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/ 11 September 2006
In a field tucked away in a remote corner of south-west Kenya, perhaps the most unusual and poignant September 11 condolence gift to the United States grazes contentedly on long grass. Here in the heart of Maasailand, a small herd of cows ruminates, unaware they have forged a powerful symbolic bond between an isolated tribal community and the world’s last superpower.
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/ 26 February 2006
President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday won re-election in Uganda’s first multiparty polls since 1980, but his main rival rejected the results as opposition supporters clashed with police. Museveni was declared the overwhelming victor in Thursday’s landmark polls with nearly 60% of the vote.
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/ 23 February 2006
Ugandans flooded polling stations on Thursday to cast ballots in landmark elections dominated by a bitter battle between President Yoweri Museveni and opposition leader Kizza Besigye. Hundreds queued patiently, and not so patiently, in huge lines at many of the nearly 20 000 open-air voting centres organised for the nation’s first multi-party elections in 26 years.
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/ 16 February 2006
At least seven people have died of dehydration in Somalia over the past month as severe water shortages from a killer regional drought force many to drink their own urine. Oxfam International said communities in southern and central Somalia were living in searing 40°C heat with only three glasses of water a day per person for drinking, washing and cooking.
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/ 12 December 2005
Sudan’s top leadership, including President Omar el-Beshir, bears responsibility for widespread atrocities committed in the troubled western Darfur region, a leading human rights watchdog said on Monday. ”The Sudanese government at the highest levels is responsible for widespread and systematic abuses in Darfur,” Human Rights Watch said.
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/ 22 November 2005
The United States and international maritime authorities have boosted already-dire piracy warnings for vessels off the coast of lawless Somalia following a surge in attempted hijackings. In a new alert, the US Office of Naval Intelligence said ships in the region should stay at least 200 nautical miles (370km) from the coast.
Ugandans trickled into polling stations across the country on Thursday to vote in a landmark referendum on restoring multiparty democracy after nearly 20 years. Amid opposition boycott calls and apparent widespread apathy, observers believe voters will endorse Uganda’s most sweeping political reforms in a generation.
Ethiopia’s opposition on Monday backed off a threat to reject nationwide results from hotly contested weekend elections it says were marred by fraud, saying their complaints were limited to key areas. The boycott threat led Prime Minister Meles Zenawi late on Sunday to ban all post-election demonstrations for one month.
Partisans of exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide looted a container port on the northern fringe of Port-au-Prince late on Thursday as United States and French patrols sought to enforce an overnight curfew in its fifth consecutive night. Meanwhile, a meeting took place to start the process of naming a new Haitian government.