Opposition: 10 dead, 3,000 families ousted in Zimbabwe

An opposition leader said Sunday that 10 people have been killed in violence since last month's disputed presidential election and 3,000 families have been forced from their homes.

Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change, said key members of the opposition's administration and more than 400 supporters were arrested.

Biti appealed to U.N. organizations present in Zimbabwe, saying the situation had escalated from a political crisis into a humanitarian one.

Zimbabweans are still awaiting results of the presidential election held three weeks ago alongside parliamentary voting. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claims he won the presidency outright and that the delay in reporting results is part of an attempt to steal the election by longtime President Robert Mugabe.

In addition to the limbo surrounding the president race, the opposition's landmark victory in the parliamentary vote was being called into question over the weekend.

Electoral officials on Saturday began recounting ballots for a couple of dozen legislative seats being challenged, which could overturn the opposition's majority win. Most of the seats being recounted were declared for opposition candidates, including in Mugabe's home district of Zvimba.

United Nations

Greece's treatment of refugees criticized

The U.N. refugee agency has advised European Union countries to stop sending asylum seekers to Greece until further notice, a step that amounts to a condemnation of Greece's treatment of people fleeing conflict and persecution.

In a sharp response, Greece called the agency's criticism unfair and said other countries needed to share the burden of tackling irregular migration into the European Union.

Meanwhile, lawyers for refugees said that they were concerned that the U.N.'s advice would result in Greece's neighbors in the union taking even tougher measures to push people away at their borders.

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday that asylum seekers faced "undue hardships" in Greece, often lacking "the most basic entitlements, such as interpreters and legal aid, to ensure that their claims receive adequate scrutiny."

The U.N. agency and human-rights organizations have been concerned for some time about the treatment of refugees in Greece, where migration routes carry economic migrants and asylum seekers from Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and Somalia into the union.

Jerusalem

Military to probe cameraman's death

The Israeli military says it will investigate the killing of a cameraman for the Reuters news agency in Gaza.

Fadel Shana was killed while filming an Israeli tank in Gaza on Wednesday, a day of heavy fighting. His final footage shows the tank firing a shell in his direction. Palestinian medics say five others were killed in the incident, including four teenagers.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch says its investigation suggests soldiers either fired recklessly or targeted Shana.

The Israeli military said Sunday its investigation will be reviewed by the Military Advocate General. The military said it "does not deliberately target uninvolved civilians."

Seattle Times news services