Farmer, Opposition Candidate Are Killed

A Zimbabwean opposition parliamentary candidate was beaten to death by suspected ruling-party activists and a white farmer fatally shot by unknown assailants in the latest round of violence ahead of upcoming elections, officials said. Attackers beat to death Thadeus Rukuni, a candidate for the Movement for Democratic Change, at his home in Bikita, 165 miles south of Harare, the capital, a Masvingo province police spokesman said. The attackers were suspected members of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party who forced their way into Rukuni’s house Monday, he said. Unidentified attackers shot and killed farmer Tony Oates in his house late Wednesday 40 miles northwest of Harare, the Commercial Farmers’ Union said.