Mugabe Liable for Cholera Deaths: Report

(NEWSER) - Robert Mugabe has backtracked on his denial of the Zimbabwean cholera crisis, AFP reports. “He is acknowledging there is a problem,” said a UNICEF official who met with him today. “He recognizes there is a problem with the water and the sewer systems.” The admission comes as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai returned to the country, Voice of America reports. More»

But he's not pulling out of the coalition just yet

(NEWSER) - Zimbabwe PM Morgan Tsvangirai’s party will boycott Cabinet meetings and cut off communication with president Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, theoretically its partner in government. The move accompanies growing anger among members of Tsvangirai’s MDC over Mugabe’s strong-arm tactics and the jailing of a Cabinet minister-designate, the New York Times reports. More»

Fact-finding mission recommends world court prosecutor take action

(NEWSER) - Israel committed "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during the three-week Gaza war, according to a UN special report that will be released today. The fact-finding mission, headed by the Jewish South African judge Richard Goldstone, also determined that Palestinian militants committed war crimes, but reserved most of its criticism for Israel. Goldstone's report recommends that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court open an investigation. More»

After getting the boot in March, NGOs to return to troubled region

(NEWSER) - The Sudanese government says it will invite new aid groups to work in Darfur and let the UN and other agencies expand their operations in the region. The announcement comes two months after Sudan expelled 13 NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders, in the aftermath of the International Criminal Court's indictment of President Omar al-Bashir. The UN's humanitarian chief said he would have preferred if Sudan had reversed the earlier expulsions but was encouraged by the "welcome degree of flexibility." More»

With no food, medicine, dozens die daily in death camp conditions

(NEWSER) - In Zimbabwe even a short prison term can quickly turn into a death sentence: Conditions are so unsanitary and food so scarce that dozens die daily, as revealed in a secretly shot documentary. Using smuggled cameras, the film shows rotting bodies and mass graves—and that's just in a single prison, the Times of London reports. Zimbabwe has room for 17,000 inmates in 55 locations, but incarcerates twice that number. More»