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/ 19 October 2006
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday declared a state of emergency in the troubled Ekiti State in the country’s south-west. The governor of the state, Ayo Fayose, and his deputy, Biodun Olujimi, were impeached on Monday by the state’s Parliament on graft charges and the speaker of Parliament, Friday Aderemi, was sworn in by the state’s acting chief judge as acting governor.
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/ 19 October 2006
Trade ministers from four cotton-growing African nations will meet top United States officials next week for talks expected to focus on a stalled world trade round. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab will meet the trade ministers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali on Wednesday.
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/ 19 October 2006
After starting out as just small loans for the poor, microfinance has mushroomed into a large market that is attracting big banks, technology billionaires, and last week brought its innovator the Nobel Peace Prize. The business of lending small amounts of money to the poor who are unable to access loans elsewhere was once considered unfathomable by the financial mainstream.
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/ 19 October 2006
More than 300 families were left homeless on Thursday after fires ravaged an informal settlement in Fishhoek, Cape Town local disaster management said. Spokesperson Craig Pillay said firefighters responded to a reported fire at Masiphulele township at about 2am.
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/ 19 October 2006
A new architecture is emerging in China, befitting its go-getting temperament: the O-shaped skyscraper being built for the Chinese state television network, Norman Foster’s 32ha dragon-shaped airport, and the ribbon-like tangles of the showcase ”bird’s nest” stadium, which is rising up against the Beijing skyline a year ahead of schedule for the 2008 Olympic Games.
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/ 19 October 2006
When Chinese Vogue launched in August last year, its print run of 300 000 sold out almost immediately. Quite a feat for a glossy magazine featuring high-end designer clothes in a country where the average annual income is less than R14Â 000. Fashion in Shanghai is hugely important on every level. Giorgio Armani has proclaimed Shanghai the most exciting city in the world.
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/ 19 October 2006
Visa and MasterCard have stopped accepting credit card transactions for purchases of online music made on a Russian website accused of selling music illegally, officials for both payment systems said. San Francisco-based Visa asked member banks not to process purchases from AllofMP3.com from September 1, said Simon Barker, a spokesperson for the company.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Andromeda galaxy is more than just the closest large spiral to the Milky Way as it appears through the naked eye, Wits University’s professor David Block said on Wednesday. Block said he had new evidence that Andromeda was involved in a ”violent head-on collision” with the neighbouring dwarf galaxy Messier 32.
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/ 19 October 2006
An official inquiry into the killing of 193 unarmed protesters during the Ethiopian election has found that the victims were shot, beaten and strangled to death in a ”massacre” by the security forces. But the government is trying to suppress the report on the killings, according to a senior member of the inquiry team.
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/ 19 October 2006
One Australian farmer commits suicide every four days, defeated by the country’s worst drought in 100 years which has left them with dust-bowl paddocks and a mountain of debt, says a national mental health body. As drought rolls into a sixth year, stoic farmers are reduced to tears under the stress of trying to produce a crop and hold on to land.