Zimbabwe Crumbles, Mugabe's Wife Goes Globetrotting On Photographer's Face

This is typical. Dictators and tyrants love to maintain their own status and wealth, and could care less what happens to their countries. Robert Mugabe's government just had to unveil a $100 trillion dollar note to combat inflation that causes a doubling of prices every day (officially rated 231 million percent).

Mugabe continues to do everything imaginable to maintain his grip on power despite losing elections to Morgan Tsvangirai. Power sharing just isn't in the cards no matter what the diplomats say. Mugabe will not let go of his ruinous power. Indeed, it would be political suicide for Tsvangirai to enter into any such deal that allows Mugabe to stay in power.

Robert Mugabe's wife is busy running around the world spending like there's no tomorrow. She was in Paris and then went on to Hong Kong, where she assaulted a photographer.

Richard Jones told The Associated Press that Grace Mugabe, 43, ordered a bodyguard to hold him down and then attacked him herself Thursday near the Shangri-La hotel on Hong Kong's Kowloon peninsula.

"She directed several punches into my face," Jones said. "She was wearing diamond-encrusted rings, which caused a lot of lacerations."

Jones, 42, from Machen in South Wales, was on a freelance assignment for the Sunday Times.

He said he suffered at least 10 cuts to his face but did not require hospitalization.

"She was screaming, completely crazy," the Times quoted a witness, Austrian tourist Werner Zapletal, as saying in a report Sunday.

Police spokeswoman Odelia Tam said police are investigating the alleged attack but have not made any arrests. She said she did not know the identity of the alleged attacker.

Calls seeking comment Sunday from the Zimbabwean Embassy in Beijing went unanswered.

Classy. I wonder where she gets it from.

UPDATE:
Added the link to Zimbabwe introducing the $100 trillion note.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said the new notes that includes 50 trillion, 20 trillion and 10 trillion would be released for the "convenience of the public," according to statement released Thursday.

"In a move meant to ensure that the public has access to their money from banks, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has introduced a new family of bank notes which will gradually come into circulation, starting with the 10 trillion Zimbabwe dollar," the bank said in its announcement.

The new 100 trillion dollar bill would be worth about $300 in U.S. currency. A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe now costs about 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars -- and like most commodities, the price increases every day.

The convenience they speak of is that Zimbabweans wouldn't need to bring 18-wheelers with them to carry the amount of money needed to buy a loaf of bread. That is, if they could find the money to pay for one; much of the country is destitute and living below poverty lines that borders on starvation and barely subsisting.