Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has ordered a permanent stay of the criminal proceedings against prominent human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, in a move welcomed by campaigners.

Human rights campaigners in Zimbabwe believe they have a 50:50 chance of seeing the rights of gay, lesbian and bisexual people protected in the country's new constitution. This would overturn existing Zimbabwean law.

Some 200 people from an informal settlement in the Harare suburb of Gunhill in Zimbabwe face being forcibly evicted without being given adequate notice or any due process.

A Zimbabwean Catholic priest has told Catholic aid agency CAFOD that despite supermarket shelves heaving with food imported from South Africa, the majority of Zimbabweans are still in need of food and basic medicines.

Zimbabwe's coalition government has failed to address widespread hunger and human rights violations in the country, a national Christian youth movement has charged.

Zimbabwean PM Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to abandon a speech at Southwark Anglican Cathedral, as ex-pats jeered his call for a return to their homeland to rebuild the nation.

A Methodist bishop in South Africa, who runs a shelter for people fleeing from his country's northern neighbour, wants police here to stop arresting Zimbabweans now that the law concerning their visas has been changed.

UK public donations for the joint Zimbabwe emergency and development appeal launched by the Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York have reached £292,330, the administrators of the fund have announced this week.

18 human rights and political activists, including the Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, were detained in Zimbabwe yesterday (Tuesday) just two months after they were released after being tortured in prison.

While the world focuses on elections in South Africa, the terrible plight of people in Zimbabwe continues, says Oskar Wempter. He describes the stranglehold on the country and the impact on its starving population.