MUGABE'S HANDIWORK HITS NEW LOW "Zimbabwe's currency plunged to a new record low on Thursday, trading at an average 1 billion to the U.S. dollar on a recently introduced interbank market and triggering massive price increases. Traders were quoting the Zimbabwean dollar at between 995 million and 1.45 billion against the greenback in Thursday morning trade, up from an average 700 million at the beginning of the week. … Zimbabwe's production capacity, largely based on agriculture, has declined sharply mainly due to upheavals on commercial farms following President Robert Mugabe's drive to seize land from whites to resettle landless blacks. Prices of basic goods, most of which are now imported, have gone up sharply since the disputed March 29 election in which Mugabe's ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in 28 years. … a loaf of bread, which cost about Z$15 million before the polls, now costs about Z$600 million."