Robert Mugabe was in a playful mood by the time he commented on his party's crushing victory in last week's parliamentary election. Southern Africa's longest-serving leader summoned journalists to the veranda of Harare's State House on Saturday, where he spoke, flanked by two snarling stuffed lions.

"Are you afraid?" he asked the startled group, quickly adding with a smile: "These two don't bite." Even before he spoke, Mr Mugabe's advisers, who have on occasion berated or even jailed foreign journalists, offered reporters an all-expenses junket to Victoria Falls.