Johannesburg/Harare - More than 100,000 US dollars is expected to be spent on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe's 85th birthday party next week - while more than half his country's population lives in dire poverty.

Africa's oldest leader turns 85 this Saturday, with a lavish party to follow on February 28.

Earlier this month a fund raising event was organized by Mugabe's Zanu PF's youth wing and pledges of 110,000 US dollars were made for the birthday party.

Harare - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai flies to South Africa Friday, officials confirmed, for talks with South African President Kgalema Motlanthe on a reported aid package and the continued detention of pro-democracy activists.

South Africa's daily Business Day said Tsvangirai would be travelling with his finance minister, Tendai Biti, to discuss with Motlanthe plans for US$1 billion in aid from the African Development Bank.

Comment was not immediately available from Tsvangirai's office or from his Movement for Democratic Change.

Harare (Zimbabwe), Feb. 20 : BBC investigators have accused Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe of hoarding long lost Doctor Who tapes.

They believe that the tapes may never be recovered because Mugabe hates the UK.

Tyrant Mugabe has banned the Beeb from setting foot in his country, and diplomatic relations are also extremely tense. This means researchers are unable to get into the nation's TV vaults.

The BBC destroyed early episodes of the sci-fi series in the late Sixties and Seventies to make room in its film library for new programmes.

Harare- Deputy ministers and ministers of state are due to be sworn in later Thursday in Zimbabwe's new power-sharing government, with further chaos expected as their numbers exceed the limit set out in the country's amended constitution.

State radio reported that 25 deputy ministers and ministers of state were to be sworn in by President Robert Mugabe at a ceremony at State House, the president's ceremonial office in Harare, but, according to legal experts, the law provides for only 15 deputy ministers, and no ministers of state.

Harare/Johannesburg - A few hundred elderly Britons living in Zimbabwe are being offered resettlement back home to protect them from worsening political and economic conditions, according to documents obtained by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The British embassy in Harare is distributing explanatory documents to elderly British subjects which state that their government will provide assistance for travel to Britain, accommodation, welfare and health support.