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/ 14 November 2007

Loud explosion rocks central Baghdad

A loud explosion rocked central Baghdad on Wednesday, shaking buildings inside the heavily fortified Green Zone compound that houses the United States embassy and Iraqi government ministries, witnesses said. Some witnesses said a car bomb had exploded near a police station not far from the Green Zone.

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/ 14 November 2007

Unknown health impact of nanotech worries some

Nanotechnology has been hailed as the science of the future, with micro-particles already powering innovations that remove lines from faces, strengthen beer bottles and clean clothing without water. Yet early studies also indicate some of these particles, enabled by the latest in engineering science, can cause cancer.

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/ 14 November 2007

Thousands flee Mogadishu strife

More than 170 000 people have fled fighting in Somalia’s capital in the past two weeks, worsening a humanitarian crisis already facing the country. With near-daily clashes between Ethiopia-Somali forces and Islamist rebels, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was doling out its last stocks from Mogadishu to the displaced.

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/ 14 November 2007

The space between academia and motherhood

The book <i>Academic Mothers</i> is about women who are middle class, who have some form of access to child care, who live in a democracy and who have legal rights and protections. More specifically it is about academics who are mothers. It is about the freedoms that we have not yet achieved, writes Venitha Pillay.

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/ 14 November 2007

New leader for Council on Higher Education

Professor Chabani Manganyi has been appointed chairperson of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) for a five-year term by Education Minister Naledi Pandor. Manganyi takes over from Saki Macozoma whose term of office ended in August. The CHE is an independent, statutory body that advises the minister on matters relating to higher education policy.

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/ 14 November 2007

Sustaining Africa studies

Since the advent of transformation in higher education, the University of the Free State (UFS) has been seeking ways to re-establish its regional and international influence. This week the UFS officially launched the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at the university’s Bloemfontein campus, under the theme: "The study of Africa in the post colony."

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/ 14 November 2007

Governments need to deliver

‘We must now build the Africa of our dreams and stop expecting others to do it … You can’t build a society entirely on assistance." This exhortation came from Joseph Okpaku, president of the Telecom Africa International Corporation, based in New York. He was speaking two weeks ago in Tripoli, Libya, at the Association of African Universities’ (AAU) huge two-yearly conference.

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/ 14 November 2007

Setbacks for SA’s women

Research conducted at the University of the Free State (UFS) has presented some disconcerting findings on the development status of women in South Africa — at national and provincial levels. The study, conducted by Annelize Booysen as groundwork for her PhD thesis, reveals that the development status of women in South Africa not only deteriorated in absolute terms between 1996 and 2001.