Move against blood diamonds

In what is being hailed as an unprecedented move that will boost buyer awareness of blood diamonds, a global diamond trading network vowed to expel any member who knowingly trades gems from two Zimbabwe mines where labourers have been killed and children enslaved.

The announcement by the US-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, a diamond price and information provider, comes after international regulators declared the stones from the Zimbabwe mines conflict-free, backing off a ban imposed in November and allowing 900,000 carats of diamonds to be auctioned last week.