HARARE Nike Air Max 97 Bianche Scontate , March 31 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean government has begun compensating former white commercial farmers who lost land under the controversial and at times volatile fast-track land reform program at the turn of the century, a cabinet minister said on Thursday.


Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora said to date the government had fully paid compensation to 240 former white commercial farmers and partially compensated 17 others.


The government, he said, acquired 6,240 farms which is approximately 14.5 million hectares of land that belonged to former white commercial farmers during the land reform program, out of which 1,519 farms had been evaluated to be eligible for compensation.


The minister was speaking at a one-day workshop to gather input from stakeholders in order to come up with a consensus on the compensation mechanisms.


The compensation pledge is included in the debt clearance strategy the government submitted to its multilateral creditors in Lima, Peru last year.


In the debt strategy, Zimbabwe has pledged to clear its 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in arrears to the multilateral creditors (World Bank, IMF and AfDB) as part of efforts to unlock fresh funding from the creditors who stopped lending to Zimbabwe more than a decade ago due to the arrears.


Zimbabwe undertook a decade-long fast track land reform program from 2000 to redress colonial land imbalances.


During the process that was often punctuated by violent seizures of farms owned by white commercial farmers by indigenous Zimbabweans, government repossessed approximately 14.5 million hectares of land which it redistributed to the landless black majority, benefiting more than 300,000 households.


Minister Mombeshora said the compensation process was being derailed by shortage of funds but thanked development partners including the European Union and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that had provided 7.8 million U.S. dollars for evaluation of the farms.


The minister said the government would compensate for both land and improvements on farms covered by Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements and those that belonged to indigenous Zimbabweans, but did not provide an estimated total amount for the compensation,


Any other farms outside the two categories would be compensated for improvements on land only, he said.


UNDP resident representative Bishow Parajuli said resolving the land reform issue was key in alleviating poverty and advancing development in the country.


"As Zimbabwe gears towards implementing its development agenda to achieve sustainable development goals, land reform could play a vital role in its success," he said in a speech.


He urged the country to be innovative in mobilizing funds for compensation given the constrained domestic resources.


EU ambassador to Zimbabwe Phillippe Van Damme said successful conclusion of the land reform program by compensating farmers would help unlock the huge potential of agricultural land in Zimbabwe given that Zimbabwe's economy was agriculture-based.


"Land is a key resource to development and prosperity of Zimbabwe and its citizens," he said.


SYDNEY, July 19 (Xinhua) -- For the first time in five years, a northern hairy-nosed wombat has been born in the Australian state of Queensland, it was announced Wednesday.


The native creature, born at the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge, 500 kilometers west of Brisbane, is one of the rarest species in the world with an estimated 250 left in the wild.


"When we started this program in 2009, the northern hairy-nosed wombat was down to just 138 wombats left in the wild, at Epping Forest National Park," Queensland Environment Minister Steven Miles explained in a statement obtained by Xinhua.


"The Underwood family, who allowed part of their property to be used as a nature refuge, have helped boost the recovery of this endangered species."


To protect the troubled marsupial, the nature reserve is surrounded by predator-proof fencing and includes a number of water stations for the wombats.


Staff and wildlife officers at the facility can also monitor the behaviour of the animals, with the reserve's state of the art wildlife monitoring equipment and cameras.


"It's been a long wait for the wombat specialist team," Miles said, who were monitoring the joey's mother for the last 10 months.


"But finally it was confirmed that the joey has successfully left the pouch."


Although researchers say, the animal was shy at first, they expect the joey to become a lot more active now that it has stepped out of the pouch.


"This little joey is an important new arrival for the colony, and highlights that this refuge provides suitable conditions for successful breeding," Miles said.


Having adequate and affordable insurance coverage is very crucial for having the best safety for both your dream car as nicely as the driver. Each and every state has a distinct requirement when it comes to car insurance. It is extremely important to understand the laws and regulations and minimum insurance liability required to be in a position to drive in that certain state with fantastic ease. Illinois is one of the states that have the low minimal insurance coverage requirement and the IL car insurance coverage can be bought online with great ease. Buying car insurance through the online car insurance platforms is one of the simplest techniques to choose the one that could offer the increased coverage and rewards.


The online car insurance provides an extremely flexible alternative to select the finest feasible insurance item suitable to your needs. It provides the insurance seekers various alternatives to choose from by supplying free quotes from different organizations with just a click of a button. One just wants to enter the minimum important . Wholesale Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Cheap Jerseys Jerseys From China NHL Jerseys Wholesale Baseball Jerseys Cheap Hockey Jerseys Cheap Football Jerseys Cheap Football Jerseys From China College Hockey Jerseys Wholesale Replica Jerseys China