Zimbabwe president escapes assassination try

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (AFP) – Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Saturday he narrowly survived an attempt on his life after a blast at a party rally that injured two of his vice presidents and several party officials.

Fifteen people were injured, three seriously and some lost limbs, in the explosion during an election campaign event in Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo, according to Health Minister David Parirenyatwa.

Footage circulating on social media showed an explosion and plumes of smoke around the president as he descended stairs from the podium at the city's White City stadium.

Mnangagwa suggested he was the target of the attack, which he said also injured Vice Presidents Kembo Mohadi and Constantino Chiwenga.

''I am used to these attempts,'' Mnangagwa told state media, adding that an object ''exploded a few inches away from me – but it is not my time.''

ZANU-PF chairwoman and cabinet minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and Mary Chiwenga, the wife of vice president Chiwenga, were also among those injured, he said, as was deputy parliament speaker Mabel Chinomona.

The ''blast... has affected my vicepresidents – especially comrade Mohadi,'' he added.

Mohadi suffered leg injuries, while Chiwenga had slight bruises to his face, according to the presidential spokesman George Charamba.

State broadcaster ZBC described

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister (PM) Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford have named their baby daughter Neve and say they want her to grow up in a world in which she can make choices about her family and career based on what she wants.

Ardern made her first public appearance on Sunday since giving birth to her daughter on Thursday.

She answered a few questions from reporters while holding her baby at Auckland City Hospital before she planned on returning home. She will take six weeks of leave before returning to work.

Ardern is just the second elected world leader to give birth while holding office. Many hope the 37-year-old will become a role model for combining motherhood with political leadership.

She said the couple struggled for months trying to choose a name and decided to wait until the baby was born to figure out which one fitted best. The baby’s full name is Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford.

Ardern said Neve means “bright” and “radiant” as well as “snow,” which was fitting because the baby was born on the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice. Te Aroha means “love” in New Zealand’s indigenous Maori language, and Ardern said that name reflected the blast as

But Mnangagwa insisted that the ''country is peaceful'' as Zimbabwe prepares to stage its first ever elections not to feature former president Robert Mugabe on July 30.

''Several people were affected by the blast, and I have already been to visit them in the hospital,'' Mnangagwa wrote on his verified Facebook account describing the attack as a ''senseless act of violence.''

''The campaign so far has been conducted in a free and peaceful environment, and we will not allow this cowardly act to get in our way as we move towards elections.''

State media also reported that the ZANU-PF party secretary in charge of political organization, Engelbert Rugeje, was injured, as were several security personnel.

Injured ZANU-PF supporters were pictured in a nearby hospital where one man wearing a blood-stained party T-shirt waited for treatment.

According to Charamba, the president was ''evacuated successfully'' to his official residence in Bulawayo.

Mnangagwa had been in the city to campaign for votes ahead of nationwide elections due on July 30.

''People started running in all directions and then immediately the president's motorcade left at a very high speed. Suddenly soldiers and other security details were all over the place,'' said an AFP correspondent at the scene.

Bulawayo has long been a bastion of ''an assassination attempt''. the amount of love and generosity that people had shown the couple even before the baby arrived.

She said she hoped that one day having a baby while leading a country would not be seen as a novelty.

“So I hope for little girls and boys that actually there’s a future where they can make choices about how they raise their family and what kind of career they have that are based on what they want and what makes them happy,” she said. “Simple.” opposition to the ZANU-PF and it was Mnangagwa's first rally in the city.

The polls in five weeks will be the first since Zimbabwe's veteran leader Robert Mugabe resigned following a brief military takeover in November last year after 37 years in power.

The intervention by the army was led by Chiwenga who was then head of the armed forces.

The vote will be a key test for Mnangagwa, 75, who succeeded the 94-yearold autocrat and remains untested at the ballot box.