Zimbabwe's president reads wrong speech at opening of parliament

Zimbabwe's 91-year-old President Robert Mugabe read out the wrong speech at the opening of Parliament on Tuesday, his spokesman said, blaming a mix-up in his office for the error.

Mugabe had delivered the same speech during a state of the nation address on August 25, in which he pinned his hopes on China to help revive Zimbabwe's struggling economy.

"The mix-up happened in his secretarial office. Therefore the delivery in Parliament should be set aside," spokesman George Charamba was quoted as saying by the online edition of the government-owned Herald newspaper.