Though women in Zimbabwe are finding a greater place in the national economy, this is not necessarily translating into real growth and leadership. Zimbabwe women mastering the current crisis may lead an increasing number of households and enterprises, but still totally fail to promote their sisters to gain economic freedom.

Refugees at the Tongogara refugee camp in Eastern Zimbabwe are making efforts to live of the land. Making use of land provided to them, the refugees - all from the Great Lakes region are cultivating food crops to supplement the reduced rations they receive and meet their daily needs.

Zimbabwe's police immediately followed a ban on political rallies and protests in the capital’s restive townships by beating up schoolteachers striking over low salaries on Wednesday.

Foreign donors gave $70 million on Thursday to help Zimbabwe cope with growing numbers of AIDS orphans in what officials said was a rare show of unity among the government, donors and non-governmental organisations.

Police in Harare continued Wednesday to hold some 14 students arrested Tuesday for trying to organize a demonstration in the Zimbabwean capital, sources said. Sources in the Zimbabwe National Students Union said the 14 were denied food and legal counsel until late Wednesday.

Zimbabwe's government "abandoned" its court case against Mail & Guardian chief executive Trevor Ncube on Thursday after it had prevented him at the end of last year from renewing his passport, claiming he was not a citizen of Zimbabwe.
Ncube publishes the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent in that country.

In addition to writing short stories, John Eppel is also an award-winning poet and novelist. His list of achievements is impressive. His first novel, D.G.G. Berry's The Great North Road (1992), won the M-Net Prize in South Africa. His second novel, Hatchings (1993), was short-listed for the M-Net Prize and his third novel, The Giraffe Man (1994), has been translated into French. In a recent email interview with Ambrose Musiyiwa for OhMyNews, John Eppel spoke about his writing.

A wave of strikes in Zimbabwe is making the threat of a "crippling" general strike by the country's largest union federation largely academic, as current industrial action or threats of more to come are already bringing the scenario to pass.

The pollution of rivers, lakes and acquifers from domestic and industrial wastewater discharges, mining runoff, agro-chemicals and other sources is now a growing threat to water resources in most countries in southern Africa. According to a new report titled "Water Quality Management and Pollution Control" in Southern Africa compiled by Prof Ngonidzashe Moyo, a freshwater biologist at the University of Limpopo in South Africa, and Sibekhile Mtetwa and other water resources development experts, the quality of water supplies in the Sadc region, once taken for granted, is becoming the focus of increasing concern.

Authorities in South Africa and Botswana deported more than 140 000 Zimbabweans in 2006, a Herald newspaper report in Zimbabwe quoted police records as saying. A total of 109 532 Zimbabweans were deported from South Africa in 2006, according to the records. That represents 300 people a day, most of whom hazard the crossing of the Limpopo River border with South Africa, which is infested with crocodiles or swollen with dangerous flood waters in the rainy season.

Women should desist from pulling each other down and strive for unity to enable them to work together and attain development in various economic spheres, the Minister of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Oppah Muchinguri, has said.

Campaigners are to protest outside of the French embassy in London this week (Friday 2nd February) to urge the French government to stop representatives of the Zimbabwean government attending an international summit. Union members, Zimbabwean exiles and human rights campaigners are joining protests outside French embassies across Europe. They are calling on the French government to apply a European Union ban on Zimbabwean government members and prevent them from attending an African summit the French government is hosting in Cannes next month.

Unjust land distribution is a legacy of colonial policies that took resources away from indigenous groups. At independence, many states had a minority of white settlers owning large commercial farms while the indigenous majority were left with small plots of land. Land redistribution has been a policy of many governments.

On January 26 2007, a leading Zimbabwean politician warned journalists from forming an independent media council without the approval of the government, which has closed newspapers and arrested reporters. Leo Mugabe, a nephew of President Robert Mugabe and a member of his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), told about 200 journalists at a meeting to launch the council that they should avoid confrontation with the authorities.

As Zimbabwe's disgruntled doctors and nurses continue their strike over low salaries and poor working conditions, concern is growing about how the prolonged stay-away is affecting HIV-positive patients. The strike by health professionals, now more than a month old, has left dozens of desperate patients without medical care in rural and urban areas.

A rise of more than 100 percent in the price of antiretroviral drugs is likely to put the life-prolonging medication beyond the reach of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans living with HIV. Pharmacists in Bulawayo increased the price of a monthly course of ARVs from an average of Z$30,000 (US$120 at the official exchange rate) to between Z$80,000 (US$320) and Z$100,000 (US$400).

As part of our special reports from the World Social Forum, Fadzai Muparutsu from GALZ speaks to Sokari Ekine from Pambazuka News about LGBT rights in Zimbabwe. Music in this podcast is brought to you by Freddy Macha.

The 2007 National Arts Merit Awards nominees were announced in Harare on Wednesday (17 January). This year's edition of the awards, to be held on February 4 at the 7 Arts Theatre, has 25 categories with the media awards being the latest addition. In the outstanding musician category, urban groover Rufaro Cindy Munyavi has sprung a surprise by taking on Oliver Mtukudzi, Kireni Zulu and Amai Charamba. Her song, Spare wheel, is also vying for the outstanding album award together with Joseph Garakara's Idya Banana, Alexio Kawara's Tinodanana and Ellen Kupusa Smith's Mbudzi, reports Kubatana.

Trevor Ncube, who is the publisher of the privately owned Zimbabwe Independent and Zimbabwe Standard as well as the Mail and Guardian of South Africa is seeking a High Court order compelling the Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede to renew his passport following his application for Zimbabwean citizenship.

Zimbabwe's biggest sewage plant has broken down, sending tonnes of raw effluent into a major river and polluting the water supply of the capital, Harare, city authorities said on Monday (15 January 2007).