Aid for Zimbabwe refuge seekers

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Aid organisations in Zimbabwe have provided food and other assistance to about 150 men who spent a cold night outside the US embassy in the capital.

About 50 women and children were taken away to shelter elsewhere overnight.

Some said they were seeking asylum after being attacked in electoral violence for supporting the opposition, reports BBC.

Meanwhile, military police have been seen forcibly closing down ruling party bases in townships used to intimidate people ahead of last week's election.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of last Friday's presidential run-off, which President Robert Mugabe won unopposed, citing state-sponsored political violence.

Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe said President Mugabe is due back from the African Union summit in Egypt.

Ruling party Zanu-PF youths have been mobilising people in the townships around the capital, Harare, to go to the airport to welcome him home, he says.

It has come as a shock to many township residents to see the security forces turning against Zanu-PF supporters, beating them up and telling them to shut their bases, the reporter says.