Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe News

You're probably not clueless enough to think real life hippos are cute and cuddly, but did you know hippos are Africa's deadliest animal ? Paul Templer, a river guide showing tourists the sights near Victoria Falls, near the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia back in 1996, found this out the hard way when he almost lost his life inside a hippo's mouth.

In prehistoric times, the Zambezi River flowed southward in the area of what is now Victoria Falls, but a nearby volcano's eruption changed all of that.

A report in the Christianpost dated May 9, 2013, talks about an incident in which the former river guide Paul Templer was swallowed by a hippopotamus while he was touring down the Zimbabwe's Zambezi River near Victoria Falls.

Being swallowed by a hippo left Paul Templer not only with 40 puncture wounds, an exposed lung, and a crushed arm that eventually had to be amputated, but also with a lot of questions about how a man can survive having spent three minutes in a hippo's mouth.

It was supposed to be just another excursion down the Zambezi River for travel guide Paul Templer.

The 10th conference of African spy chiefs ended in Zimbabwe Wednesday amid reports of 'a charm offensive' by President Robert Mugabe ahead of the harmonised poll.

VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe &#8212 A man who survived being swallowed by a hippo shared his story recently in a tale that seems more suited to Hollywood than real life.

He was 27 and owned a business taking clients down the Zambezi river near Victoria Falls, the Guardian reported.

'There was no transition at all, no sense of approaching danger. It was as if I had suddenly gone blind and deaf' 'Hippos' mouths have huge tusks, slicing incisors and a bunch of smaller chewing teeth.' Photograph: Peter Hoffman for the Guardian The hippo who tried to kill me wasn't a stranger - he and I had met before a number of times.

Energy certainly filled the air as the audience engaged their "noisemakers" and heard a varied program Friday night with Music Sacra Chamber Orchestra's "The Matter of Music: Energy." The last in a concert series considering different types of matter and how they have been expressed through music, the concert led the audience on a fun and unique ... (more)

Commuters listen to a news broadcast at a Harare taxi rank. The broadcasting authority is yet to respond to applications for provincial commercial radio licences.

The country's music scene was decimated by Aids, but now fusion band Mokoomba have won a best newcomer world music gong.

Early this month, the South African filmmaking team, Makhulu won the UN Forum on Forests Short Film award for their work following the work of the South African organization, Greenpop's, Trees for Zambia 2012 project.

The Zimbabwe Council for Tourism has allayed fears the planned United Nations Tourism Organisation congress preparations could be in shambles, saying all was on course.

What's the difference between seeing Victoria Falls from Zambia or Zimbabwe? "The president," quips a wit next door in Botswana.