CONSITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS: Zimbabwe has detained the leading opponent of planned constitutional amendments that would extend the rule of the country’s president, Emmerson Mnnangagwa, and make the post elected by Parliament, not the people. Former finance minister Tendai Biti was set to appear in court today.

Mr Biti leads the Constitutional Defenders Forum (CDF), a group campaigning against the amendments. CDF spokesman Jacob Rukweza said Mr Biti and programmes director Morgan Ncube are accused of holding a public meeting without notifying police. 

ELECTION TIE: Slovenia’s president today urged the country’s political parties to start talks on forming a new government after this weekend’s parliamentary election ended with no clear winner and the main players practically tied.

Prime Minister Robert Golob’s liberal Freedom Movement won 29 seats in the 90-member assembly while the opposition right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party won 28, according to preliminary results.

UNITED NATIONS: The Earth’s climate is further out of balance than any time since records began, the United Nations weather agency warned today.

The World Meteorological Organisation says the planet is gaining much more energy than it is able to release, driven by emissions of warming gases such as carbon dioxide.

Scientists fear the natural warming phase called El Nino, due later this year, could bring further heat records.

AUSTRALIA: Staff at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation are set to strike for the first time in 20 years tomorrow after rejecting a pay offer.

Some 60 per cent of ABC staff rejected an offer of a 10 per cent rise over three years. Inflation in Australia hit 3.8 per cent in January.