Lawyers for a top aide to Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday told his treason trial he had no case to answer.

Zimbabwe could slip back into turmoil if President Robert Mugabe and army chiefs maintain a hardline stance on political and economic reforms, the International Crisis Group said Wednesday.

Zimbabwe stands by a new law requiring major foreign firms to sell 51 percent stakes to locals, but will allow companies to choose their own partners, a cabinet minister said Friday.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe celebrated his 86th birthday on Sunday, still in office three decades after independence, with analysts suggesting he may cling to power for the rest of his life despite dividing the country during his long rule.

President Robert Mugabe's ruling party brushed off the extension
Tuesday of most EU sanctions on Zimbabwe, accusing their partner in a unity
government of backing the measures.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected a circular emanating from President Robert Mugabe's office directing ministers to report to his two vice-presidents - Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo - instead of to him as cracks in the shaky inclusive government continue to widen.

The tension between Zimbabwe's two main coalition partners escalated sharply Tuesday when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's top aide angrily denounced President Robert Mugabe's ZANU(PF) for waging war against the democratic reform process.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's party will not make concessions in talks with its partners in the unity government until sanctions imposed by Western nations are lifted, the party said on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe's high court on Monday struck out evidence from the main witness in the treason trial of a top aide to Premier Morgan Tsvangirai, after a judge accepted he had been tortured into testifying.

Civil servants in Zimbabwe, who earn only 150 US dollars a month, on Wednesday rejected the government's "paltry" offer to raise salaries by a maximum of 14 percent.

The treason trial of a top aide to Zimbabwe's prime minister resumed Tuesday, with the key witness for the prosecution contradicting much of the state's case.

Southern African leaders are unhappy with the slow pace of negotiations aimed at ending the political crisis in Zimbabwe, a regional defense and security committee official said.

Zimbabwe on Thursday halted the sale of 300,000 carats of diamonds from a field plagued by rights abuses, saying the auction did not have approval from government or the global diamond trade monitor.

Likea a neverending adventure, negotiations on outstanding issues to Zimbabwe's Global Political Agreement (GPA) which have been on hold during the festive season will begin in two weeks time, an official has said.

President Robert Mugabe and his rival-turned-premier held a collegial end-of-year press conference on Wednesday, but announced no resolution of issues that have undermined their partnership.

Members and supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party committed widespread, systematic rape in 2008 to terrorise the political opposition, said AIDS-Free World in “Electing to Rape: Sexual Terror in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe,” a report released last week. 

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe arrived Tuesday in Copenhagen to take part in the final days of the UN climate talks to be attended by some 120 world leaders, Danish television footage showed.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday bemoaned the divisions that he said were "eating up" his party, as he opened its first congress since losing its absolute grip on power.

A top UN official on Wednesday praised "great progress" in easing Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis, but urged donors to continue supporting the country's recovery from a decade of economic freefall.

Zimbabwe’s three governing parties are close to reaching an agreement on a range of thorny disputes threatening their power sharing agreement, insiders revealed at the weekend.