When 18-year-old Tsitsi Makwiyena looks down at her son Desmond in her arms, she sees not just a one-week-old perfect baby boy, but also the high price she paid to escape her home country of Zimbabwe and start a new life in urban South Africa

Zimbabwe's ruling political party has been accused of launching a "widespread and systematic campaign of rape and sexual terror" aimed at intimidating opponents and voters in the troubled African nation, according to a new report released here.

MISA-Zimbabwe has been following with particular interest the seemingly contentious issue of shortwave radio stations within the context of the ongoing SADC mediation process.

Four freelance journalists on 17 December 2009 filed an application with the High Court in Harare seeking a nullification of the election of the new Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) executive. The applicants are citing irregularities in the manner that the elective Congress was convened and conducted.

Permanent secretary for Media, Information and Publicity George Charamba, has conceded that the state has always had a controlling monopoly of radio services. He admitted to this in an interview with the Herald newspaper where he sharply criticized the continued operation of Voice of America's (VOA) Studio 7 amid allegations by his office that there was a government-to-government agreement between the United States and Botswana.

Zimbabwe’s ruling political party has been accused of launching a "widespread and systematic campaign of rape and sexual terror" aimed at intimidating opponents and voters in the troubled African nation, according to a new report released here.

Six Zimbabwean men were in a serious condition in hospital after they were attacked by residents in the Westenburg area of Polokwane, South Africa, on Monday night, Limpopo police said.

The battle over who will eventually succeed 85-year-old President Robert Mugabe as party leader threatens the future of his long-ruling Zanu PF but analysts say an immediate split is unlikely at a congress which began this week.

A new report entitled: Public Broadcast Services in Africa Series has urged the government of Zimbabwe to commit to media reforms. Citing the highly controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which established the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Commission, a body that has immense power to make or break all media in the country; the report, launched in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, urges the government to place top priority in ensuring that: ‘Laws inhibiting the free operations of the media are repealed without delay.’

Chenjerai Hove is considered to be one of Zimbabwe´s foremost writers, and a volume of critical essays on all aspects of his work is being planned for publication by Africa World Press in association with Weaver Press. this is a call for proposals for contributions towards this planned critical volume.

Some 100 children under five years of age will die today in Zimbabwe, a bleak statistic that is part of new social development data released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Government, revealing that the situation there for women and children has deteriorated in the past five years.

Thomas ‘Mukanya’ Mapfumo, the legendary king of Chimurenga music will address a gathering in Bristol this Saturday where he is expected to highlight the plight of people seeking sanctuary in particular those from Zimbabwe, his homeland.

Health authorities in Zimbabwe announced that the country would get US$180 million from the Global Fund to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

President Jacob Zuma has appointed a new team to monitor Zimbabwe's embattled unity government accord, effectively ending former president Thabo Mbeki's mediation role. Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said that as part of the evaluation process, the facilitation team would be visiting Zimbabwe in the near future.

Zimbabwe will be a better country in the not far distant future, if the country’s politicians have access to papers with the same level of indepth, balanced analysis as Mary Ndlovu’s , writes Proudly Zimbabwean.

Three employees with the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH), O’brien Rwafa, Jacob Phiri and Freedom Moyo, were last week suspended for 10 days after being accused of leaking information on a government directive to stop covering government ministers who are members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Transparency International’s popular annual Corruption Perception Index commonly known as the CPI was launched on 17 November 2009. Zimbabwe’s score moved up as Zimbabwe became number 146 along with Cameroon, Ecuador, Kenya, Russia, Sierra Leone and Timor Leste with a score of 2.2 of a possible 10.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has launched a public broadcasting report on issues surrounding the sector in the country. The report is based on a survey entitled “Public Broadcasting In Africa Series” commissioned by Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project(AFRIMAP), Open Society Initiative Southern Africa(OSISA), Open Society Institute Media Programme(OSIMP) and MISA-Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has ratified the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, a regional instrument for advancing gender equality and women's rights. It is the second country after Namibia to ratify the protocol.

A statement issued by the Africa Initiative of Syracuse University and the organising committee of the special conference on Zimbabwe: Healing, reconciliation and reconstruction challenges the veracity of of some participants by members of Minister Sekai Holland’s security personnel during the three-day conference.