Cyril Belaud
Cyril Belaud is an AFP journalist covering East Africa and the Horn of Africa.
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/ 20 January 2008

British village still silent on shipwreck looting

A year on since a shipwreck off the English south coast, locals are still revelling in their wild days of frenzied pillaging. But they are keeping mum on who grabbed the best plunder. The carcass of the MSC Napoli cargo ship is still visible through the sea fog off the coast of Branscombe, a picturesque village on the Devon coastline.

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/ 22 January 2007

Experts battle disaster from stricken freighter

British experts battled on Monday to prevent an ecological disaster by offloading about 3 500 tonnes of fuel oil in a stricken container ship beached off the English south coast. While scavengers began pillaging containers washed up on the beach, operations were also under way to clean up some of the 200 tonnes of lighter fuel that has already started to leak.

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/ 16 October 2006

Rushdie remains critic of fundamentalist Islam

More than 17 years after Iran’s late spiritual leader Ruhollah Khomeini launched a fatwa against him, British writer Salman Rushdie remains firm in his criticism of fundamentalist sects of Islam, fearing they will make the West surrender its values. ”We’re all living under a fatwa now,” the 60-year-old author, who is of Indian origin, declared last week in a long, open interview with the British daily the Independent.