The deportation of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe has now been halted, Gordon Brown said.

The Prime Minister told MPs that while officials continued to deal with the issue on a case-by-case basis, no returns were currently taking place.

“No-one is being forced to return to Zimbabwe from the United Kingdom at this time,” he said.

Mr Brown, who has been under pressure to stop the deportations in the wake of the violence surrounding the disputed presidential election, said that ministers were also looking to help failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers who were unable to work.

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South Africa President Thabo Mbeki has presented a plan to Zimbabwe’s political leaders that would allow Robert Mugabe to remain as a titular head of state but surrender real power to the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who would serve as prime minister until a new Constitution was negotiated and fresh elections held.

A senior opposition Movement for Democratic Change source, who has read the document, said that Mbeki had sent the plan to Mugabe and Tsvangirai and that it was generally welcomed by the MDC.

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The state-controlled press in Zimbabwe is hailing the June 27 election “result” with jubilant relief. Now normal revolutionary service can be resumed.

In March, it says, the Zimbabwean people forgot themselves, laid aside their revolutionary commitment, voted a majority of opposition MDC candidates into the Assembly, and gave the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai considerably more votes in the presidential election than Robert Mugabe.

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LEADERS of the top industrialised nations are expected to ratchet up pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — and President Thabo Mbeki, mediator in that country’s protracted political crisis — at a three-day Group of Eight (G-8) meeting starting in Japan today.

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — About 200 Zimbabwe opposition supporters sought refuge Thursday at the U.S. Embassy in Harare amid new reports of violence against dissenters.

Loyalists of President Robert Mugabe, whose unopposed re-election last week was scorned by world leaders, have attacked supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Widespread state-sponsored violence had led the party’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to pull out of the presidential runoff, leaving the June 27 race to Mugabe.

On Thursday, people with small bundles of possessions milled outside the U.S. mission in the Zimbabwe capital. Riot police appeared there, but police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said they were at the scene only briefly.

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HARARE, Zimbabwe - With the verdict in on Zimbabwe’s presidential election runoff, it is back to reality for the long-suffering masses of this southern African country of 12 million.

For many, in spite of the controversy surrounding the runoff pitting President Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF against Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the election provided a real hope that the worst would finally be over. But this was not to be and it looks like the old man has dug in and is ready for the long haul.

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HARARE, July 3 (Reuters) - A solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis could be months or even years away despite President Robert Mugabe’s public promise, under heavy international pressure, to negotiate with the opposition.

Mugabe suffered unprecedented African and world censure after his refusal to call off a presidential vote in which he was re-elected as the sole candidate last week following opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s withdrawal. The African Union called for talks leading to a unity government and the West is preparing new sanctions against Mugabe’s entourage because of violence which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change says killed 86 supporters.

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DUBAI (AFP) — Strife-torn Zimbabwe will remain a full member of the International Cricket Council, officials said on Friday, after the deeply-divided world body worked out a last-minute compromise.

“The full membership of Zimbabwe is currently not in doubt,” incoming ICC president David Morgan of England told reporters at the conclusion of the council’s executive board meeting.

“There was not even a discussion on the issue of Zimbabwe’s membership,” he said.

The ICC Executive Board, which sat for an unscheduled third day, agreed to keep Zimbabwe in its fold after the African nation acceded to India’s request to pull out of next year’s World Twenty20 championships in England.

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Zimbabwe is the least happy nation while Denmark is the happiest country in the world, according to the latest World Values Survey published by the United States National Science Foundation.

The annual study surveyed people in 97 countries to discover who is happiest.

The survey asked people two simple questions about their happiness and their level of satisfaction with life.

Puerto Rico and Colombia completed the top three happiest nations. Zimbabwe was found to be the least happy, with Russia and Iraq also in the bottom 10.

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A German company which helps Zimbabwe supply its banknotes has become the latest firm to end links amid outrage over the situation in the country.

Giesecke & Devrient said it would stop providing paper for banknotes immediately following a “political and moral assessment” of conditions there.

Foreign firms in Zimbabwe are under pressure to pull out after President Mugabe’s controversial re-election.

The UN is considering tougher economic sanctions against his regime.

‘Political tension’

The UN’s Security Council has outlined a resolution calling for further measures against Robert Mugabe and key allies following Friday’s unopposed presidential vote, which the US, UK and other countries dismissed as a “sham”.

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