Police, soldiers clash after unpaid troops turn to robbing, looting
BBC Dec 2, 08 7:52 AM CST
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Unpaid Zimbabwean soldiers battled riot police on the streets of Harare today, venting their frustration after waiting all day to withdraw money from a bank, the BBC reports. Dozens of troops ran riot before order was restored, robbing moneychangers, looting shops, and encouraging civilians to join them. Some passers-by threw stones while other cheered on the troops.
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Oppositions puts number higher
Daily Telegraph (UK) Nov 30, 08 3:31 PM CST
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The UN says more than 400 Zimbabweans have died and 10,000 are ill as a result of cholera, the London Telegraph reports. But critics like opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai accuse the government of fudging even those high numbers, insisting that more than 500 have died and half a million are sick. The unprecedented outbreak has spread from rural to urban Zimbabwe as clean water becomes less and less accessible under a collapsing infrastructure.
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Ex-prez, Annan aimed to work on humanitarian crisis
Reuters Nov 22, 08 10:57 AM CST
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Zimbabwe has denied Jimmy Carter, former UN chief Kofi Annan, and the wife of Nelson Mandela entry to the country to review its humanitarian crisis, Reuters reports. Even the support of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who's been trying to mediate an end to the ongoing political stalemate, wasn’t enough to get the trio visas. “The government has made it clear they will not cooperate,” Annan said.
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Legal auction could lead to more poaching
Times (UK) Oct 29, 08 7:31 AM CDT
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Namibia kicked off two weeks of ivory auctions yesterday, marking the first time in almost a decade that the elephant tusks have sold legally, reports the Times of London. Seven tons brought $1.18 million from Chinese and Japanese buyers, and 108 tons—the equivalent of 10,000 elephants—will sell over the course of the sale. But conservationists fear the action will revive the illegal ivory trade, which decimated Africa's elephant population from 5 million in the 1930s to 600,000 today.
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Unity government already in trouble
BBC Oct 11, 08 11:07 AM CDT
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Zimbabwe's new unity government already is in jeopardy, and it hasn't started governing yet. Robert Mugabe handed out government ministries yesterday and kept the meaningful ones, including the army and police, for his own party, the BBC reports. The opposition MDC "totally and absolutely rejects this nonsense," said a spokesman. South African mediators are on their way back.
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OPINION
Accountability is nil, the president useless
Vanity Fair Oct 10, 08 2:28 PM CDT
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The credit crisis has laid bare the failings of US government, writes Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair , putting us on par with other banana republics such as Zimbabwe and Venezuela. How else to describe this "collusion between the overweening state and certain favored monopolistic concerns, whereby the profits can be privatized and the debts conveniently socialized"?
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Wish to fill all key cabinet posts would relegate opposition to window dressing
Guardian (UK) Sep 30, 08 8:45 PM CDT
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New demands from President Robert Mugabe have the power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe on the ropes, the Guardian reports tonight. Mugabe told Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader slated to be prime minister under the pact, that he wanted the right to appoint all key cabinet ministers—a move that would render the Movement for Democratic Change little more than window dressing.
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COMMENTARY
Author cheered by 'thriving currency' of home
Christian Science Monitor Sep 29, 08 3:05 PM CDT
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Since June's election, Zimbabwe's economy has been in crisis. Store shelves are empty and inflation is out of control. Robert Mugabe remains in power. So why would anyone want to stay? The answer isn't easy, but it's simple, Kate Chambers writes in the Christian Science Monitor . "I like living in a place where hope is a thriving currency."
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Inflation rate of 11M% makes local currency largely worthless
Reuters Sep 26, 08 7:49 AM CDT
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The government of Zimbabwe will allow consumers and shops to deal in American and South African currency as an 11 million percent inflation rate continues to pummel the nearly worthless Zimbabwean dollar. Cash remains in short supply in Zimbabwe, and on a flourishing black market a US dollar can fetch 10 times the price offered at a bank. But trading in anything but the local currency has been illegal.
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Analysis
How aloof leader will be remembered
Guardian (UK) Sep 20, 08 4:55 PM CDT
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Thabo Mbeki could never be as beloved as Nelson Mandela, so he didn’t try, writes Mark Tran in the Guardian. Instead, Mbeki projected himself as a competent technocrat: cool, aloof, almost disdainful of popular opinion. He leaves behind a legacy as inscrutable as that persona, with clear victories, like the power-sharing deal he engineered in Zimbabwe, and bizarre failures, like his stance on HIV.
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New PM talks about challenges facing him in uniting dueling parties
Guardian (UK) Sep 17, 08 11:00 AM CDT
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Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's newly appointed PM after months of strife against President Robert Mugabe, is ready for the challenge of uniting his nation's dueling political factions. In an interview with the Guardian , Tsvangirai said that while Mugabe's Zanu-PF party is "moving on" without him, it's unlikely Mugabe will ever be charged for his crimes.
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Tsvangirai will become prime minister as parties come together
Reuters Sep 15, 08 6:57 AM CDT
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Zimbabwe's rival political parties signed their landmark power-sharing deal today, in which Robert Mugabe will remain president while Morgan Tsvangirai will take on the new position of prime minister. The two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change will receive a majority of cabinet posts, including the ministries responsible for the economy and the police. But Mugabe will still have control of the army, reports Reuters.
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