital on Christmas Day.

The Zimbabwe government is investigating the country’s biggest private mobile phone company and could withdraw its operating licence for alleged ”subversive activities”, the state-run Herald newspaper said on Wednesday. The paper said this followed a probe into the foreign currency dealings of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday said his party would engage in mass action next year to bring about democratic change. ”We are determined to ensure democratic resistance and mass action. It’s the agenda for 2004 and we don’t have to hide it,” Tsvangirai told reporters.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday promised to create a ”broad alliance” with other pro-democracy organisations that he said next year would force President Robert Mugabe’s government to negotiate a settlement to the country’s crisis.

Zimbabwe’s state-controlled media has ”blood on its hands” through inciting violence against President Robert Mugabe’s critics, according to a report published in Zimbabwe this week.

A high court judge in the western city of Bulawayo on Friday ruled that Zimbabwe ‘s Daily News, the country’s sole independent daily voice, be allowed to publish again after being banned by authorities since September.

President Thabo Mbeki held lengthy talks with President Robert Mugabe in Harare on Thursday over Zimbabwe’s crisis, and was due later to see opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Diplomats said Mbeki appeared to have had a change of heart, his office having earlier ruled out the likelihood of talks with Tsvangirai.

South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Zimbabwe on Thursday for talks on political and economic chaos in that country, and declared that Zimbabwe and South Africa share common problems they can help each other resolve. Mbeki said he hopes Mugabe ”can assist us to confront the problems we have in South Africa”.

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate, on an almost vertical curve, hit 620% in November, according to official statistics issued on Wednesday. Interest rates soared at about the same rate, marking the critical worsening of the economy.

Zimbabwe’s Parliament has ratified President Robert Mugabe’s decision to pull the Southern African country out of the Commonwealth, state media reported on Thursday. Fifty-nine lawmakers voted in favour of the walk-out, while 41 voted against, after a protracted and heated five-hour debate.

Scores of Zimbabwean human rights lawyers staged a half-hour demonstration in the capital, Harare, on Wednesday to protest at the assault and harassment of lawyers and judges. The lawyers marched from the Supreme Court across the city’s busiest streets during the lunch rush hour.

Zimbabwe’s state press called on President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday to sever diplomatic ties with Britain and Australia, blaming British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government for all the southern African country’s economic and political crises.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party on Monday flayed President Robert Mugabe’s decision to leave the Commonwealth, calling it illegal and urging the world to help bring back democracy to the impoverished nation.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday told cheering party loyalists he was not ready to step down. There had been frenzied speculation that Mugabe, who turns 80 next year, would use the Zanu-PF conference this weekend to announce he was resigning or selecting a successor.

Zimbabwe’s ruling party came out in strong support of President Robert Mugabe’s threats to quit the Commonwealth, with Vice President Joseph Msika saying ”to hell” with the Commonwealth, from which the country has been suspended. Meanwhile, Commonwealth leaders were on Friday night struggling to remain united in their tough stance against Mugabe’s regime.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party warned on Thursday that the country could run out of food — including vital food aid supplied by donors — by the end of January next year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has moved to expel Zimbabwe, citing a lack of cooperation and arrears of more than -million running back almost three years, the body said in a statement.

Right up to the last moment, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe appeared to be keeping up his hopes that he might be invited to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Abuja, Nigeria this weekend. ”We look forward to participating at Abuja,” he said brightly, a week before.

The treason trial of Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, accused of plotting to ”eliminate” President Robert Mugabe, resumed on Tuesday after a four-month recess, with state lawyers applying to tighten the charges against him. Tsvangirai is on trial for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe and arrange a military coup.

The Zimbabwe government plans to amend land laws to allow it to confiscate more land from white farmers, according to details of an amended Bill published by the state-run Herald on Monday. A major change would be the scrapping of a requirement that a preliminary notice of acquisition by the government should be served on the farm owner.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said on Friday that the Southern African country is prepared to give up its membership to the Commonwealth if it is not treated as an equal. He also suggested he was still waiting for an invitation to next week’s Commonwealth Heads of Governments summit in Abuja, Nigeria.

A Zimbabwean judge who was set to hear an application by the independent Daily News on whether it should be allowed to publish, recused himself from the case on Tuesday after he apparently discussed his verdict with a member of the public.

A magistrate freed 52 people, including 14 labour leaders, two days after their arrest during nationwide demonstrations against President Robert Mugabe’s autocratic rule and the country’s economic hardships.

Zimbabwe’s finance minister on Thursday predicted the Southern African country’s economic crisis will deepen next year, with inflation hitting 700% and the economy continuing to shrink. Meanwhile, a two-day strike called by the country’s main labour union over the deteriorating economic situation failed to take off.

Zimbabwe’s foreign minister on Wednesday insisted that the southern African country is entitled to attend next month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Zimbabwe’s main labour body called on Wednesday for nationwide strikes in protest at the arrest of more than 100 of its officials and supporters during anti-government demonstrations.

Zimbabwe’s annual rate of inflation, the highest in the world, soared to new levels, reaching 526% in October, according to figures issued on Tuesday by the state Central Statistical Office (CSO).

Zimbabwe police arrested scores of trade unionists and rights activists on Tuesday as they gathered to stage protests against alleged rights abuses and the sky-rocketing cost of living in Zimbabwe. Protesters held running battles with police. ”Many of us are badly wounded by baton sticks,” a protester said.

In an unprecedented move, President Robert Mugabe’s government has refused burial at Heroes’ Acre to former president Canaan Sodindo Banana, who died last week in London after a long illness, an official spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe police arrested at least 10 trade unionists ahead of planned nationwide anti-government demonstrations on Tuesday, a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) official said. Police were not immediately able to confirm the arrests, but they had announced on state media that the intended ZCTU action was illegal.

Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo arrives in Harare on Monday for a meeting with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe over next month’s Commonwealth summit in Nigeria, the state-controlled press reported on Sunday.