Zim cops quell student protest

Harare - Riot police broke up a student demonstration in Harare, injuring at least four people and arresting three on Tuesday, in the first such incident of police violence since the signing of a power-sharing agreement by Zimbabwe's political protagonists a month ago. The attack on the peaceful demonstration took place just as former SA president Thabo Mbeki began mediating to try and rescue the agreement from collapse after President Robert Mugabe at the weekend unilaterally allocated to his Zanu-PF party the most important posts in the proposed power-sharing government. Privilege Mutanga, a member of the national executive of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, said about 200 students had marched to Zimbabwe's Parliament to present a petition protesting over the failure since August of nearly all the country's... [read full story]