Zimbabwe police detain 3 ministers

Three cabinet ministers from a breakaway faction of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change, rivals to President Robert Mugabe, were detained but released without charge, a party official said Monday. The three ministers and 18 party officials were detained in the town of Hwange in western Zimbabwe after holding a party meeting, said Kurauone Chihwayi, spokesman for the splinter group known as MDC-N. The party's president, Trade Minister Welshman Ncube, was among those arrested, he said. "They were released without charge at midnight," Chihwayi told AFP. "They were not charged. They were coming from a meeting which the police deemed to be illegal." He said the group were returning from a meeting of the party's provincial executive Sunday when they were stopped at a roadblock and later held at Hwange police station. Police could not immediately be reached for comment. Zimbabwe's security laws forbid political parties, labour unions and civic groups to hold gatherings of more than four people without clearance from a senior police officer. Critics accuse the police of using the law to emasculate opponents of Mugabe, who shares power with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a tense coalition government formed to restore stability after bloody and disputed elections in 2008.