Global Witness, a leading light in establishing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), a global system to prevent "blood diamonds" being sold into the market, is facing a "dilemma" now that the Zimbabwe High Court has allowed the sale of stones from the Marange diamond fields. There have been reports from Marange that "the military ... carried out widespread atrocities in the diamond fields, including murder, rape and forced labour", Global Witness said in a statement.

South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team jetted into Harare Thursday in aother attempt to diffuse rising tension between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. South Africa was appointed by the SADC to facilitate the removal of obstacles which hinder the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

Zimbabwe is expected to pass legislation that could help it take better advantage of information technology, despite the economic crisis that has gripped the country. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Bill, which would pave the way for implementing a strategic ICT plan launched in February, is currently awaiting cabinet approval before it goes to parliament for further scrutiny.

"In the case of Zimbabwe today, both supporters and opponents of sanctions exaggerate their importance. The international community, both global and regional, has other tools as well. Key issues are not only when to lift or relax sanctions but also how much support Western countries will provide for economic recovery. Even more decisive will be whether Zimbabwe's African neighbors can strengthen their diplomacy by backing it with effective pressures, even if they hesitate to use the word sanctions." - Briggs Bomba and William Minter.

Thousands of Zimbabweans have been left stranded at the Beitbridge border post after South African immigration officials refused to recognize a newly introduced Temporary Travel Document. According to reports from the state owned Herald newspaper ‘South African port officials allegedly fired their guns to frighten the affected travellers into crossing back to the Zimbabwean side of the border

Zimbabwe's power-sharing government has not carried out critical media reforms as promised under the country's September 2008 Global Political Agreement, Human Rights Watch said in a report. The 26-page report, "Sleight of Hand: Repression of the Media and the Illusion of Reform in Zimbabwe," says that the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the former sole ruling party, still holds the balance of power in the coalition government forged with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the former opposition movement, in February 2009.

President Robert Mugabe welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Zimbabwe Thursday, a meeting of two leaders united in fierce opposition to the West. Mugabe met Ahmadinejad at the Harare airport Thursday afternoon.

The Harare International Festival of the Arts roars into life on April 27 at venues in and around the capital. Festival organisers held a pre-launch press briefing on Friday April 9th 2010 at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe where they unveiled the festival programme.

People born after 1980 have benefited little from 30 years of Zimbabwe’s independence, writes the Youth Alliance Democracy, thanks to the government’s continued failure to empower young people, rather than seeing them as equal partners in politics. Half of political representatives – from local government to the cabinet – should be ‘youths below the ages of 35, who can forward and address the youth concerns and youth mainstreaming in all national policies and processes’, the alliance argues.

At noon April 15, 500 members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise marched to the offices of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), Megawatt House, in Harare. Three simultaneous protests converged at the ZESA headquarters where the peaceful group handed over ‘yellow cards’ to staff members of the electricity service provider along with a report that outlines WOZA’s demands.

In debates about Zimbabwe's political crisis and the role of the international community, it is difficult to sort out reality from rhetorical smoke and mirrors, write Briggs Bomba and William Minter. The current debate on ‘sanctions’ is a classic example: There is much strong language for and against, but rarely do debaters bother to say which measures are actually in place and what specific effects they have or should have.

Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa are still living in desperate squalor, in a country that offers them no official sanctuary. This is according to a new report released by the Solidarity Peace Trust, titled: “Desperate lives, twilight worlds - how a million Zimbabweans live without sanction or sanctuary in South Africa.” The report released on Wednesday details the dire reality facing Zimbabwean immigrants who fled their country seeking safety and work in South Africa, a trend that is still continuing.

There have been numerous reports from human rights organisations and from the MDC-T of an upsurge of violence in rural areas such as in Mutasa North, Mudzi, Bindura and Masvingo, by ZANU PF sponsored thugs. On Wednesday the pressure group Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) reported that terror had broken out in Muzarabani, resulting in 16 families fleeing their homes.

The second continental congress of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has been concluded Sunday in Harare, Zimbabwe, on a call for a stronger and more united journalist movement in the Africa.

A photo exhibition organized by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association went ahead in Harare on Wednesday evening after the High Court ordered police to return the photographs they had seized the previous day. But that same evening the police returned to the art gallery to try and confiscate the pictures again.

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has joined President Robert Mugabe in dismissing calls to enshrine gay rights in the new constitution. "I totally agree with the president," he said, state media report.

Trade and economic relations between Zimbabwe-China are expected to grow this year following the full implementation of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, a senior Chinese official has said.

Among adolescents in Harare, Zimbabwe, HIV is now the single most common cause of acute admission and in-hospital death, Rashida A. Ferrand and colleagues reported in a study published in the February online edition of PLoS Medicine.

The number of cases of typhoid fever in Harare is increasing, raising fears of another serious health crisis in the country. More than 140 cases of typhoid have been reported in the Mabvuku-Tafara suburb of Harare, up from 40 cases reported last week. At least five people are known to have died so far from the mainly water borne disease. Typhoid, which is very similar to cholera, is transmitted by food or water contaminated with waste from an infected person. The Harare City Council has now ordered all food handlers to undergo medical tests to try curb what appears to be the rapid spread of the disease.

A deadly strain of tuberculosis has reportedly hit Epworth, amid a rapidly worsening health crisis and critical shortages of food across the country. One case of the deadly multi-drug resistant TB strain has been confirmed in the high density area of Epworth and two more people in the same area are suspected to be infected. Zakaria Mwatia, from Epworth Clinic, confirmed the cases to local press, explain how the disease attacks those with already weakened immune systems.