Food prices soar in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's Government imposed dramatic price increases for certain staple food products, after a week-long clampdown on street traders and urban poor apparently intended to head off mass protests.

The price hikes - 51 per cent for maize meal and 29 per cent for bread - came a few days ahead of a meeting with United Nations envoy James Morris, head of the World Food Programme, to discuss Zimbabwe's massive food aid requirements despite its long-standing claims it was self-sufficient.