It does not rain, but it pours for the GALZ duo, who are facing charges of allegedly possessing pornographic material as they are likely to stand trial on a second charge of undermining the authority of President Robert Mugabe. In a letter given to representing lawyers by state prosecutor Memory Mukapa the two Ellen Chademana and Ignatious Muhambi are being accused of contravening Section 33(2) (ii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9:23(undermining authority of or insulting President) ARW Section 277(4) &(5) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act.

After a month’s engagement with the World Cup, South African President Jacob Zuma is reportedly set to resume his SADC mediation role in Zimbabwe to try and bridge the gap between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. Talks to iron out outstanding Global Political Agreement issues between Mugabe and Tsvangirai have dragged on since the two leaders agreed to join hands in February 2009 to form the coalition government.

The body overseeing the trade in "blood diamonds" has agreed that Zimbabwe can resume limited exports from new diamond fields in the east of the country. Under the terms of the deal, Zimbabwe will be able to sell some stockpiles. It may be able to resume full exports after a review of conditions at the Marange diamond fields in September.

John Muswere, 34, arrived four hours ago at the main bus terminus in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, after making an unplanned journey with his wife, their three-year-old child and few household possessions from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he spent 18 months working as a mechanic. "I am left with little money on me because I left South Africa in a hurry and before my employer could pay me. All the transport operators are saying my money is too little and I don't know how I am going to leave this place [the bus terminus]," Muswere told IRIN while his wife tried to pacify their wailing child.

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT), in collaboration with young women’s networks and formations in Southern Africa, are hosting a Southern African Young Women’s Festival (SAYWF) in Harare from 24 to 28 October 2010. The Festival is designed to provide space for young women between 18 and 30 years of age, to come together and share experiences, share strategies and energise each other and celebrate their youth and the potential they have to advocate for social justice in their respective communities.

Jairos Mukotosi, 50, is avoiding a team of consultants, sent as part of a parliamentary outreach programme to the Rushinga area of rural Mashonaland Central Province in northeastern Zimbabwe, to find out what people would like included in a proposed new constitution. But for the past two months the members of the youth militia aligned to President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party - have been warning villagers to either shut up or support ZANU-PF's view on the new constitution, which includes no limit on the number of presidential terms that can be served. They have dubbed their operation "Vhara Muromo", or Shut Your Mouth.

Zimbabwe’s coalition government, formed under the auspices of a Global Political Agreement in 2008, has struggled to overcome the challenges the country faces. Jonathan Oshupeng Maseng’s paper identifies and discusses the issues heightening the rift between coalition members Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change, whose political battles are stalling socio-economic progress. ‘The focus must be on achieving the objectives set out in GPA rather than on political disputes advancing their own interests,’ says Maseng.

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti says his government so far has been unable to do anything to fight the endemic corruption in the country. Corruption had become part of culture, he complains. Minister Biti, representing the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party in government, says he is close to powerless when it comes to fight corruption in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean researchers in HIV&AIDS are afraid of including the homosexual and intarvenous drug using communities in the national HIV&AIDS priority research document they are working on because of the criminalization of these areas by the country’s government. These two areas among other minority groups are key drivers of HIV&AIDS and researchers said there was need for the nation to prioritize them and have national campaign programs targeted at them.

The trial of Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda and eight councillors on allegations of criminally defaming businessman Philip Chiyangwa in which five journalists will appear as witnesses, was on 22 June 2010 moved to 23 September 2010 by Harare magistrate Olivia Mariga.

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has reshuffled cabinet ministers, dropping four and re-assigning several others to new portfolios. The changes affected only ministers from his party, which formed a coalition government with President Robert Mugabe last year to end years of bitter wrangling.

Three days of tense deliberations by members of the Kimberley Process have failed to reach consensus on whether diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange fields should be certified as conflict-free. Zimbabwe has already announced that it intends to resume exports of the precious stones immediately.

After seven years of devastating effects of Access to information and protection of privacy act (AIPPA), the media and the population at large have welcomed the registration of four newspapers in Zimbabwe, which are Newsday, Daily News, Daily Gazette and The Mail. The latest is News Day, the new private daily newspaper that descended on the streets of Zimbabwe on 4 June 2010.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is pleased to announce that David Cote, head of the strategic litigation unit at the leading human rights organisation Lawyers for Human Rights, South Africa will observe the bail application in the matter of The State versus Farai Maguwu in the High Court of Zimbabwe from 16-17th June 2010. Mr Farai Maguwu, a respected human rights defender was arrested soon after a confidential meeting held on 25 May 2010 with the Kimberley Process Monitor for Zimbabwe, Mr Abbey Chikane, to discuss human rights abuses and the rampant smuggling of Marange diamonds. The ICJ is gravely concerned at the strong link being made between Farai Maguwu’s meeting with Mr Chikane and the subsequent and ongoing persecution of the respected human rights defender and his immediate family.

Zimbabwe has finally launched the programme to rewrite the country’s constitution but financial constraints, political intimidation and violence threaten the 90 day consultation process. Launching the long delayed programme to replace the constitution adopted at independence from Britain in 1980 on Wednesday, President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara made impassioned pleas for peace.

Attempts by President Robert Mugabe and his top aides to wrest control of controversial diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe could have serious consequences for the peace and stability of the country, a report by a leading human rights group said on Monday.

Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) has issued a call for the release from detention of human rights activist, Farai Maguwu, and the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process.

Behaviour change and high AIDS death rates contributed to the substantial decline in HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe from 29% in 1997 to close to 16% in 2007 according to findings published by Simon Gregson and colleagues in the April 20th advance online edition of the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Zimbabwe remain internally displaced as a result of government policies and actions. The two largest groups of internally displaced people (IDPs) are farm workers and their families who have been displaced as a result of the fast-track land reform programme, which began in 2000 and continues to this day; and people displaced as a result of arbitrary evictions in Zimbabwe's towns and cities.

Zimbabwe's first private daily newspaper hit the streets to break a state monopoly established years ago after President Robert Mugabe's government banned a pro-opposition newspaper over a registration dispute. Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, was forced to form a power-sharing government over a year ago with his rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, to tackle an economic and political crisis, including opening up the media industry.