News Snippets
• Zimbabwe's government has moved, once again, to close down the country's only independent newspaper. On January 23, 2004, the Daily News appeared on newsstands for the first time in six months, a day after Zimbabwean police ended an illegal blockade at its offices. The government immediately filed urgent applications in court, to stop it from continuing to publish. The paper is a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe and was closed down in September 2003 because it failed to register under the country's draconian new press laws.