Zimbabwe's parliament pressed ahead with the passage of a highly restrictive press bill in preparation for the March presidential election in which President Robert Mugabe faces an uphill battle.

The Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC) has declared Zimbabwe's controversial and draconian media Bill, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill, as unconstitutional. The PLC chaired by Harvard trained lawyer and ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF), member of Parliament Dr Eddson Zvobgo declared that 20 sections of the Bill are unconstitutional as they infringe on Sections 20 of the constitution of Zimbabwe.

Genocide Watch believes that the early warning signs for politicide (political mass killings) and possibly even genocide in Zimbabwe have now reached Stage Six: Preparation. Genocide Watch has found that genocides and politicides develop in Eight Stages, with the actual genocide at Stage Seven. (Denial is stage eight.)

The government of President Robert Mugabe has embarked on a programme of action designed to curtail and in some cases deny his people basic rights that he guaranteed them by taking an oath to uphold the inviolability the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the tenets of international and regional agreements signed by his government. Over the past two years, freedom of expression and freedom of the press have come under an ever-tightening siege, that has often spilled over into open violence and acts of sabotage against the media. This period has also seen the introduction of draconian ill-advised legislation enacted to handicap the private media, curtail the powers of the judiciary, and to strengthen the state security apparatus to deal with any activity considered to be damaging to the image of the president and his government. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) sees it as its duty to bring to your attention that, as citizens of the world, we need to stand up and put our voices together to express our solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe. We are calling on you to assist us by adding your voice to the various actions initiated by MISA. We invite you to participate in the dialogue on Zimbabwe, sign a petition that will be sent to world forums, fax your views to President Mugabe, write your own letter to world organisations.

Robert Mugabe is an oddity. The octogenarian politician thinks no one else is fit to rule Zimbabwe. He is also a racist. He wants to win the next election by stirring up racial hatred by claiming that blacks are superior to whites. Mugabe's antiquated political stand is a challenging philosophy on race relations in Africa. It is coming at a time when Africans seem disinclined to delve deeply into the divisive issues, particularly ones that might lower the generosity of donor countries.

Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark, visited Zimbabwe in January 2002, to assess the current human rights situation. Unequivocal evidence of torture was documented. Furthermore, we received statements about killings, death threats, harassments, including strategic robbery of Identity Documents needed for voting.

This weekend saw Morgan Tsvangirai's first big rally of his campaign for the presidential elections on March 9-10 and, outside this eastern city, vehicles queued for half a mile at a roadblock, where police searched them painstakingly and demanded identity cards from every traveller.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, has tried to reassure the army and police that there would be no "witch hunt" against them if he wins the presidency. Facing the possibility of a coup launched by a cabal of generals, who have already publicly declared that they will never accept him as president, Mr Tsvangirai made a determined effort to head off this threat.

A "system of semi-military command centers" has been set up at both national and provincial levels in Zimbabwe in order to ensure victory for President Robert Mugabe in forthcoming presidential elections next month, according to Mark Chavunduka, editor of the independent Zimbabwe Standard newspaper.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling party called a meeting of its legislators on Wednesday to patch up a rift over a tough media bill some party members have criticized as unconstitutional.

As international pressure grows on Zimbabwe to accept the immediate deployment of observers for upcoming presidential elections, now less than 40 days away, Amnesty International calls upon the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group and the European Union to insist that local monitors should also be involved in monitoring the polls.

Zimbabwe, a country where at least 2,000 people die of AIDS-related illnesses each week, will soon begin to manufacture 300 generic drugs, including AIDS drugs, Health and Child Welfare Deputy Minister David Parirenyatwa announced on Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency reports. The generic drugs -- which will include rifampin, an "essential" tuberculosis medication, and ketoconazole, a treatment for fungal infections in the lungs and esophagus -- will be made with the free technological help of Thailand and its Zimbabwe-based drug companies.

Presidential elections scheduled for March 9-10 in Zimbabwe are highly unlikely to be free and fair, Human Rights Watch charged in a submission to the Commonwealth. Unless the Zimbabwe government immediately fulfilled a set of minimum conditions it should face the threat of suspension from the international organization at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due in March.

The government-owned media’s overwhelming bias in favour of
the ruling party, including the flagrant omission of a crucially important High Court ruling that overturned a government decree by ordering the Registrar General’s office to prepare a common voters’ roll that would allow the electorate to cast their vote anywhere in the country in the upcoming presidential election.

Pianim, the ambitious son-in-law of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has struck up a highly controversial partnership with President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean regime in which both sides stand to make millions selling precious tropical hardwoods plundered from rain forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Amendments to Zimbabwe's controversial new media bill are only "cosmetic" changes, independent media groups and journalists told IRIN on Wednesday.

ZANU PF hooligans have intensified the ban on the sale of The Standard in a number of areas around the country, as the terror campaign to boost President Mugabe's waning image ahead of the presidential poll in March mounts.

What is happening in Zimbabwe today is not a preparation for elections, but a violent campaign that could degenerate into civil war, Zimbabwe Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro told a meeting at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London on Monday night. "What the international community has witnessed is the gradual introduction of a civil-military junta.

This benighted regime will start to collapse when its leading members understand that they will in due course face trial and imprisonment for the crimes they have committed.

Mobs loyal to President Robert Mugabe have launched a new offensive to beat and intimidate hundreds of black farm workers, ending lingering hopes that the government would keep its promise to restore the rule of law. The latest officially orchestrated attacks come 10 days before a deadline for the forcible eviction of about 200 white landowners.