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/ 30 January 2008

Fly naked on nudist holiday flight

German nudists will be able to start their holidays early by stripping off on the plane if they take up a new offer from an eastern German travel firm. Travel agency OssiUrlaub.de said it would start taking bookings for a trial nudist day trip from the eastern German town of Erfurt to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom.

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/ 30 January 2008

SA mines set to resume production

South African mining companies were set to resume production this week after power failures brought the industry to a halt last Friday. Anglogold Ashanti said it expected all its mines would be in full production by the end of the week. Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said: ”All our mines are busy mobilising as the power flow is being restored.”

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/ 30 January 2008

In Tanzania, a Maasai girl escapes to education

At 12, brown-eyed Neema Laizer persuaded her elementary school teacher to accept one litre of milk each morning instead of money because her father refused to pay for a girl to be educated. At 13, her father selected a 30-year-old stranger to be her husband. The next day, she was supposed to drop out of school and begin a new life as a housewife, a common fate for young Maasai girls in Tanzania.

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/ 30 January 2008

‘Cheer for the athletes, glory for the country’

On the top floor of the Yansha Friendship Shopping Centre in Beijing, Huang Kuoshan and 49 of his colleagues are waiting to be sworn in to the Beijing Workers’ Civilisation Cheerleading Squad. With the Beijing Olympic venues all but ready and the -billion upgrade of the city’s infrastructure nearing completion, it is part of a drive by city authorities to ensure bad manners do not mar the August 8 to 24 Games.