HARARE, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's government has allowed bakers to increase the price of a loaf of bread by more than 200 percent, as shortages persit across the country, an official of the bakers' association said Sunday.

A senior manager from one of the country's leading bakeries, Lobels, who demanded anonymity, told AFP that the government approved the hikes for bakers late Friday.

HARARE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - The Zimbabwean government authorised Friday new increases in the prices of basis foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for retailers to halve their tariffs.

The National Incomes and Pricing Commission announced it had approved rises of between 50 percent and 200 percent for a range of staples including a bag of sugar which will now cost 255,232 Zimbabwe dollars, up from 84,000 dollars.

MALABO, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - The parliament of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea expressed serious concern Monday over the skyrocketing prices of basic staples, terming it an 'emergency situation.'

Despite spectacular growth fuelled by huge oil and gas reserves, poverty levels are alarming across the country, sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil exporter, and basic services such as tap water remain out of reach for many.

HARARE, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - The Zimbabwean government has authorised all retailers to raise prices by 20 percent, in a bid to to ease widespread shortages, reports said Friday.

The price hike comes two weeks after government allowed retailers and manufacturers to increase prices on basic commodities such as sugar, cooking oil, chicken and soap.

HARARE, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was on Thursday detained for two hours by police and later charged with a minor offence, his spokesman said.

'The President (Tsvangirai) has formally been charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly causing mayhem when he toured retail shops last month,' main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP.

HARARE, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - The police in Zimbabwe on Thursday summoned main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai for interrogation on his last month's tour of retail shops in the capital Harare, a spokesman said.

'Police have summoned MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai in what is apparently another fresh round to intimidate a legitimate opposition and its leadership,' Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said in a statement.

HARARE, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's government has authorised retailers to raise the prices of basic goods in order to ease widespread shortages which followed the imposition of price cuts, state media reported Wednesday.

Shops and businesses, which were ordered to slash their prices two months as part of a controversial crackdown on so-called profiteers, will now be able to increase their charges for commodities such as sugar, cooking oil, chicken and soap as well as phone bills by up to 20 percent, The Herald reported.

HARARE, Aug 14, 2007 (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a pariah in the West, on Tuesday invited 'true and genuine friends' to invest in the battered southern African nation grappling with world record inflation.

'I would like to invite our true and genuine friends to join hands with us in investing in the abundant natural resources of this country,' Mugabe said at a ceremony to mark Defence Forces Day.

HARARE, Aug 13, 2007 (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe accused former colonial power Britain of trying to undermine the country's freefalling economy during a speech Monday to mark National Heroes' Day.

'Today we face a different anger from our former colonial masters in reaction to our bid to economically empower our people,' Mugabe said, blaming Britain for the country's spiralling inflation.

He said Harare would not flinch from 'expressing our sovereign right to govern ourselves as we deem fit.'

HARARE, Aug 13, 2007 (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Monday warned estate agents and landlords to comply with the country's strict new pricing laws aimed at battling world record inflation.

'I would like to remind estate agents and landlords that they should respect the laws of the land,' Mugabe told a crowd gathered in capital Harare to mark National Heroes' Day.

'It is illegal to charge rentals in foreign currency and to evict a tenant without the stipulated three months' notice. Landlords take note,' he said.

HARARE, Aug 6, 2007 (AFP) - At least 7,600 shop managers and business executives in Zimbabwe have been arrested in a crackdown on businesses accused of profiteering, police said Monday, as President Robert Mugabe vowed to continue the blitz.

'The latest update is that 7,660 people have been arrested countrywide since we started the operation and 601 have been convicted by magistrate's courts,' police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka told AFP.

'The majority of them were released after paying admission of guilt fines while some cases are pending before the courts.

HARARE, Aug 6, 2007 (AFP) - A Zimbabwean man cashing in on the country's food shortages sold donkey meat to desperate residents claiming it was beef, a state daily reported Monday.

The unidentified man went around a poor township in Beitbridge, near the border with South Africa, with a Basketball of meat he said was beef, according to the Herald newspaper.

'This man had an ear of a cow which he was using to hoodwink residents into believing that it was beef he was selling,' a buyer was quoted as saying.

HARARE, Aug 1, 2007 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai found himself between bare shelves when he toured shops in Harare on Wednesday after a six-week government crackdown on businesses accused of profiteering.

Tsvangirai invited the media to witness his tour of supermarkets in central Harare and the suburbs of Mufakose and Glen View but it was cut short and a planned press conference was cancelled when he became involved in a confrontration with the wife of army chief Constatine Chiwenga.