Zimbabwean leader's daughter may have switched universities

The mystery surrounding Bona Mugabe's studies in Hong Kong deepened yesterday. City University said it had registered a student under that name, while the University of Hong Kong - where sources had said Ms Mugabe was studying under an alias - appeared to deny the Zimbabwean president's daughter was studying there.

A spokeswoman for CityU admitted it had enrolled a Bona Mugabe.

'She has applied through the normal procedures and the university has admitted her based on the common admission guidelines,' she said.

She was speaking a day after Ms Mugabe's father, Robert Mugabe, and wife, Grace, were reported to have bought, via a middleman, a HK$40 million luxury home in Tai Po.

Several countries have imposed a travel ban and financial sanctions on Mr Mugabe, 84, and members of his regime over his controversial rule of Zimbabwe - once southern Africa's breadbasket but now a poor, barely functioning nation where millions go hungry and opposition supporters have been persecuted.

Two photographers told police they were assaulted as they tried to shoot pictures of the house last week. Grace Mugabe is alleged to have attacked another photographer shooting pictures of her shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui last month.