Mugabe agrees to crisis talks with opposition

Beleaguered Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has agreed to enter formal talks with the opposition on ending the country’s long-running crisis.

“I’m happy to say that they have agreed now that they will go into formal negotiations,” South African President Thabo Mbeki said in Pretoria after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

“I’m saying that I’m quite certain that they will negotiate and reach an agreement,” he added.

Mbeki did not say whether there were any conditions attached to the proposed talks.

Mugabe, whose 23 year despotic rule has taken Zimbabwe from southern Africa’s breadbasket to poverty, has in the past has said he was willing to negotiate with the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on condition it drops its legal challenge to his controversial re-election in 2002.

The MDC has so far refused to abandon the court challenge and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai is on trial for treason accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe and stage a coup.

Coincidentally, Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper reappeared today after being banned by the government.

The slim, eight page, edition was snatched up by readers after a court ordered police to allow the popular Daily News to resume publishing.

The Daily News, a frequent critic of President Robert Mugabe’s rule, was denied a licence to publish in September by a new state-run media commission. Armed police raided the paper's offices on September 12.

Authorities ignored four previous court orders to allow the paper to publish. But police withdrew from its offices and print works yesterday on the instructions of a High Court judge.

The publishers produced 100,000 copies of today’s paper, which thanked readers and advertisers for their support and “patience.”

“We are publishing this issue just to let you know we are back,” the company’s chief executive, Sam Sipepa Nkomo, said in a front-page statement.

Nkomo said police have still not returned some computers and other equipment seized in recent weeks.

“It will take a week or so before we are up and running properly,” he said.