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<p>Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad asset who was used by Israeli intelligence to blackmail politicians, according to a former Israeli spy.</p> <p>Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli spy and alleged “handler” of Robert Maxwell, told the authors of a new book, Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales, that Epstein ran a “complex intelligence operation” at the behest of Mossad.</p>

Tsvangirai says he is being framed Lawyers defending Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges have accused the key prosecution witness of being a serial fraudster. They say that Canada-based political consultant Ari Ben-Menashe video-taped a meeting with Mr Tsvangirai as part of a government plot to stifle the opposition. Mr Tsvangirai and two colleagues from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) pleaded not guilty to treason charges when the trial began on Monday. Mr Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence officer, says the three contracted him to assassinate President Robert Mugabe before last year's elections. Mr Mugabe won but...

<p>JOHANNESBURG - In 1963, lawyer George Bizos saved anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela from the gallows, and Mr. Mandela went on to become president of South Africa. Forty years later, he is defending Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on a capital charge of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe.</p>

Robert Mugabe’s party claimed a resounding victory in Zimbabwe’s general election today moments before his main rival accused him of “monumental fraud”. The election had been hailed as a potential turning point in the nation’s troubled history as Mugabe’s long-time nemesis Morgan Tsvangirai again vowed to dethrone the 89-year-old tyrant after 33 years in power. … Releasing unofficial results early in Zimbabwe is illegal, and police had said on Wednesday they would arrest anybody who made premature claims about the result. But a senior source in Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, who asked not to be named, crowed: “We’ve taken this election....

White-owned companies in Zimbabwe are to be forced to hand majority control to black businessmen in a move that could lead to chaos rivalling the seizure of the country's commercial farms. The new regulations demand that all foreign and locally owned companies hand over at least 51 per cent ownership to black Zimbabweans. Thousands of firms, including the Zimbabwean operations of giants such as Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and the mining company Rio Tinto, will be affected, and they must submit their plans to comply by March 1. Owners who fail to comply could be jailed. The new law...

A British farmer who stood up to Robert Mugabe and was beaten, abducted and finally had his house burnt down has travelled to Washington to ask the Obama administration to put pressure on the Zimbabwe government before it seizes the last remaining white farms. Ben Freeth and his wife Laura with their children Anna, Phillip and Josh. Ben Freeth, who moved to Zimbabwe from Kent, joined his father-in-law Mike Campbell in taking Mugabe to an international court to stop the farm seizures. Their secret footage of the campaign of intimidation launched against them will form part of a film to...

Zimbabwe's two main political leaders, President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had talks with outgoing South African Development Community (SADC) chairman and President of South Africa Jacob Zuma into the early hours of Friday morning. Mr. Zuma came to Harare to try and unblock outstanding issues from the political agreement which is nearly a year old and which brought the unity government in Zimbabwe to power in February. Mr. Zuma has had one-on-one talks with both Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai and then with both of them together since he arrived in Harare late Thursday. Mr. Zuma seemed...

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has said the new unity government is broke and can not meet trade union demands for higher wages. Mr Tsvangirai said no state worker, including President Robert Mugabe, was earning more than $100 (£67) a month. The unions have called for a monthly minimum of $450 and threatened to go on strike if their demand is not met. "This government is broke, and we are only able to pay the $100 allowance," Mr Tsvangirai told the crowds

The death of the child, Sean, comes less than a month after Mr Tsvangirai's wife Susan died in a car crash.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said the car crash that killed Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's wife was "the hand of God", speaking at a funeral service on Tuesday. "It will take him time to recover from this shock. I plead with you to accept it, it's the hand of God," Mugabe told hundreds of mourners gathered at a Methodist church in Harare. The remarks were Mugabe's first public comments on the crash that killed Susan Tsvangirai and injured her husband on Friday. An oncoming truck hit their 4x4 on a potholed highway outside Harare, sending their vehicle flipping off the road....

HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was flown to neighbouring Botswana for medical tests on Saturday after being seriously injured in a car crash that killed his wife, his party said. "I do not know when he will be back, he will undergo a check-up, but he is out of danger now," a spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said. Hours earlier, Tsvangirai -- who suffered neck and head injuries in Friday's crash -- was seen by an AFP reporter walking out of the Avenues Clinic in Harare accompanied by his top allies. The crash happened...

HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party on Saturday pushed for an independent probe of the car crash that killed his wife and injured him, as an official said a US aid truck was involved. Tsvangirai, a longtime rival of President Robert Mugabe who recently became prime minister in a unity government aimed at ending months of political turmoil, remained in stable condition in hospital after the crash on Friday. "Police are making their own investigation, we are also making our own," said Finance Minister Tendai Biti, also the number two leader of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change...

HARARE, Zimbabwe: The prime minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, was hurt and his wife, Susan, fatally injured on Friday in a car crash about 45 miles south of the capital, according to officials of Tsvangirai's political party, the Movement for Democratic Change. Tsvangirai was heading to his rural home for a Saturday rally when the crash occurred Friday afternoon. From his hospital bed in Harare on Friday, he told one of his aides that a large truck driving on the other side of the road had come toward his Land Cruiser, the middle vehicle in a three car convoy. The...

The wife of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been killed in a car crash in which he was also hurt, party officials say. Susan Tsvangirai was travelling with her husband south of the capital, Harare, when the crash happened. Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, formed a unity government with President Robert Mugabe last month. The two had been long-time rivals before agreeing a power-sharing deal. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters news agency that Mr Tsvangirai, who will turn 57 next week, was not in a critical condition. "We have just heard that...

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has begun further power-sharing talks amid reports that leaders are close to a deal which will name Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister. Mediator South African President Thabo Mbeki has started meetings today as state radio reported they may soon reach an agreement. The spokesman for Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF said the party, after lengthy talks to try to end a post-election crisis, wants any unity government to last five years. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Mr Tsvangirai would become premier in the arrangement under discussion, although his powers were still being debated. Zimbabweans are longing...

The president and his cronies face a humiliating end THE president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has been warned by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, that he faces prosecution for crimes he has committed during his 28 years in office unless he signs a deal to give up all effective power. Mbeki, who has done all he can to shield and support Mugabe for the past eight years, has come under overwhelming western pressure and has had to tell Mugabe that he could no longer protect him and key cronies from being charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The...

The farcical presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe has come and gone. Predictably Zanu-PF used all sorts of intimidation tactics to force people to the polls so Robert Mugabe -- the only candidate after last Sunday's withdrawal by Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai -- will win by a wide margin. Reports from the country gave accounts of people being frog marched to the polls and instructed to write down the serial numbers of their ballot papers to prove they voted -- and the party functionaries checked who they voted for. But this was all expected in the culmination of...

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe isolated as allies turn their backs By Louis Weston and Peta Thornycroft in Harare Last Updated: 7:48PM BST 24/06/2008 Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has sunk deeper into isolation as African leaders turned against him and called for South African President Thabo Mbeki, his most important protector, to do the same. The leaders of Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana and Angola have all turned their backs on President Mugabe The Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade and Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling ANC, called for the presidential election on Friday to be postponed following the withdrawal of Mr Mugabe's rival,...

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he is pulling out of Friday's presidential run-off, handing victory to President Robert Mugabe. Mr. Tsvangrai said there was no point running when elections would not be free and fair and and "the outcome is determined by... Mugabe himself." He called on the global community to step in to protect Zimbabweans. The decision came after opposition supporters heading to a rally in the capital Harare came under attack. The MDC says at least 70 supporters have been killed in recent months. At a press conference Sunday, mr Tsvangirai said: "It is for the world...

Mugabe's rival Tsvangirai pulls out of election By Nelson Banya 19 minutes ago Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on Sunday, saying a free and fair poll was impossible in the current climate of violence. Speaking only hours after his opposition Movement for Democratic Change reported its rally had been broken up by pro-Mugabe youth militia, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop "genocide" in the former British colony. "We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent,...