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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
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will be invited to attend the second European Union-Africa summit in December in Lisbon, a Portuguese official said on Tuesday. Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with some backing in Europe, has indicated neither he nor any other senior minister will attend the summit if the Zimbabwean leader does.
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/ 29 October 2007
The last flight out taxied from the sparkling new Harare airport, lifted over the city and dipped its wings in farewell. With that, at 9am on Sunday, British Airways (BA) said goodbye to Zimbabwe. Though symbolic, it’s not the first time BA has been forced out of Zimbabwe in the 75 years since the first flying boats opened up the aerial link with Southern Africa.
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/ 29 October 2007
Viomak’s velvety voice drifts through the air like a lullaby on a gentle breeze. But her protest songs pack a punch which could mean jail for anyone caught listening to them in her native Zimbabwe. The tunes bluntly demand an end to President Robert Mugabe’s rule and belong to Zimbabwe’s tradition of protest music that her fans say give hope and comfort.
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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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/ 27 October 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said he is determined to attend a Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon next month despite pressure from Britain that he be kept off the invitation list. ”Portugal said they would invite me,” Mugabe said in an interview published by state media in Angola on Friday.
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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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/ 25 October 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe cannot be excluded from the European Union-Africa summit just because he is a dictator, or others must be barred too, EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel said on Wednesday. ”We don’t … have the right to say to our African friends ‘you can invite anyone you like except him’,” he said.
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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”.
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/ 24 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s central bank chief pledged on Wednesday that empty shop shelves would soon be replenished as he denounced the ”anarchy” inspired by the government’s order for retailers to slash their prices in half. Gideon Gono said the availability of goods was improving after widespread shortages that he acknowledged were sparked by the blitz.
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/ 24 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s crisis has now reached the tipping point, a spokesperson for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change warned on Tuesday as a local consumer watchdog said the cost of living had climbed 30% in a month. Most basics are now only available on the expensive black market.
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/ 23 October 2007
South African companies are cashing in on Zimbabwe’s economic turmoil, boosting investments and expanding their operations despite deepening hardships, a human rights group, the South Africa-registered Solidarity Peace Trust, said on Tuesday.
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/ 22 October 2007
Former Mozambique president Joachim Chissano won a new -million prize for African leadership on Monday and was hailed as ”a powerful voice for Africa on the international stage”. Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan chaired the committee that selected the inaugural award by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.
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/ 22 October 2007
The Zimbabwe government has intensified a drive to expel white farmers issuing eviction orders to more farmers and threatening to arrest those who have not vacated their properties after the expiry of a September 30 deadline to do so. Fewer than 600 white commercial farmers remain in Zimbabwe.
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/ 20 October 2007
The British government is welcome to stay away from the Africa Union (AU) and European Union (EU) summit in December, said African National Congress secretary general, Kgalema Motlanthe. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stated he would not attend the summit if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is allowed to attend.
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/ 19 October 2007
Sweden and Finland on Thursday called for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to be excluded from a European Union-Africa summit in December but left open whether they would join a British boycott if he showed up. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said he had not decided whether to attend the summit in Lisbon if Mugabe came.
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/ 19 October 2007
An independent Zimbabwe newspaper on Friday claimed that President Robert Mugabe has named four potential successors, and they do not include Vice-President Joyce Mujuru. The Zimbabwe Independent claimed Mugabe said that the four serious candidates to succeed him were Emmerson Mnangagwa, Sydney Sekeramayi, John Nkomo and Simba Makoni.
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/ 16 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party said on Tuesday that President Robert Mugabe’s government was escalating a violent crackdown against its members. Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told journalists it was worried by increased cases of violence against its supporters.
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/ 16 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s main opposition on Monday accused President Robert Mugabe’s party of treating with disdain key talks by mounting a crackdown on its supporters. ”We continue to receive disturbing reports from across the country of violence against our supporters,” said Nelson Chamisa, the spokesperson for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
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/ 15 October 2007
Zimbabwe will not allow foreigners to own broadcasting stations but could relax rules and licence locals who have been battling to meet stringent requirements, the information minister said on Monday. ”On the issue of ownership we cannot compromise,” Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told a committee of lawmakers.
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/ 15 October 2007
The European Union should tell British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to ”shut up” on democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe ahead of an Africa-EU summit in December, Zimbabwe’s information minister said on Monday. Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said that Brown had no right to lecture Zimbabwe when he himself was ”running away” with power.
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/ 15 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s government has allowed bakers to increase the price of a loaf of bread by more than 200%, as shortages persist across the country, an official of the bakers’ association said on Sunday. On Friday, the Zimbabwean government had authorised new increases in the prices of basic foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages
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/ 12 October 2007
The Zimbabwean government on Friday authorised new increases in the prices of basic foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for retailers to halve their tariffs. The National Incomes and Pricing Commission announced it had approved rises of between 50% and 200% for a range of staple foods.
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/ 11 October 2007
A court was to rule on Thursday whether 11 of Zimbabwe’s last remaining white farmers should stand trial after they stayed on their properties in defiance of a government eviction order. A magistrate in the farming town of Chegutu will also to decide whether the 11 can appeal against their impending eviction.
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/ 11 October 2007
South Africa is confident that a ”critical number” of European and African leaders would be in attendance at the planned European Union (EU)-African Union (AU) summit in Portugal in December to make it worthwhile. Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said: ”Summits depend on a number of people to be there, not just one person.”
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/ 10 October 2007
An American citizen arrested by police in Zimbabwe and charged with smuggling was free to leave the country after paying a fine, a US embassy official said on Tuesday. Leslie Francis Howell Jr, from Florida, was arrested at Victoria Falls airport when he tried to board a plane with two pistols and 300 rounds of ammunition.
Women are being regularly tortured by Zimbabwean security forces for their opposition to President Robert Mugabe’s regime, a report by a leading rights group charged on Tuesday. ”Many of us have been detained more than once and suffered extreme abuse perpetrated by state actors,” Jenni Williams, national coordinator of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, said.
Prosecutors in Zimbabwe have withdrawn ”terror” charges against 22 opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists because of insufficient evidence, defence lawyers said on Tuesday. The activists were arrested in March as President Robert Mugabe’s government launched a crackdown on the opposition, which saw MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai severely beaten.
Zimbabwe’s opposition parties will pull out of South African-brokered talks with the government of President Robert Mugabe if violence against them is not halted. Zimbabweans are still being beaten and killed by Mugabe’s militias despite negotiations between his government and opposition parties, said a senior member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday called for unity among the country’s main political rivals to revive the country’s moribund agricultural sector. ”Let’s work together, all of us,” Mugabe said at a ceremony in the capital, Harare, where he commissioned a range of farming equipment to be distributed to fledgling farmers.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned on Monday that neither he nor any other senior British government minister will attend a Europe-Africa summit if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is there. Previously Brown had said he would boycott the December summit, but it has been unclear if Britain could be represented at a lower level.