Zimbabwean women have told the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva they are watching a "silent genocide" unfurl in their country, as President Mugabe's reign of terror against all opposition continues apace.

Zimbabwe police and security forces have raided the Harare offices of several Christian groups, arresting the general secretary of the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe and other officers and staff.

Mennonite World Conference is sending two deacons to Zimbabwe and is calling for two days of global prayer and fasting to coincide with the presidential election run-off on 27 June.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu addressed a packed gathering during a short service of prayer at St Martin'-in-the-Field, in London, last night. He focussed especially upon the worsening political situation in Zimbabwe.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, will be speaking at a special peace service at the refurbished St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square, London, on Monday 9 June 2008.

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Cape Town have spoken to Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, asking for help for churches in Zimbabwe as well as mediation and monitoring.

The head of Africa's biggest church grouping says he is tormented by a wave of attacks against foreigners in South Africa that have claimed the lives of at least 50 people - denting the reputation of the post-apartheid society.

After police invoked security laws to ban open-air prayer meetings in some parts of the country, a Zimbabwean church group says freedom to worship is being infringed in the weeks before a presidential election run-off in June.

The Zimbabwean presidential election run-off is not credible without an immediate end to intimidation, violence and torture and deployment of reliable international election observers, the Catholic Church in the region says.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) can now no longer be relied upon as a "neutral and nonpartisan electoral umpire", according a statement from the Justice and Peace Commission of the Zimbabwean Catholic Bishops' Conference.