Harare - Zimbabwean state lawyers Friday agreed to the release of a group of political prisoners held since October by President Robert Mugabe's secret police - on the condition that they withdraw litigation against their captors for the brutal torture they suffered, their lawyer said.

Most of the group of 16 abductees have already been granted bail by judges, but state security and legal officials have either defied the orders or blocked their release.

Harare - What is left of Zimbabwe's beleaguered white farming community is reeling from a wave of new farm invasions by supporters of President Robert Mugabe, in contempt of the just-inaugurated coalition government.

More than 150 white farmers are facing often violent, illegal eviction attempts despite the country being in desperate need of crops to feed around 7 million people that are critically short on food.

While some are being ordered to vacate their farms, farmers are ironically being asked to donate to Mugabe's slap-up annual birthday party.

Harare - A court in Zimbabwe on Tuesday granted jailed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) politician Roy Bennett bail of 2,000 dollars but the 52-year-old white farmer will remain in jail for up to seven more days following a challenge to the ruling by the state.

Bennett, 52, was not in the High Court in Zimbabwe's capital Harare for the hearing. He is being detained in a prison in the eastern city of Mutare, where he was was denied bail by a magistrate's court earlier this month.

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.