Banana slips out of prison

Reports from Zimbabwe say the former president, Canaan Banana, has been released from prison after serving one year for sexual assault and sodomy.

The official Herald newspaper said Mr Banana left the Chikurubi maximum security prison yesterday.

He'd been receiving medical treatment for the past month.

Mr Banana was sentenced to ten years in prison, nine of which were suspended.

Last year, the Supreme Court overturned Mr Banana's appeal against his conviction after a highly publicised trial in which one of his former aides, Jefta Dube, said he was forced into a homosexual relationship with the president in the mid-1980s.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service