Zimbabwe squatters' leader sentenced

A High Court judge in Zimbabwe has imposed a suspended jail sentence of three-months on the war veterans' leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi, for contempt of a court order. He was also fined two-hundred and fifty dollars and ordered to pay costs. Mr Hunzvi had previously been ordered to tell his supporters to end the illegal occupation of more than one-thousand white-owned farms - something he said he'd made efforts to do.

But a BBC correspondent in Zimbabwe says Mr Hunzvi has spent the past month telling his supporters to stay on the farms, and hundreds more properties have been invaded.

The judge said that normally Mr Hunzvi would have gone to prison but he had taken account of comments by the farmers' union lawyer who said a custodial sentence would have been undesirable.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service