Zimbabwe’s main opposition party said on Sunday that talks with President Robert Mugabe’s government on a new constitution were in deadlock.

Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are holding talks brokered by the Southern African Development Community, which has asked South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate to try to end an economic and political crisis.

ZANU-PF and the opposition have agreed on the need for a new constitution, amendment of tough security and media laws and an end to political violence to ensure that elections scheduled for 2008 will be free and fair.

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he authorities in Zimbabwe are continuing to use “organised police violence and torture” against political opponents despite mediation by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Amnesty International said on Friday.In a report released in London, Amnesty said its researchers had found that violence against human rights campaigners and opponents of the regime of President Robert Mugabe was in fact getting worse.

“Organised police violence and torture has continued during the SADC mediation - in fact, the severity of beatings and torture has been increasing,” said Simeon Mawanza, Amnesty International’s researcher on Zimbabwe.

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imbabwean hotels that do not register for star rating will not be given contracts during the 2010 World Cup, the state-controlled Herald said on Friday.Chief executive of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Karikoga Kaseke said that only 30% of hotels in the country had registered for star rating to date, a figure he described as “too low”.

“Many hotels are refusing to be rated, but this entire process is going to promote travel and package tours in Zimbabwe,” Kaseke reportedly said.

The rating exercise would improve the services offered by the hotels while at the same time putting the hospitality industry on the world map, the Herald reported.

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Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono has broken his silence on the country’s cash shortage, assuring the nation that the central bank will remedy the situation before Christmas, the state-controlled Herald reported on Thursday.

Gono told the government mouthpiece that investigations by the central bank had shown that the cash crisis “was the manifestation of a web that would soon be untangled”.

“A practical solution is on its way very soon and before the festive season. Let us not despair, for failure can never be a viable option for us as a people. The destiny of our future is squarely in our hands,” Gono reportedly said.

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Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party will formally endorse President Robert Mugabe this weekend as its candidate for re-election next year, a choice which critics say will prolong the economic crisis ravaging the country. Mugabe, 83, has overcome a half-hearted attempt by some top ZANU-PF officials to force him to retire before the March 2008 poll, and looks set to tighten the grip on power he has held ever since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980.

An extraordinary ZANU-PF congress is expected to confirm Mugabe, nominated by the party in March, as its candidate in the 2008 presidential poll, to be run alongside parliamentary and local elections before the end of March.

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New Zealand extended sanctions against President Robert Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe, saying it will deny student visas to the children of regime officials. The government remains “deeply concerned by the continuing destructive conduct” of Mugabe’s regime, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.

The measure aims to increase pressure on senior officials to change government policies, Peters added. There are currently no Zimbabwean passport holders, who are related to officials on the banned list, in New Zealand on student permits.

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A trillion dollar house, billion dollar bed and a million dollar beer. That and a severe cash squeeze are the latest sign of runaway inflation that has vexed consumers in President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.A newspaper advertisement shows a four-bedroom house with a pool and tennis court in Harare’s leafy Glen Lorne suburb selling for just under ZW$1 trillion, a whopping $33 million at the official bank rate but only $667,000 on a widely used black market.

An identical property cost half the price a month ago.

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he situation was calm at the Mooiplaas informal settlement near Pretoria on Tuesday, following riots there on Monday, Pretoria police said.Captain Paul Ramaloko said about a hundred shacks were set alight when irate residents went on the rampage, burning shacks belonging to Zimbabweans and accusing them of being involved in criminal activities in the area.

The riots followed an incident early on Monday in which Zimbabweans, allegedly involved in armed robberies, were confronted by residents. Five shacks were then set alight.

A Zimbabwean was severely assaulted, while three others escaped the mob.

More shacks were burnt at nightfall in renewed tensions.

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Germany on Tuesday summoned Zimbabwe’s envoy to Berlin after a government minister attacked Chancellor Angela Merkel as a “fascist”, the foreign ministry said.Spokesman Martin Jaeger told a regular government news conference that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had called the charge d’affaires to the ministry over the tirade against Merkel.

“It was made extremely clear to him that the remarks from Zimbabwe made about the chancellor were in no way acceptable,” he said.

Jaeger said the charge d’affaires had been summoned because Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Germany, Cuthbert Zhakata, was not in Berlin.

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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe claimed that his country had “defeated the British” after he attended an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon at the weekend, state media reported Tuesday.The veteran leader said Zimbabwe had scored a diplomatic victory over Britain and its Western allies at the summit where Mugabe’s presence took center stage last week.

“We defeated the British, we were the victors over the British,” the state-run Herald quoted Mugabe as saying upon his arrival back in the country.

“What is Britain after all? They think the empire still runs. There is no empire to talk about.”

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