Johannesburg  - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was canvassing for support for his bid to lead the country Thursday as the European Union sounded the alarm over ongoing political violence in the southern African country.

Tsvangirai was in the West African state of Senegal to meet with President Abdoulaye Wade, who has advocated in recent months for expanded African mediation in Zimbabwe.

Johannesburg  - A report on prostitution in South Africa's tourist capital of Cape Town released Thursday recommending lifting a ban on sex work.

The report by the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, entitled Selling Sex in Cape Town surveyed 164 sex workers out of around 1,200 in the city.

"While sex workers are often subject to exploitative or abusive working conditions, very few (in Cape Town) are forced to sell sex," the report, which was carried out in conjunction with the Cape-Town- based Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce, found.

Johannesburg  - South African President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday described as unhelpful the request by a prosecutor in the International Criminal Court to have Sudanese President Omar al- Bashir indicted for genocide and war crimes.

Referring to the implementation of the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement and efforts to resolve tensions in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, Mbeki said "It does not help to be now considering these indictments" because both issues "would require very serious inputs by President al-Bashir."

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was in South Africa Tuesday for talks with negotiators from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on the suspension of talks with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

Tsvangirai's spokesman George Sibotshiwe confirmed that the MDC leader was in South Africa, where multi-party talks on the formation of a unity government have been taking place under South African mediation.

Johannesburg  - Powersharing talks between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change broke down Monday, sources within and close to to the MDC reported.

An MDC official in Zimbabwe told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the talks had reached an impasse over the distribution of posts in the proposed new government.

A Western NGO source close to the MDC also confirmed the talks had hit a stalemate.

Johannesburg  - Hundreds of African refugees and asylum seekers who were displaced by a spate of xenophobic violence in South Africa in May were evicted Monday by police from the roadside camp they have occupied for days in protest over their treatment.

The group of around 415 mostly Congolese, Burundians and Ethiopians, among them large numbers of children, has been squatting by the side of the road outside a deportation centre near Johannesburg since Wednesday last week.