Brown keeps the pressure on Mugabe

Gordon Brown will keep up the pressure on Robert Mugabe when he meets South African president Thabo Mbeki at the G8 summit. The meeting comes hours after the Prime Minister used shock tactics to secure backing for a tough stance. G8 leaders issued a strongly-worded condemnation of Mugabe's "illegitimate" re-election as Zimbabwe's president and pledged tighter sanctions against his regime and the appointment of a United Nations envoy to mediate. Mr Brown won unanimous support for the stances, including from Russians who are usually reluctant to interfere in such matters, after showing colleagues a photograph of the mutilated dead body of an opposition activist. He said the joint statement, which rejected the legitimacy of any government "that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people", was the "strongest" possible... [read full story]