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HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — At a busy market in a poor township outside Harare this week, Nyasha Ndou kept his mask in his pocket, as hundreds of other people, mostly unmasked, jostled to buy and sell fruit and vegetables displayed on wooden tables and plastic sheets. As in much of Zimbabwe, here the coronavirus is quickly being relegated to the past, as political rallies, concerts and home gatherings have returned.

The United States extends its condolences to the Mugabe family and the people of Zimbabwe as they mourn the passing of former President Robert Mugabe. We join the world in reflecting on his legacy in securing Zimbabwe’s independence.

Zimbabwe’s public health system is collapsing along with the economy, with some major hospitals suspending all non-emergency surgeries because painkillers are scarce. Some in this southern African country are turning to the growing number of peddlers of traditional medicines, many of them young men occupying street corners in the capital, Harare. “Faulty gear boxes, blown-out fuses. I can fix it all!” shouted Shepherd Mushore. He stood outside a now-closed garage, but he is no mechanic. He displayed tree barks, roots and leaves of all kinds. “Gear boxes and fuses” are his euphemisms for sexual matters. …

VOA|Harare in the 1980s was affectionately referred to as the sunshine city because of its cleanliness. The city was orderly with well-maintained roads, bright street lights and clean running water and the blooming jacaranda trees also gave the it a unique view. But things have taken a bad turn as the city has been decaying since the 1990s. Buildings are now resembling a war zone and children hang around on street corners with nowhere to go and homeless people tell stories of disease and crime. These pictures reveal real-life scenes from an urban area hit-hard by the recession and still...

Poachers kill 300 Zimbabwe elephants with cyanide • Cyanide has been used to kill 300 elephants in Zimbabwe's biggest nature reserve - three times the original estimate - as new photos show the scale of the slaughter Poachers in Zimbabwe have killed more than 300 elephants and countless other safari animals by cyanide poisoning, The Telegraph has learned. The full extent of the devastation wreaked in Hwange, the country's largest national park, has been revealed by legitimate hunters who discovered what conservationists say is the worst single massacre in southern Africa for 25 years. Pictures taken by the hunters, which...

HARARE - A ZIMBEBWEAN woman killed her infant son and sold one of his ears for US$20 (S$27.95) to a traditional healer wanted for ritual murders in neighbouring Mozambique, police said on Thursday. 'We can confirm that the woman Christine Hofisi from Chipinge (near the Mozambican border) strangled her 18-month-old son to death and cut off his left ear,' deputy national police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka told AFP. 'Hofisi sold the ear to a traditional healer notorious for ritual murders in Mozambique. She sold the ear for US$20 but was given US$10 with the balance to be paid later. 'She is...

As white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche is buried, the dangerously charismatic Julius Malema threatens the country's future. We are not here to mourn the white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, whose funeral took place yesterday, but since his name is on the world's lips, let's face the truth: the saddest thing about his murder last weekend is that it obscured an event that casts an infinitely darker shadow. The event took place in Zimbabwe, and involved, as fate would have it, Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League leader whose repeated singing of an old struggle song about shooting Boers is viewed by many...

President Robert Mugabe in a published interview rejected demands that he should dismiss two discredited officials, while the Zimbabwean government on Thursday asked its neighbors for a $2 billion loan package to aid its collapsed economy. In the interview with the state Herald newspaper to mark his 85th birthday, Mugabe ... "It is important not to jump off the bridge before there is enough water under it,"

Three months after the Reserve Bank ordered it to close, the Harare exchange was reopened by the new finance minister Tendai Biti, of the Movement for Democratic Change, who rang the bell to start the day's trading. Zimbabwe stock exchange: The use of dollars and South African rand in Zimbabwe has become ever more widespread as the Zimbabwe dollar was rendered worthless The move symbolises the hope for economic improvement that the country's power-sharing government represents. But the fact that shares are now priced in US currency is equally significant, demonstrating the desperate state of the country's finances. In terms...

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told reporters Thursday he doesn't see why the arrest of a longtime rival has made news around the world and strained relations with his new governing partners. "The issue of Roy Bennett is making headlines worldwide. I wonder why?" Mugabe said Thursday.

Zimbabwe's new finance minister says soldiers, teachers and civil servants will be paid in U.S. dollars as the coalition government tries to kick-start the shattered economy. Tendai Biti, a member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition party, says some 130,000 government employees will receive $100 a month tax-free, replacing their local currency salaries. Zimbabwe has the world's highest official inflation .

Zimbabwe's central bank will introduce a $50 billion note -- enough to buy just two loaves of bread -- as a way of fighting cash shortages amid spiraling inflation. Zimbabwe is grappling with hyperinflation now officially estimated at 231 million percent, and its currency is fast losing its value. As of Friday, one U.S. dollar was trading at around ZW$25 billion. When the government issued a $10 billion note just three weeks ago, it bought 20 loaves of bread. That note now can purchase less than half of one loaf. Realizing the worthlessness of the currency, the RBZ has allowed...

Zimbabwe's government has accused former colonial ruler Britain of using a cholera epidemic to rally Western support for an invasion of the collapsing southern African nation, a state-run newspaper said on Sunday. President Robert Mugabe is under mounting pressure from the international community, especially Western nations which accuse him of ruining the once prosperous country and exposing its people to famine and disease. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has branded Mugabe's government a "blood-stained regime" and said it was responsible for the cholera epidemic that has killed at least 575 people. The world must tell Mugabe "enough is enough," he...

Gunfire has broken out in downtown Harare when rampaging, unpaid soldiers attacked money changers and clashed with police. Monday's violence is the second time in a week that soldiers have attacked money changers and stolen their cash in frustration after they have been unable to get their wages at banks.

Zimbabwe's opposition says it will bring the government to its knees with Kenya-style mass protests if President Robert Mugabe carries out extensive plans to rig tomorrow's presidential and parliamentary elections. But Mugabe has vowed to use the army to crush any demonstrations and warned Zimbabweans not to waste their votes on opposition candidates who would never be allowed to take power. Mugabe, 84, would struggle to extend his 28-year rule in a clean election, amid widespread hunger, mass unemployment, 100,000% inflation and a currency that devalues so fast that the few people with jobs are paid in billions of Zimbabwe...

http://allafrica.com/stories/200710190699.html [allAfrica.com] 20 Oct 2007--The Anglican Church's Province of Central Africa has expelled the bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, and declared his post vacant after he withdrew the diocese from the province alleging rampant homosexuality in the church.

Animals Being Slaughtered For Meat Or Abandoned By Owners. Conditions have become so desperate in Zimbabwe that people are said to be eating their pets. Animal welfare groups said it's come to that, with animals being slaughtered for meat or abandoned by owners who can no longer feed them. The African nation's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it can't feed pets who've been turned in or find new homes for them. It's been trying to destroy them humanely but veterinarians are running out of drugs for that purpose. One activist called the situation "too ghastly...

Mugabe has lots of food at local shop Last Updated: 2:38am BST 28/07/2007 Shoppers in the supermarkets of Harare have nothing left to buy. But in Borrowdale Brooke, where the country’s senior politicians live, everything from lobster to single malt whisky can be found — at a price The shelves in Zimbabwe's stores are bare, but in a leafy suburb of Harare it's a different story, Sebastien Berger reports Robert Mugabe's local supermarket is unlike any other shop in Zimbabwe. Elsewhere there are gaping empty shelves where bread, butter, sugar, meat and the staple maize meal should be. But at...

A KEY ally of Zimbabwe's Vice President Joice Mujuru has said he expects President Robert Mugabe to retire before the end of the year, seen as proof of growing disillusionment within his Zanu PF party over his plans to run for office in general elections next year. Mugabe, 83, has been power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. But an unprecedented economic crisis and growing international pressure has encouraged rivals within his own party to pressure him to quit. Dr Ibbo Mandaza, an influential Zanu PF supporter and adviser to Mujuru, said he expects Mugabe to announce...

Reports from Zimbabwe are indicating that the Armed Forces and other elements that handle internal security are on a state of heightened readiness. This comes to light after a Online News Portal reported that the Government has information that the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change will suffered an humiliating and possibly fraudulent defeat may launch street protests to challenge the outcome. This information is according to the Central Intelligence Organization. The report stated that a joint security command comprising of Army Police and CIO Commanders made the decision to increase security measures following the start of the rumors of a...