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/ 23 January 2008
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai accused President Robert Mugabe of running a dictatorship on Wednesday after he was briefly detained by police and needed court approval to address supporters. He told supporters his detention in the early hours by police who picked him up while he was sleeping was a bad omen for elections due in March.
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/ 23 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party was given permission on Wednesday to stage a protest rally against President Robert Mugabe after its leader Morgan Tsvangirai was briefly detained by police. Police had slapped a blanket prohibition on the protest called by the Movement for Democratic (MDC) as a show of strength.
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/ 23 January 2008
Police took away Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the middle of the night for questioning about a demonstration planned for later on Wednesday, his lawyer said. ”The police are saying they want to know what he is planning to do today,” said lawyer Alec Muchadehama.
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/ 22 January 2008
President Robert Mugabe’s government has ordered banks to end a banknote shortage or risk being closed, state media reported on Wednesday. Banknotes have joined the long list of basic commodities in short supply in the Southern African country, which is grappling with an acute economic crisis blamed on Mugabe’s policies.
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/ 22 January 2008
Police released Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai hours after taking him away in the middle of the night for questioning about a demonstration planned for later on Wednesday. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change planned the march to press President Robert Mugabe for a new Constitution.
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/ 21 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) set the stage on Monday for a new showdown with the security forces by vowing to ignore a ban on a mass protest against President Robert Mugabe. MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said there was no reason why a previous agreement to stage the demonstration should be ripped up.
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/ 20 January 2008
Zimbabwean authorities have passed changes to the country’s tough security laws after veteran President Robert Mugabe gave his final seal of approval, a state daily reported on Saturday. The government also passed revised electoral laws ahead of Zimbabwe’s upcoming presidential and legislative polls expected in March.
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/ 19 January 2008
Cuba will support crisis-riddled Zimbabwe, which is being ”punished” by the West for seizing white-owned farms, the Cuban ambassador was quoted as saying in Harare on Saturday. Cosme Torres Espinoza told reporters that there were similarities in the way the United States treated Cuba and Zimbabwe.
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/ 18 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s central bank introduced new higher value banknotes on Friday that failed to ease a cash shortage that has kept commercial banks busy with long queues of desperate residents wanting to withdraw money. Banknotes have joined a growing list of basic items in short supply in the crisis-hit country.
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/ 18 January 2008
Publishers of a popular Zimbabwean daily, which was ordered to close more than four years ago, have been invited to apply for authorisation to begin publishing again, government-run media said on Friday. The <i>Daily News</i> was a virulent critic of President Robert Mugabe’s government before being closed down in September 2003.
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/ 18 January 2008
South African President Thabo Mbeki met his Zimbabwean counterpart on Thursday after local media reports that he was stepping in to break a deadlock in talks aimed at ending Zimbabwe’s political and economic crises. Mbeki met with Robert Mugabe at a hotel for four hours and also met with members of the political opposition.
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/ 17 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s opposition urged South African President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday to try to persuade his counterpart, Robert Mugabe, to delay elections due in March, opposition and government sources said. Mbeki held three hours of talks with Mugabe at State House in Harare before then meeting with officials from the main opposition.
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/ 17 January 2008
South African President Thabo Mbeki travels to Zimbabwe on Thursday to meet officials of the ruling Zanu-PF and main opposition parties after reports that a deal to end a political crisis was imminent. Mbeki has been mediating talks between Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s government and the Movement for Democratic Change for nearly a year.
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/ 16 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s main opposition said on Wednesday it planned a protest next week to demonstrate against a crumbling economy and press for a new Constitution it says will guarantee free and fair elections scheduled for March. Opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said earlier this month the party might boycott elections scheduled for March.
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/ 15 January 2008
Zimbabwean parties engaged in negotiations are within days of finalising a political document that would cover all the important issues needed to ensure a free and fair election. This emerged from a meeting at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday between President Thabo Mbeki, who is facilitating the talks, and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
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/ 15 January 2008
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has defied a ban on reporting from Zimbabwe by staging an undercover trip there which revealed challenges to President Robert Mugabe from within his own party, the broadcaster said on Tuesday. BBC world affairs editor John Simpson spent a week in the Southern African country carrying out interviews and filming.
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/ 15 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s central bank governor is due to appear before a special parliamentary committee next week to give evidence on top officials allegedly hoarding vast sums of cash, official media said on Tuesday. Since late last year thousands of Zimbabweans have struggled to get their money out of banks.
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/ 14 January 2008
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern expressed ”great concern” over the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe at the outset of a visit to South Africa on Monday.
”I would like to thank President [Thabo] Mbeki for his work as the SADC [Southern African Development Community] mediator in Zimbabwe,” Ahern said.
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/ 14 January 2008
Zimbabwe will prohibit foreign observers deemed to be biased from overseeing its upcoming presidential and legislative elections, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Monday. ”Our stance on foreign observers is that they are not a legal requirement,” Chinamasa was quoted as saying by the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
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/ 14 January 2008
Zimbabwean police disrupted several Anglican Church services in Harare on Sunday, arresting at least three priests and a number of parishioners opposed to a pro-government bishop. The priests were dragged out of church because they were conducting services without the authorisation of the police or that of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga.
At least 50% of medical drugs are out of stock in Zimbabwe’s pharmacies because of critical shortages of foreign currency, making life harder for struggling Zimbabweans, it emerged on this week. The few available drugs have shot up in price, putting them well out of the reach of most white-collar workers.
Police were called to churches around the Zimbabwean capital Harare last weekend to halt skirmishes between supporters of a bishop who is a close ally of President Robert Mugabe and followers of a rival cleric. Tensions rose after followers of Anglican Bishop Nolbert Kunonga insisted on holding services even though authorities have decreed Kunonga is no longer a member of the church.
Several firms and shops in Zimbabwe face prosecution after they breached price ceilings imposed by a state pricing watchdog, a state daily reported on Monday. ”We are aware of some manufacturers and service providers who are contravening the pricing regulations,” the Herald quoted the chairperson of the national pricing commission as saying.
President Robert Mugabe’s government has awarded a hefty salary hike to Zimbabwe’s magistrates and prosecutors, who have been on strike since October, official media reported on Sunday. Zimbabwean workers have been hit hard by an economic crisis critics blame on Mugabe’s policies and has seen inflation jump to nearly 8 000%, the highest in the world.
The main faction of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Thursday vowed to boycott presidential and legislative polls in March if the nation’s Constitution was not overhauled. Mugabe has said that elections will be held in March and that the opposition would only have themselves to blame if they do not adequately campaign.
Some of Zimbabwe’s striking state doctors have returned to work on humanitarian grounds but most are still holding out for higher pay, the head of the doctors’ union said on Thursday. Amon Siveregi, president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association, said the industrial action had not been called off, contrary to reports in the state media.
China has pledged 5 000 tonnes of food aid this year to Zimbabwe, where more than four million people will soon require aid, the official Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. Deputy Chinese ambassador Ma Deyun also said that her country and Zimbabwe wanted to increase trade to -million in 2008 as China expands its presence in Southern Africa.
Talks between President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe’s opposition are deadlocked because the ruling party is refusing to implement a new transitional constitution, main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed on Wednesday. ”Mugabe and Zanu-PF want a false election,” Tsvangirai said. ”We are deadlocked on key issues.”
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/ 31 December 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson has accused former colonial power Britain and other Western countries of sabotaging Zimbabwe’s efforts to turn around its economy by offering a safe haven to criminals. The comments came after an MP from Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, David Butau, fled to Britain last week.
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/ 30 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s state-employed junior doctors and nurses are on strike for higher pay, putting further strain on the country’s crumbling public healthcare facilities. Doctors and nurses have staged a series of strikes in recent years as their salaries have been steadily eroded by the world’s highest inflation rate.
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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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/ 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.