Staff Reporter
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/ 3 December 2007

Zimbabweans to pay more for passports

Passport fees in Zimbabwe have been increased, Zimbabwe’s government mouthpiece Herald newspaper reported on Monday. The fees were last reviewed in May this year. According to a notice at the registrar-general’s office in Harare, an ordinary passport for an adult now costs Z-million, up from Z 000, the report said.

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/ 3 December 2007

Bali talks seek new climate pact

About 190 nations met in Bali on Monday seeking a breakthrough to a new global pact to fight climate change by 2009 to avert droughts, heatwaves and rising seas that will hit the poor hardest. A new treaty is meant to widen the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 36 industrial countries to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 5% below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.

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/ 3 December 2007

Postcards from a sick island

It is hard not to resort to clichés when writing about Mauritius: white, sandy beaches, sunny blue skies and swaying palm trees. This Indian Ocean island paradise is the stuff travel brochures are made of. Stepping off a plane filled with eager tourists and a group of honeymooners proudly flashing "just married" T-shirts, it is easy to see how tourism has become the main source of income.

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/ 3 December 2007

Development needs new agenda

A significant amount of resources has been channelled into Africa since the Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2001. Between 2000 and 2005 an estimated $97-billion has reached the continent through official development assistance. African governments themselves have set aside various percentages of their budgets for expenditure in priority sectors to effect positive change in the lives of the poor.

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/ 3 December 2007

Somalia: a cruelty the world ignores

As tens of thousands more frightened and exhausted people fled the terrors of Mogadishu last week, a Somali community leader condemned the international community "for watching the cruelty in Somalia like a film and not bothering to help". He was mistaken. The international community has barely been watching the cruelty in Somalia at all.