Mugabe's Militia Burns Enemies' Wives Alive

Zimbabwean opposition leader Patson Chipiro came home Friday to a burning house. “I was trying to put the fire out,” he says. “I thought my wife was hiding in the bushes.” But Mrs. Chipiro was in the blazing house, where militia men loyal to Robert Mugabe had tossed her after chopping off one of her hands and both her feet, the Times of London reports.

The Chipiro killing was particularly grotesque, but violence has become all too commonplace in Zimbabwe. The wife of a Harare councilor was also burned to death Friday; the 21-year-old wasn’t mutilated, but she was pregnant and her 6-year-old son also died in the blaze. One local authority blames the atrocities on the US and Britain, claiming they paid MDC members to dress in Zanu-PF regalia and attack each other. (More Zimbabwe stories.)