News stories by Busani Bafana, page 22

In a bold attempt to stoke public debate on national healing, an art exhibition is challenging the government to publicly acknowledge one of the most hideous episodes in Zimbabwe's history.

Fourteen months after Zimbabwe's government of national unity was formed, harassment, arbitrary arrest and general intimidation of journalists remains common.

Zimbabwe spends an estimated 100 million dollars a year importing aluminium sulphate for water treatment plants. But a local entrepreneur has developed a technique to extract the needed compound from kaolin and flint clays abundantly available within the country.

A project in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, is creatively using 'marginal water' to ease water scarcity while helping residents provide food and earn a living.

While food is readily available in shops and some political and economic stability is returning in Zimbabwe, vulnerable groups such as children and people living with HIV and AIDS still face a shortage of food.

The 'land rush' across Africa by international investors should be regulated to protect smallholder farmers from deals that could leave them landless and hungry.

The economic crisis is a fresh reason to meet Millennium Development Goal targets, not an excuse to miss them, said European Commission president Jose-Manuel Barroso, opening the dialogue at the fourth edition of the European Development Days (EDD).

Today is the first of three days dedicated to national healing in Zimbabwe. For the man charged with steering reconciliation in Zimbabwe after the recent bloody struggle for power, it is walk down a familiar path.

While journalists welcomed a pledge by the government to reform the country’s closed media space, fears run deep over a horde of laws that continue to make Zimbabwe a media minefield where a ‘wrong’ story can land a journalist behind bars.

Media organisations this week dug in their heels over boycotting a national media conference in the resort town of Kariba. State-owned media reported that the much-postponed conference finally opened on May 8, with information minister Webster Shamu lamenting the deep divisions within the media fraternity in Zimbabwe.