Human Rights Watch today called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to speak out strongly on the need to ensure that the rule of law is respected in Zimbabwe. “The situation in Zimbabwe seems to be deteriorating daily,” said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.

As traditional media becomes increasingly repressive in Zimbabwe, the launch of a local web site, www.kubatana.net is a breath of fresh air. The NGO Network Alliance Project, the energy behind the development of Kubatana, has brought Zimbabwean NGOs, CSOs and development organisations together under one online umbrella. Kubatana is a Shona word which means "working together" - an apt name when a strengthened civic response to the current social and political unrest in Zimbabwe needs to be encouraged.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is preparing to ship food aid to more than half a million people in Zimbabwe who it says are at risk of starvation. The news comes as further measures were announced by the Government to speed the take over of the country's farms for the purpose of land redistribution. The agency plans to start operations later this month, with food aid arriving in December.

Images of poverty and squalor are everywhere at Porta farm, a fast-expanding squatter camp 18 km southwest of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.

Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has thrown out charges of terrorism against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, declaring that the law under which he was charged was unconstitutional.

In its current civic education programme the Popular Education Collective is conducting community-based workshops in Masvingo and Manicaland. The workshops are on good governance, choosing effective leaders, citizen participation, non-violence and tolerance, transparency and accountability. Civic education materials such as posters, leaflets, T-shirts, stickers etc. will be produced on the above topics.

President Robert Mugabe has raised the temperature further in strife-torn Zimbabwe when he named three opposition politicians as "terrorists" and claimed Britain was funding them.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's warning that he will crush the opposition for plotting against his government is likely to see a rise in political violence before elections next year, analysts have said.

The harassment of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe(Private) Limited, publishers of The Daily News, continued in the week. The paper’s editor-in-chief, Geoffrey Nyarota, and the company’s founding Chief Executive Officer, Wilf Mbanga, were arrested, detained and subsequently appeared in court.

Zimbabwe's Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) fear being next on President Robert Mugabe's "hit-list" after a weekend of political violence.

'Six months ago I wrote in these columns that, "Mugabe may well use food in state hands to wreak additional havoc on society by distribution through the party, the so-called war veterans and the nefarious secret service. He undoubtedly will use that power over life and death to elicit party support and commitments to vote for him.'

AIDS groups in Zimbabwe this week condemned a "political" decision by the government to transfer control over money from a national AIDS fund to ruling party-run district
councils, activists told IRIN.

The week provided ample evidence that the recent changes and restructuring in the government-controlled media engineered by the Ministry of Information are now paying dividends. The two main media institutions, Zimbabwe Newspapers and ZBC, have now become dedicated, professional and efficient propaganda machines for the government, manipulating the news in favour of the ruling party at the expense of the truth. There can no longer be any question that the constant stream of coordinated misinformation being disseminated by these two organizations is a grave and extreme abuse of journalistic standards.

The editor of Zimbabwe's only privately owned daily newspaper, The Daily News, has been arrested, for the second time in less than three months, raising fears of a widening crackdown by the government against its opposition ahead of next year's elections.

President Mugabe's Government has announced that it would not allow aid agencies to distribute emergency food supplies to Zimbabweans affected by a famine. The ban will wreck a relief operation that was being mobilised by the United Nations and several international charities, including Oxfam, Western diplomats said. Nearly a million people are in dire need of food, according to a survey last month by the World Food Programme. Food stocks are expected to start running out in December and even the Government says that at least four times as many people will be affected as the famine worsens.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has used his sweeping powers of decree to force farmers off their land and sidestep their rights to have their eviction approved by the courts, the state press said on Saturday.

The recently launched mobile registration exercise taking place in resettlement areas and occupied farms is aimed at boosting Zanu PF's chances of winning the elections, its critics have said.

Events following the disappearance of Cain Nkala, a senior Bulawayo-based war veteran, have taken a sinister turn as senior government and Zanu PF officials threatened a violent response to members of the MDC, who they accuse of being responsible for his ‘kidnapping’.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Associated Newspapers Company (ANZ), Muchadeyi Masunda, has dismissed reports alleging that ANZ's investment certificate had been cancelled by the Zimbabwe Investment Center (Z.I.C). ANZ publishes "The Daily News". In a statement, Masunda said the report was malicious and false and seeks to undermine the operations and integrity of ANZ.

MISA has confirmed that Geoffrey Nyarota, editor-in-chief of "The Daily News", and Wilf Mbanga, the former chief executive of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe Limited (ANZ), that publishes "The Daily News", have been released from police custody on bail of Z$10,000 each.