President Robert Mugabe lashed out at church leaders who have been among the most outspoken critics of Zimbabwe's human rights record.
Addressing the funeral of Josiah Tungamirai, Mugabe recalled on Sunday that the Cabinet minister and retired air force commander had quit a Catholic seminary to join the fight against white rule in what was then Rhodesia.
Tungamirai's goal had been "to serve others, something which is sadly missing in some churches today," Mugabe said. "Zimbabwe is no home for traitors, for political stooges, for political crooks and cowards."
Mugabe's comments came the same week an Anglican bishop who is a strong supporter of the president was brought before an ecclesiastic court on charges ranging from besmirching the church to incitement to murder.
Harare Bishop Nolbert Kunonga has not been asked to answer the accusations and faces no criminal charges. The case was left in disarray when the Malawian Supreme Court judge presiding over the ecclesiastic court walked out declaring he had never seen anything like it.
Mugabe, who lead Zimbabwe to independence in 1980, has been widely criticized for his increasingly autocratic rule.
Children's welfare groups united on Sunday to demand an end to forced evictions under a slum clearance campaign that the UN estimates has destroyed the homes or livelihoods of 700,000 people.
The groups took out a full-page add in the independent Sunday Standard newspaper to announce the formation of an alliance called the Child Protection Working Group made up of local and international aid groups, faith-based organizations and UN agencies.
The alliance said the government's Operation Murambatsvina -- Drive Out Trash -- was exposing children to "exploitation, abuse and violence."
It demanded an immediate end to the evictions and measures to protect children already affected -- risking heavy fines, seizure of assets and jail terms for defying a government ban on non-governmental groups that involve themselves in "governance issues."
Thousands of children have missed schooling, had their examinations disrupted, or been separated from their families "as a result of continual population movements," the alliance said.
"In order to meet their own and families' basic needs, children, especially adolescent girls and boys, have resorted to risky activities which put them at risk of exploitation," it said, a reference to a reported increase in prostitution and substance abuse associated with the demolitions.
The alliance demanded unrestricted access to assess the impact on children across the country so it can prepare relief plans. UN Undersecretary-General Jan Egeland on Friday accused Zimbabwe of blocking an emergency appeal for millions of dollars to help victims of forced evictions by arguing over the text of the appeal.
Zimbabwe authorities claim the evictions have stopped and rebuilding has begun. But more than 600 people were last week removed from a farm near Harare by baton-wielding paramilitaries for unspecified reasons.
The alliance said it was committed to "collaborative engagement with the government" and pledged to "support any measures implemented by the government to ensure the best interests of children."
The government did not respond on Sunday to the group's demands.
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
ICE DISPUTE: The Trump administration has sought to paint Good as a ‘domestic terrorist,’ insisting that the agent who fatally shot her was acting in self-defense Thousands of demonstrators chanting the name of the woman killed by a US federal agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, took to the city’s streets on Saturday, amid widespread anger at use of force in the immigration crackdown of US President Donald Trump. Organizers said more than 1,000 events were planned across the US under the slogan “ICE, Out for Good” — referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is drawing growing opposition over its execution of Trump’s effort at mass deportations. The slogan is also a reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother shot dead on Wednesday in her
RSS