Mugabe mocks death rumours, says he's "back from the dead"

Robert Mugabe said he had gone to Dubai on a family matter concerning one of his children and not to seek medical treatment. 

Zimbabwe’s 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe returned home from abroad on Saturday, a trip which led to speculation that he was severely ill and had sought medical help in Dubai.

The leader joked that he came back from the dead  mocking rumours that he had died.

"Yes, I was dead. It's true I was dead. I resurrected as I always do once I get back to my country. I am real again," he told reporters at Harare international airport after arriving from Dubai.

Reports that Mugabe's health is declining have become common in recent years, but the veteran politician, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, often refers to himself as "fit as a fiddle".

Mugabe told journalists at Harare international airport he had gone to Dubai on a family matter concerning one of his children.

But Mugabe showed some signs of frailty, walking slowly from the plane and only chatting briefly with officials before being whisked away in a motorcade.

Mugabe, came back to the grim reality of rising public anger over an economic meltdown widely blamed on his misrule, with violence erupting a week ago when police fired teargas at opposition leaders and protesters.

Mugabe rejects the blame for a crisis currently manifesting itself in acute cash shortages and high unemployment, and last week warned protesters there would be no "Arab Spring" in Zimbabwe, referring to the uprisings that toppled several Arab leaders.

He routinely blames Zimbabwe's economic problems on sabotage by Western opponents of his policies, such as the seizure of white-owned commercial farms for black people.

Last week Mugabe accused Western countries, including the United States, of sponsoring recent anti-government protests.

But even some of his once stalwart supporters, including Zimbabwe's war veterans who invaded white commercial farms in support of Mugabe's land seizures, have turned their backs on him, saying he has "devoured" the values of the liberation struggle.

Zimbabwe, which has also been hit by drought and weak commodity prices, is struggling to pay salaries to soldiers, police and other public workers, fuelling political tensions, including within the ruling ZANU-PF.

Divisions have emerged inside the party as senior officials position themselves for power after the veteran leader is gone, with one faction supporting Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa while another backs first lady Grace Mugabe.

Source: 

TRTWorld and agencies

 

Nigerian sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a British teacher

 

 

A 30-year-old Nigerian salesman has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for raping a 32-year-old British teacher on New Year’s Eve. According to The Siasat Daily, the victim was returning home at 3am when she saw the man in the lift and mistook him for a resident.

"He asked me on which floor I was in, and as I reached my flat, I was surprised to see him following me. He said he wanted to make sure I was okay. I told him to stop and leave," the woman said. When the woman opened the door to her flat, he pushed her inside, stripped her, dragged her to a bed and raped her. She said.

"I resisted him hard but failed to stop him,” said the teacher, who ran to the toilet to hide. He and I were pulling the bathroom door but then he stopped and when I checked, I found that he was gone."

The woman dressed and went to a friend’s flat, where she called police. The police arrested the accused around 11am on the same day. The police officer said.

"He told us that he was visiting one of his friends in the same building but didn’t find him and that as he was leaving the building, he met the woman near the lift and she was drunk. He confessed to us that he had sex with her but said she asked him and she got undressed on her own."

Medical reports confirmed sexual activity but not the rape. Dubai Criminal Court convicted the defendant of charges including rape, physical assault and trespass and ordered his deportation after completion of his term.