Windhoek  - Pressure was mounting Monday on the international watchdog set up to combat so-called "conflict diamonds", the Kimberley Process (KP) to suspend Zimbabwe from the global diamond trade over alleged human rights abuses and smuggling.

Members of the KP certification scheme were gathering for their annual plenary in the Namibian coastal resort of Swakopmund, which runs until Thursday.

The certification scheme (KPCS), which was implemented in 2003 and counts Zimbabwe among its member countries, requires diamond- producing countries to have controls in place certifying shipments of rough diamonds as "conflict-free."

Windhoek  - An team of inspectors from an anti-"blood diamonds" body was wrapping up a visit to Zimbabwe Friday, where they have been investigating allegations of gross rights abuses in diamond mining.

The United Nations-founded Kimberley Process (KP) is a body that monitors international trade in diamonds with a view to barring so- called conflict or blood diamonds - gems that are used to bankroll conflicts.

Windhoek  - Namibia's seal-hunting season opened on Wednesday despite efforts by South African animal rights activists to stop the annual cull of the Cape Fur seals along the south-west African country's coast, industry insiders said Thursday.

While there has so far been no culling activity, industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the German Press Agency dpa "the cull will go ahead."

Windhoek  - Namibia's seal-hunting season opened on Wednesday despite efforts by South African animal rights activists to stop the annual cull of the Cape Fur seals along the south-west African country's coast, industry insiders said Thursday.

While there has so far been no culling activity, industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the German Press Agency dpa "the cull will go ahead."

The Ministry of Fisheries put out a quota of 86,000 seal pups and 6,000 bulls per year for three years in 2007 to contain the population of an estimated 650,000 seals inhabiting Namibia's coastal waters for the current season.

Windhoek - An international team of inspectors will return to Zimbabwe next week to continue their investigation into the trade of diamonds mined in the eastern Marange area, the Kimberley Process announced Friday in Namibia.

The United Nations-founded Kimberley Process is a body that monitors international trade in diamonds, to try to root out so- called conflict or blood diamonds.

Blood diamonds are diamonds, which are used to bankroll conflicts.

Windhoek - The World Diamond Council on Thursday called on members at the Kimberley Process meeting in the Namibian capital to tighten controls to curb the trade of so-called conflict diamonds.

The Kimberley Process, which was implemented in 2003, requires diamond-producing countries to have controls in place certifying shipments of rough diamonds as "conflict-free."

Windhoek - Zimbabwe does not trade in "blood diamonds" and the country is committed to the implementation of the so-called Kimberley Process, a Zimbabwean minister told a conference in Namibia on Wednesday.

The meeting of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), in Windhoek takes place as pressure mounts on the body to effectively act on its mission to combat the trade.

Windhoek  - Major players in the world's diamond industry converged on the Namibian capital Windhoek on Tuesday for a three-day meeting of the international scheme tasked with ensuring the ethical trade in diamonds.

The meeting of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), takes place under pressure on the body to effectively act on its mission to combat the trade in so-called conflict or blood diamonds.

Windhoek  - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will lead a large trade delegation next week on visits to four African countries, including the continent's biggest oil producers, Namibian media reports said Thursday.

They said Medvedev would arrive in the desert country on June 25, after visiting Egypt, Nigeria and Angola.

Windhoek - A tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Friday declared the Zimbabwean government in breach of a court ruing ordering it to halt white-owned farm invasions and asked Zimbabwe's neighbours to take action.

The tribunal of the 15-nation trade bloc, which is based in the Namibian capital Windhoek, last year ordered the then government of President Robert Mugabe to stop evicting or interfering with 77 white farmers.

Windhoek  - A leading rights group has welcomed a proposal by Namibia's opposition for a South Africa-style truth commission to examine past human rights violations to further national healing.

The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), which was formed in 2007 by breakaway members of the ruling party SWAPO, has vowed to establish a truth commission if voted into power in elections later this year.

Windhoek - Growing competition for business between local companies and Chinese investors that allegedly flout labour laws is stoking tensions in Namibia, a research institute in the south-west African state has warned.

Namibia's Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Thursday cited the independent Labour Research Institute (LARRI) as sounding the alarm over what it called "unacceptable" working conditions in Chinese companies.

Windhoek - Residents of the south-west African desert state of Namibia are bracing for what could be "the worst flood in four decades" in the north of the country, local media reported Thursday.

The flood waters have already claimed close to 100 lives.

Earlier this week Namibia's government declared an emergency and appealed for international aid over the floods that have displaced over 5,000 people and destroyed vast tracts of precious farmland.

Windhoek, Namibia  - Namibia's second legal auction of stockpiled ivory tusks to Chinese and Japanese bidders began behind closed doors in the capital Windhoek on Tuesday morning.

The event, held under the auspices of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), was closed to all media and observers due to what ministry officials termed the "sensitive nature" of the first of four ivory auctions to take place in southern Africa in the coming weeks.

Local papers had expressed dismay at not being allowed to cover the event, which has raised the hackles of animal rights activists, who claim any sale of ivory stimulates black market trade in the so- called white gold.

Windhoek, Johannesburg - Ivory tusks will be sold for the first time in nearly 10 years in southern Africa on Tuesday as four one-off auctions of ivory stockpiles to Chinese and Japanese buyers kick off in Namibia.

South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, all of which have booming elephant populations, have been given permission by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to sell off stockpiles of ivory from their national parks.

Windhoek  , Namibia - Namibia's government is calling for the repatriation of dozens of skulls that have been stored in German universities since the colonial era.

The Namibian government in a statement on Tuesday said it designated the National Monuments Council to deal with the matter in which it wants Germany "to pay for the repatriation of the remains and all related costs."

Windhoek  - A German aristocrat is scheduled to appear in court in the south-west African state of Namibia Thursday on suspicion of killing scores of endangered mountain zebra.

Christian Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg, 28, is alleged to have killed the animals at a private game reserve owned by his father 70 kilometres south-west of the capital Windhoek.

Windhoek  - A mystery shipwreck laden with gold discovered by geologists off the coast of Namibia in April is a 16th century Portuguese vessel that was bound for Asia, the country's information ministry announced on Tuesday.

The ship's rich bounty includes 2,000 gold coins and 1.4 kilogrammes in silver coins, the ministry said in a statement.

Researchers also found navigational instruments among the remains of the ship, which was discovered by geologists prospecting for diamonds.

Windhoek  - A Namibian rights group said Tuesday it believed it may have discovered nine graves containing the remains of hundreds of alleged victims of a past state security crackdown on the northern border with Angola.

Windhoek - Namibia has placed a moratorium on the trade of all worked ivory from September 1, including the traditional carved trinkets worn by northern tribes for centuries known as ekipa or omakipa.

The move, which the government had threatened for months, aims to prevent the smuggling of ivory harvested from elephants killed by poachers.

"While recognizing omakipas (ekipa) as cultural objects and the provisions by CITES (the international Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) for Namibia to produce omakipas and to sell these within Namibia as personal effects, the government has also has to deal with the newly-carved omakipa from ivory of unknown origin," the ministry's permanent secretary Kalumbi Shangula explained.