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/ 28 January 2008
Timbuktu’s mythical reputation puts it at the edge of the world, in which case the annual Festival in the Desert would seem to have tumbled off the edge. Deep in the Sahara the festival in the Essakane oasis is hard to get to, but that doesn’t deter a growing numbers of visitors from flocking there every January to hear Malian, West African and international world music acts perform.
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/ 28 January 2008
A dawn police raid on opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and a violent crackdown on protests on Wednesday have dealt a major blow to President Thabo Mbeki’s efforts to strike an agreement in Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai was seized from his home at about 4am as his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) prepared protests against President Robert Mugabe in defiance of a police ban.
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/ 28 January 2008
One of the churchmen was lucky; the bullet only ripped through his shirtsleeve, leaving him with little more than a graze. The other, seated by his side, was less fortunate; the same bullet tore into his back. ”We were just chatting and then these guys [the police] came and started shooting,” said Pastor Isaac Mujete as he comforted colleague Francis Ivayo, who lay writhing in pain in Masaba hospital.
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/ 28 January 2008
Labour analyst and wits professor Sakhela Buhlungu has resigned from the University of the Witwatersrand, sparking an internal inquiry into the school of social sciences. Wits vice-chancellor Loyiso Nongxa appointed a two-person commission of inquiry to consider Buhlungu’s reasons for resigning which are said to include both management and transformation issues.
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/ 28 January 2008
In an expanse of grey rock and dust in one of the harshest environments on Earth, the United Arab Emirates is about to build what is being described as the world’s first sustainable city, designed by British architect Lord Foster.The site is far from promising. Miles from a polluted sea, a fierce sun raises temperatures to 50°C in the summer, and there is no fresh water, no soil and no animals.
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/ 28 January 2008
A Catholic priest who brought a defamation suit against a family which charged him with sexual misconduct involving their daughter, has withdrawn his case. In addition to charges of inappropriately touching girls, teenagers and women, 63-year-old Father Bernard van der Hulst, of the Fish Hoek parish, also frequents the Grand West casino so often that he qualified for a “Most Valued Guest” gold card.
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/ 28 January 2008
Aliens are landing in Antarctica: seeds, spores, mites, lichens and mosses alien to the continent have been brought unwittingly by scientists and tourists, and could disrupt life in the icy wilderness. Antarctica is best known for penguins as well as seals and whales, but scientists are finding a host of other tiny organisms, from springtails — closely related to insects — to mosses.
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/ 28 January 2008
The Southern African region is at risk of not meeting the millennium development goal on poverty eradication, as power outages become a daily occurrence. Countries including Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa experience regular electricity cuts, leading to outages at clinics and schools — key public facilities essential to meeting the goals.
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/ 28 January 2008
One of Botswana’s best-kept secrets is out: the Okavango’s “green season” in the rainy summer months is simply spectacular. As the delta’s floodplains and waterways fill up with fresh water and lush greenery, the area explodes with new life. Breeding herds of elephant with tiny calves, wobbly legged baby giraffe and boisterous zebra foals are enough to turn even the most cynical heart to mush.
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/ 28 January 2008
If you bottle up 1,5-million people in a territory 40km long and 10km wide, and turn off the lights, as Israel has done in Gaza, the bottle will burst. This is what happened on Wednesday when tens of thousands of Gazans poured into Egypt to buy food, fuel and supplies after militants destroyed two-thirds of the wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt.