This southern African country last week appealed to international donors for $100 million to help those affected by the floods, which have washed away bridges and roads and cut off some communities."Women balancing bags on their heads trudge through the mud carrying food for those still in the village taking care of remaining livestock. They were airlifted by helicopters after being marooned," said, Sibongile Nyoni, an official with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development stationed at the camp. Those who have survived the floods say they have lost their possessions.Like Mkwananzi, she is now housed at a camp where survivors are crammed in tents and plastic shelters and survive on charity..Desperate for rainfall, some people revived a long-abandoned tradition, dating to pre-colonial times, of rain-making ceremonies.Since December, floods have killed 246 people, injured 128 and left nearly 2,000 homeless, Saviour Kasukuwere, Zimbabwes minister of local government, said last week.

The rest of the villagers are at the camp, on the lookout for a sign of the arrival of food donors. In parts of Zimbabwe traditional leaders and spirit mediums, with the support of the government, led ceremonies atop mountains and other sacred places to appeal to ancestral spirits for rain. Some people in the rural areas of Matabeleland North province are unable to reach the safety of clinics and schools.Zimbabwes cash-strapped government is already struggling to meet routine commitments such as the payment of state workers salaries. Thousands of nurses in state hospitals went on strike last week over a lack of year-end bonus payments, straining an already dire situation at the poorly resourced hospitals.In Tsholotsho, homes, mainly grass-thatched huts, have crumbled.Tsholotsho: From kitchen items to livestock and even her house, Assa Mkwananzi says she has "lost it all" to floods that have hit southern Zimbabwe. Debious Sibanda, 20, is one of the few villagers who still returns to his familys home in Mbanyana village "to check out if everything is still OK.The drought has ended and now people are suffering from the downpour."We have between 850 to china control cable manufacturers 900 people here.Others who no longer believe in traditional customs held Christian prayers. Dams have overflowed, raising concerns about communities living downstream.President Robert Mugabe, currently in Singapore for medical treatment, declared the floods to be a national disaster.State hospital doctors have been on strike since February 15, forcing the government to send in army and police doctors to care for patients.Just last year, a regional drought largely induced by the El Nino weather phenomenon killed livestock and forced people to forage for food in forests and seek drinking water from parched river beds in many parts of Zimbabwe.For weeks heavy rains have been pouring in Zimbabwe, especially southern parts of the country, ending a years long drought."The only thing we managed to save is that suitcase with a few clothes," said Joice Ncube, another villager.Five bridges on major highways have been swept away nationwide, Transport Minister Joram Gumbo said."We lost all our blankets, pots and cooking utensils, our goats and chickens as well because of the heavy rains," Mkwananzi told The Associated Press in the southern district of Tsholotsho, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Bulawayo.

On the Simthen incident, the police said that a group of "miscreants" assembled in the village and tried to block the Srinagar-Jammu highway by placing wooden logs and other obstacles to restrict the vehicular traffic. Placards in their hands read "Stop killing of innocents", "Stop use of excessive force" and "Start dialogue process". Distancing itself from these leaflets, the Hizb’s deputy chief Saifullah Khalid said, "Indian agencies are once again trying to play Pandit card to show that our freedom struggle is ‘terrorism and communalism’.With no let up in sight chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, rushed to Delhi to discuss the situation with home minister and other central government functionaries.

The unrest in the Kashmir Valley, triggered by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani, entered into its second month on Monday when nine more protesters and twelve security personnel were injured in fresh clashes. End it. Elsewhere, life continued to be at a standstill due to china car parts accessories suppliers the shutdown called for by the separatists. One person was injured in pellet gun firing in Kupwara, a report said.Mehbooba rushes to Delhi to meet Rajnath.Police admitted that curfew was in force in parts of Srinagar and Anantnag, whereas restrictions under Section 144 CrPC remained in force in rest of the Valley. Meanwhile, following reports that members of minority Sikh and Hindu communities are facing problems in some parts of the Valley and in the backdrop of leaflets appearing in Shopian district which asked the Kashmir Pandits living or working in the area to leave, the alliance of key separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik on Monday asked people to discourage and beware the elements behind the distraction. Doctors said dozens of pellets had pierced Lone’s skull after being shot from point blank range.The police said four other stone-pelting incidents were reported from other parts in Anantnag, Sopore and Bandipore districts. He was among the protesters injured in security forces’ actions on Friday when almost the entire Valley had erupted as the authorities foiled the separatists’ Hazratbal chalo march.

In Shopian, hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of 17-year-old Amir Bashir Lone who died in a Srinagar hospital earlier during the day on Monday. It also said that the outfit no presence in southern Shopian and Pulwama districts. The Mirwaiz, who is also chief Muslims cleric of Kashmir in a separate statement expressed concern over what he said "certain mischievous and anti freedom struggle elements working overtime in certain areas to give a bad name to the ongoing resistance movement by creating discord among the people and trying to rake up communal and sectarian issues". "But overall situation remained normal and under control," it said."The miscreants also smashed the panes of some vehicles and tried to stop the vehicles including trucks carrying essential commodities," it said adding that a police party visited the spot to ensure smooth vehicular movement on the highway but the "miscreants" resorted to stone pelting injuring 12 personnel.Curfews forced people to remain indoors in central Srinagar and the towns of Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam, whereas security clampdowns were in place in Sopore, Baramulla, Handwara, Langaet, Kupwara, Bandipore, Ganderbal, Budgam and some other towns. Two policemen have also died in mob attacks during the turbulence triggered by the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahedin’s Internet-savvy "poster boy" Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 8.Militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahedin, however, blamed the issuance of anti Pandit leaflets on the government saying it is "once again misusing the Kashmiri Pandits to defame the Kashmir freedom struggle".

With the latest death, the toll has risen to 56.The J&K police has set up helpline in the police control rooms of various districts for the general public who wish to inform it about "harassment by hooligans, stoppage and disruption of the traffic by miscreants, damage or arson to the public property or obstacles erected on roads and lanes". He said, "I call upon people to beware of these elements and let all know the Sikhs and Pandits of the Valley are an inseparable part of the Kashmiri society and as safe as we are here". Police came in their way and after a minor scuffle, the rally ended peacefully, witnesses said."However, police said that the obscure group Lashkar-e-Islami believed to had been formed by a splinter group of militants from the Hizb surfaced in north Kashmir few months ago and was involved in attacks on Cellular phone towers and kiosks.On Monday, lawmakers and other activists of opposition National Conference (NC) marched along the streets to Srinagar to denounce "terrible excess" being inflicted on the Kashmiri population by security forces in the name of containing unrest.At least eight persons, including three women, were injured — two of them critically — when security forces fired pellet guns and teargas canisters to quell a protest at Simthan in southern Bijbehara area.