Publications
Partners
Mugabe family 'setting up new airline'
Harare - President Robert Mugabe and his family are shareholders in a new airline to be called Zimbabwe Airways, a private newspaper has claimed.
Respected business weekly the Financial Gazettesays in its latest edition that "multiple aviation sources" have told the paper that Mugabe, 93, and his family are "beneficial shareholders" in the new company. The airline's holding company is reported to be registered in tax haven Mauritius.
The report has been impossible to confirm, and Transport Minister Joram Gumbo told the paper that the First Family – whose wealth and lavish spending are often a source of speculation in a country mired in economic crisis – is not in any way linked to the new airline.
For more on this story click here
'I'll shrink cabinet to less than 20 ministers,' says Mugabe rival
Harare – Zimbabwe's presidential hopeful Nkosana Moyo has promised to reduce the country’s cabinet ministers to 16 if elected in the forthcoming presidential elections, says a report.
According to New Zimbabwe.com, Moyo said this while speaking to young people in Harare.
The Alliance for People's Agenda (APA) candidate said that the current number of cabinet ministers of at least 70 was a waste of tax payers' money.
Moyo vowed that should he become president, his government would roughly be made up of not more than 20 people.
Read more on this story here
'Let's restore the death penalty,' Mugabe says
Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabesaid on Wednesday he is in favour of resuming executions after more than a decade in response to rising murder rates.
The last execution in the southern African nation was in 2005.
Although he said his cabinet is divided on the issue, Mugabe said he favours lifting the moratorium on executions. "Let's restore the death penalty," he said, speaking at the burial of a political ally.
He did not say when it could happen but said that "if you hear people are being executed, know Mugabe's thinking has prevailed."
For more on this story click here
Mugabe's anti-white policies 'are bad for economy'
Harare – A Zimbabwean government policy that provides long term leases to black farmers and short term ones to their white counterparts has been described by analysts as "discriminatory and bad for the country's economy," says a report.
Lands minister, Douglas Mombeshora, announced over the weekend that resettled black farmers will be issued with 99-year long leases, while the remaining white farmers would have theirs reviewed every five years.
"There are white farmers who have been approved by provincial officers to continue farming after satisfying a number of requirements.
"We will be giving such farmers five-year leases that are subject to renewal upon meeting certain conditions at the expiry of the documents. This will enable us to collect taxes from these farmers," Mombeshora wa quoted as saying.
But according, New Zimbabwe.com, analysts warned that under the recently promulgated policy, investors such as the World Bank and other donors would not fund such programmes.
Read more on this story here
'Islamist extremist' stabs two Tunisian policemen outside parliament
Tunis - A hard-line Islamist stabbed two Tunisian policemen on Wednesday in front of parliament, gravely wounding one of them, the interior ministry said.
"A Salafist attacked two policemen with a knife. One was struck on the forehead, and the other stabbed in the neck and is in intensive care," ministry spokesperson Yasser Mesbah said.
The assailant was arrested and confessed to having adopted three years ago an extremist line of thought that views members of the security forces as "tyrants", the ministry said in a statement.
For more on this story click here
Deadly plague slowing down in Madagascar: authorities
Antananarivo - A plague outbreak that has claimed 128 lives in Madagascar has slowed down, health authorities on the island nation said on Tuesday, citing a decline in the numbers of the infected and dying.
"There is an improvement in the fight against the spread of the plague, which means that there are fewer patients in hospitals," Dr Manitra Rakotoarivony, Madagascar's director of health promotion, told local radio.
"There are almost no more deaths due to the plague... in recent days," he added.
Read more on this story here
28 killed in rare protests in Eritrea, opposition group says
Addis Ababa - At least 28 people have been killed in rare protests in the capital of Eritrea, one of the world's most reclusive nations, an official with the largest Eritrean opposition group said Wednesday.
Another more than 100 people were injured in the protests in Asmara that began on Monday and escalated on Tuesday, spokesperson Nasredin Ali with the Red Sea Afar Democratic Organisation told The Associated Press, citing sources on the ground in Eritrea. The group is based in neighbouring Ethiopia.
The US Embassy in Eritrea late on Tuesday reported gunfire "at several locations in Asmara due to protests" and advised US citizens to avoid the downtown area. The statement did not say why the protests occurred.
Nasredin's claims of deaths and injuries could not be independently verified. He said the demand by Eritrea's government to control a Muslim community school in Asmara led to the clashes.
For more on this story click here
