Amnesty International's Secretary General, Irene Khan, expressed concern about the continuing harassment and intimidation of human rights activists, journalists and lawyers in Zimbabwe during a meeting with the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai. The talks -- in London on Monday -- came a week after a six-day Amnesty International mission to Zimbabwe, led by Ms Khan.

Some three million people face hunger in Zimbabwe, despite a significant rise in food production, the UN says. Good rainfall over the past year has boosted production of the staple crop, maize, by 130% to 1.1m tonnes.But about 2.8m people will still face food shortages this year, warned the report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme.

China's veto of proposed sanctions against Zimbabwe by the United States and Britain last year has been vindicated by the formation of the inclusive government, outgoing Chinese Ambassador Yuan Nansheng has said. Addressing a press conference on the eve of his departure to a new posting in Suriname, Yuan said it was likely that Zimbabwe could not have proceeded to form an inclusive government without the vetoes by China and Russia.

The gays and lesbians debate threatened to split the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance into two at the just ended Constitutional Indaba held in Bulawayo as the men of cloth exchanged harsh words in defence and against the accommodation of homosexuals in the new constitution, Zimbabwe Telegraph reports. A larger fraction of the pastors who attended the Indaba felt it was the role of the church to push for the accommodation of homosexuals in the new constitution as it was left upon the church to fight for the rights of the gays and lesbians so as to win them to Christ.

Thirty-three civil organisations from across the world, including a Zimbabwean organisation, have urged the World bank to increase funding for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS in developing countries where the bank manages investments and development projects. This follows a demonstration by Gender Action, the only organization dedicated to monitoring International Financial Institution (IFI) investments for their gender impacts, that the World Bank’s funding for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS projects during 2000-2007 constituted less than one percent of total World Bank spending during this period.

Zimbabwe is still suffering "persistent and serious" human rights violations, Amnesty International says. The organisation's secretary general, Irene Khan, made the comments at the end of a six-day visit to the country. "Although the level of political violence is significantly less compared to last year, the human rights situation is precarious," she said.

Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network has the pleasure of announcing the launch of its blog platform, Zimbabwe Women's Voices. The blog will begin on the Constitutional Reform Process and seeks to provide Zimbabwean women and community at large an opportunity to voice their perspectives on the Constitutional Reform process between now and November 2009 when public consultations are scheduled to be complete.

calls on the US government to fundamentally shift US policy towards Zimbabwe to promote the expansion of democratic space, good governance, economic recovery and truth, justice and reconciliation.

Growing numbers of children in Zimbabwe are turning to prostitution to survive, the charity Save the Children says. The aid agency says increasing poverty is leading girls as young as 12 to sell their bodies for as little as a packet of biscuits. It also claims that the coming football World Cup in neighbouring South Africa could soon make things worse.

It seems government will go ahead with its controversial plans of privatization without employing a holistic, inclusive and participatory approach. The ZCTU believes there is need for genuine social dialogue whereby all stakeholders are consulted before major decisions are made. Social dialogue has been used the world over as a means of decision-making and programme implementation at all levels.

After reading one paragraph of Zimbabwean writer Brian Chikwava's debut novel , Stanley Makuwa knows he has found the kind of book he has been looking for. Chikwava's tale of a youth militia trained to kill enemies of the state for the Mugabe government and who migrates to London (Harare North) is 'a very sad story told in a very funny way' that exposes the hardships of trying to live in a foreign land. Full of praise for 'an honest book that you feel the author wrote from his heart', Makuwa writes, 'Chikwava is an international award winner and this is clearly another triumph for him. If this comes with another major award, it shouldn’t be a surprise.'

The British Embassy has responded to an article published by the state controlled Herald Newspaper, which claimed the UK government had to ‘airlift’ destitute British pensioners from Zimbabwe because western sanctions had destroyed the economy. The Embassy said it was disappointed that The Herald continues to ‘peddle gross distortions and misinformation’.

Zimbabwe's minister of finance, Tendai Biti, has announced that the fragile government of that country is considering the idea of using the South African rand as it's permanent official currency. "We are looking at various avenues and the adoption of the rand is likelihood," he said.

The South African government's removal of visa requirements for Zimbabweans in April was aimed at easing entry for people still reeling from the crisis in Zimbabwe. But, for Alice Kakwindi, Grace Chimhosva and other cross-border traders, entering South Africa has subsequently turned into a nightmare. On the two occasions that they have visited South Africa's border town of Musina since the relaxation of visa requirements, they spent on average 16 hours trying to clear their goods at the Beitbridge border post.

Africa's COMESA trade bloc is preparing a financial rescue package for Zimbabwe to help the southern African nation to rebuild its shattered economy, a senior official has said. Finance ministers from Africa's largest trading bloc met to discuss the package ahead of a heads of state summit this weekend in the Zimbabwean resort town of Victoria Falls, said Chungu Mwila, COMESA's director of investment promotion.

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has told the BBC the "acrimony is over" between him and President Robert Mugabe. He made the remarks ahead of a tour of Europe and the US to garner support for his country's four-month-old power-sharing government. He is to meet UK PM Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama, among others.

ZADHR is proud to announce that its Chairperson, Dr Douglas Gwatidzo, is the winner of the 2009 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights. The Global Health Council selected Dr. Gwatidzo as the winner from the nominees for 2009 in recognition of his and ZADHR's work to advocate for health rights and freedom from torture in Zimbabwe.

There was much activity in the magistrates’ courts in Harare on Thursday when human rights lawyers, two senior journalists and WOZA activists appeared in court for separate, routine, remand hearings. Two editors from the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper, Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimakure, appeared before Magistrate Catherine Chimanda, who ruled that they will stand trial on June 16 th. This was after the State Prosecutor, Moses Musendo, argued that they face serious charges that justifies them standing trial.

Disgruntled parents of Sojini Secondary school in South West Zimbabwe have expressed their anger towards the headmaster of the school whom they accuse of trying to milk them dry by demanding outrageous fees structures. Some of the parents revealed to AfricaNews that the school which is located in Mbembesi rural district, was demanding 10 and 16 buckets of maize plus some chickens for O and A’ level students respectively.

Norway said on Monday it was renewing aid to Zimbabwe it cut off in 2000, despite worries about what it called "years of misrule, embezzlement and hyperinflation" under President Robert Mugabe. The Norwegian government, one of the first to renew badly needed aid, said it would give 58 million crowns (5.8 million pounds) via non-governmental organizations, the World Bank and United Nations, avoiding the government financial system.