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From The Times December 18, 2008 President Kgalema Motlanthe takes swipe at UK over Robert Mugabe Jonathan Clayton in Johannesburg South Africa, the only country with real influence in Zimbabwe, yesterday distanced itself from growing international calls for Robert Mugabe to step down. President Kgalema Motlanthe instead took a swipe at Britain for seeking to impose its will on its former colony and clung to the hope that a moribund power-sharing agreement would be revived and implemented this week despite the main opposition's repudiation of the deal unless real concessions are made. Asked how bad things had to get before...

Harare - While Zimbabwe's government was backtracking on President Robert Mugabe's denials about his country's cholera outbreak, one minister was accusing Britain of 'planting' the cholera in Zimbabwe's soil to achieve 'genocide.' Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu also accused what he called 'gun-boat' Western media outlets of passing off photos of victims of conflict in other parts of Africa as Zimbabwean cholera victims. 'They take photos of people dying in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Darfur (Sudan) and say these are cholera victims from Zimbabwe. CNN please stop those pictures,' he appealed. Ndlovu was addressing a government press conferences...

Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe's government backpedalled Friday on his claim that Zimbabwe had defeated cholera, after the remarks sparked an international outcry, including comparisons with Hitler. In a nationally broadcast speech, Mugabe claimed on Thursday that "there is no cholera", even as the United Nations announced the death toll was nearing 800. "I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others, and WHO [the World Health Organisation] and they have now arrested cholera," Mugabe said. His spokesperson, George Charamba, said in the state newspaper the Herald that the president had spoken with "sarcasm", and accused Western media...

In Zimbabwe, these days, if you do not die from the cholera you may just find a swifter death. But in spite of the former “breadbasket of Africa” having become the poorest nation in the world with a four digit inflation index, in spite of brutal repression, blatant human rights violations, murder, and rape the United Nation’s infamous Human Rights Council is obsessed with Israel and its right to defend itself against terror… With thousands of people dying of cholera (because hospitals are bankrupt and have no supplies) with no relief in sight, with no sign from Mugabe that he...

With sewage running in the streets of Zimbabwe, children playing in standing water, no way of boiling water, no chlorine, shortages of medicines and everything from forks and spoons to professionals and volunteers, we are watching Zimbabwe die a slow and horrible death.

Play Video Video: Zimbabwe cholera death toll rises Reuters Play Video Video: Elders on Zimbabwe crisis BBC HARARE, Zimbabwe – Police wielding guns and riot sticks skirmished with unarmed soldiers in Zimbabwe's capital Monday, after frustration over unpaid wages touched off a riot. Police took away one civilian hit by a bullet. Trouble began when soldiers attacked money changers and stole cash after being unable to draw their wages at banks. Zimbabwe's dire financial situation has triggered a cash shortage, making it impossible for people to get access to enough money to survive. Associated Press reporters watched as hundreds of...

The African National Congress, under pressure over the amount of land still in white hands, called on Sunday for the scrapping of laws allowing farmers to set a price for land to be redistributed to black South Africans. "The willing-buyer/willing seller clause has to be abandoned," said a statement after South Africa's governing alliance held a summit to review economic policy driving the country forward after elections in 2009. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the current situation where 87% of the country's land still resided in the hands of 50 000 white farmers, 14 years on from the end...

Dear Family and Friends, The October clouds are gathering over Zimbabwe and darkening skies tease us with promises of rain every afternoon. Its a brutally hard time of year. Searing heat, scorched ground and a desperate shortage of water makes it almost impossible to keep anything going. And yet, as the clouds get darker, heavier and lower the time of renewal is almost upon us and the signs of the new season are all around us. Bright yellow weaver birds with deep black face masks are busy weaving strips of grass into intricate nests which they hang upside down from...

Dear Family and Friends, If you come first in a running race, why would you give ninety-nine percent of the gold medal and prize money to the person who came second? The answer is obvious but as each day passes it seems the real winner, and the will of the majority of Zimbabweans is not going to be respected. The people and political party who came second in Zimbabwe's March 29th elections are simply not going to step down and their refusal to accept defeat has sent us into a dizzying collapse out of all control. The rich are getting...

Shiny brown seedsSaturday 30th August 2008 Dear Family and Friends, It's a noisy afternoon as I sit writing this letter. The Msasa trees are throwing out their seeds in preparation for the new season. Every few seconds another pod loses control and cracks. There is a distinct click and then the pod splits, curls and falls onto the hard, dry ground, scattering shiny brown seeds into the dust. Summer is almost upon us and change is in the air. Smoke is also in the air as yet again uncontrolled fires burn in every direction and on every horizon but we...

Dear Family and Friends, Our days and weeks blur into ongoing nightmare as we reel from one crisis to another. I'm not talking about the politics of our country where talks have either collapsed or stalled, or become corrupted - at this time it's not really clear what is happening. The only hint we are getting that any chance of a deal or coalition between the two main parties is collapsing, is the barrage of blaming and finger pointing against Mr Tsvangirai that is being aired by the State controlled ZBC radio and television. The crisis that I'm talking about...

Dear Family and Friends, The will of the people. It is impossible to believe that 140 days after Zimbabwe voted for an MDC Parliament and an MDC President the will of the people has yet to be accepted or implemented. After nearly five months we remain locked in a truly horrible state without sworn in legislators, without a parliament and without legitimacy. Everything around us is falling apart so fast now and yet the people and party in power for the last twenty eight years simply refuse to go. The electricity is now off more than on - in my...

Letter from Zimbabwe sent by John Winter I reckon that these are the last days of TKM and ZPF. The darkest hour is always before dawn. We are all terrified at what they are going to destroy next… I mean they are actually ploughing down brick and mortar houses and one white family with twin boys of 10 had no chance of salvaging anything when 100 riot police came in with AK47's and bulldozers and demolished their beautiful house - 5 bedrooms and pine ceilings - because it was "too close to the airport", so we are feeling extremely insecure...

Once, albinos used to seek shelter from the sun. Now they have gone into hiding simply to survive, after a series of killings linked to witchcraft. In Tanzania, 25 albinos have been killed in the past year. The latest victim was a seven-month-old baby. He was mutilated on the orders of a witchdoctor peddling the belief that potions made from an albino's legs, hair, hands, and blood can make a person rich. Sorcery and the occult maintain a strong foothold in this part of the world, especially in the remote rural areas around the fishing and mining regions of Mwanza,...

Land reform in South Africa is a key ANC policy but it is going badly wrong. Rosie Goldsmith, Reporter for Radio 4 Crossing Continents, met black claimants and white farmers who are caught in the struggle over land. Bernhard Mojapelo is university educated, with a good job in the city. But his main passion in life is for a vast stretch of barren rural scrubland. Thanks to South Africa's land reform, he and his tribe have been able to lodge a claim for it. "Land is a source of life," Bernhard says. "When we were dispossessed and driven away from...

Nigeria has earned the equivalent in today's terms of nearly $1.2 trillion from oil production over the past four decades, the sort of money that enabled oil-producing Gulf states like Qatar to develop some of the strongest economies in the Arab world. But its four state-owned refineries are not fully operational, largely due to mismanagement and vandalism, its distribution network is chaotic, and it relies heavily on fuel imports, which cost around $4 billion each year.

may not be surprising that, as befits any mad dictator, President Mugabe is now the proud owner of a palatial £4.5 million mansion in Harare and a similarly lavish country hideaway, each fitted with the latest electronic security systems, including anti-aircraft missiles. But why should all this have been provided for him by the People's Republic of China? The explanation lies in a deal struck in 2005 whereby Mr Mugabe handed over to China his country's mineral rights, including the world's second largest reserves of platinum, worth £250 billion.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's troubled central bank introduced new $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy. The new bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were already on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday. As high as they are, though, the new bills still aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can only buy four oranges. The new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar Once-prosperous Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented economic meltdown since it gained independence in 1980, with the official inflation rate...

Zimbabwe’s EnablerBy Brett D. Schaefer and John J. Tkacik, Jr.The Heritage Foundation | 7/17/2008 For decades, China has been a stalwart ally of Robert Mugabe. This relationship began in the 1970s, when China armed Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) guerrillas against white rule in Southern Rhodesia.[1] Subsequently, it was no surprise when China and Russia vetoed a July 12 United Nations Security Council resolution to sanction Mugabe and key figures in his government for their role in unleashing a campaign of violence and intimidation that forced opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangarai to withdraw from last month's Zimbabwean run-off...

  Private jets, Bugatti cars, a shark-filled aquarium and enough bank accounts to paper the new luxury yacht - the extraordinary capacity of some African leaders and their families for apparent self-enrichment has been laid bare in a French lawsuit over allegedly stolen state money. Following an inquiry last year by the French fraud body OCRGDF, an anti-corruption campaign group has accused a string of African politicians of plundering vast sums from the often struggling economies of their countries. (edit)The richest parts of France are teeming with homes, cars, boats and other expensive baubles belonging - in practice, at...