Harare  - Zimbabwe's Supreme Court said late Wednesday that a judge will issue a ruling Thursday on the case of whether senior opposition poltician Roy Bennett can be released on bail.

The court said Judge Paddington Garwe would rule on whether to allow the state to appeal against a bail ruling for Bennett, Zimbabwes deputy minister designate and a member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.

State counsel Chris Mutangadura said his side had been asked "to make more submissions" in the case.

Harare - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, in his maiden speech to parliament, said Wednesday that the country must assure rule of law and respect for human rights in order to gain aid from the international community.

"No donor country or institution is going to offer any meaningful assistance unless our new government projects a positive image," Tsvangirai said in his first speech as the new prime minister.

Harare  - Zimbabwe's High Court on Tuesday dismissed an application by the state for leave to appeal a ruling granting bail to the country's deputy minister of agriculture-designate, Roy Bennett.

Bennett's lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told journalists that Bennett was due for release from a prison in the eastern city of Mutare after Judge Tedious Karwi's ruling.

Harare - Medical experts have forecast that a worst-case scenario in Zimbabwe's rampaging cholera epidemic could see earlier predictions double to 123,000 cases and go beyond May this year.

Just over a week ago, according to the Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR), the epidemic passed Africa's worst, in Angola in 2007, when over
82,000 people were infected with the highly infectious water-borne disease and 3,204 died.

Late last year the World Health Organisation estimated that the worst-case figure could reach 60,000 cases, a level passed already in January.

Harare - Leading Zimbabwean human rights activist Jestina Mukoko was granted bail Monday, along with several other political prisoners, whose detention had threatened to scupper the country's fragile power-sharing government.

A magistrate's court in Harare ordered Mukoko's release on bail of 600 US dollars and on condition that she surrender her passport. The state did not oppose the ruling.

Harare - Leading Zimbabwean human rights activist Jestina Mukoko was released on bail on Monday after nearly three months in custody.

A magistrate's court in Harare ordered her release on bail of 600 dollars. Zimbabwe Peace Project head Mukoko was taken from her home by state agents in her nightdress in the early hours of December 3 and held incommunicado for weeks, causing an international outcry.

Her whereabouts remained unknown until her surprise court hearing on December 24 to face charges of recruiting or training for banditry.