Supporters prepare to give Mugabe hero's welcome

A hero’s welcome was being prepared today for Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, with state media portraying his visit to Portugal for a weekend summit as a triumph despite the criticism he faced there over his human rights record.

Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s only ruler since independence from Britain in 1980, was “an indisputable icon of African nationalism” who took centre stage at the summit and made “some of the European heads of government and his detractors including Angela Merkel look like dwarfs,” information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the chief government spokesman, was quoted as saying in state media today.