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/ 4 September 2007
President Hugo Chávez has thrown his weight behind a scheme which brings classical music into Venezuela’s slums, following international acclaim for the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. The Venezuelan leader announced the creation of ”Misión Música”, a government-funded effort to give tuition and instruments to one million impoverished children.
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/ 4 September 2007
Nuran Uca never made it to 61 Aydin Arslan Street. If she had gone to the colourful two-storey building, climbed its narrow stairwell, walked down a corridor and sat in the plump brown armchair that so many other women had used, she might be alive today.
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/ 4 September 2007
I’m Not There, a biopic of folk icon Bob Dylan in which he is conspicuously absent but omnipresent, should ”wash over you like a dream”, the film’s director, Todd Haynes, said on Tuesday. Viewers should not ”get too bogged down in the literal connections to Dylan and let it take you somewhere”, Haynes told reporters.
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/ 4 September 2007
Sol Plaatje 2007: Relocated Mandelaville residents still live in shacks clinging to a hillside facing the Durban Roodepoort Deep mine dump — an aged, yellowing scar on the landscape. There is no electricity here, no direct access to clean water and no municipal services such as rubbish collection. But the view from Sol Plaatje is finally looking up.
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/ 4 September 2007
Raúl Castro has started to make cautious changes in Cuba, which could signal plans for political and economic reform. Since he took over from his brother Fidel, dozens of dissidents have been released, an olive branch has been extended to Washington and there is talk of easing communist controls on property and agricultural production.
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/ 3 September 2007
United Nations agencies urged governments in Southern Africa on Monday to draw up legislation to combat frightening levels of human trafficking, saying action was vital ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Specific legislation to tackle the issue was needed to help law enforcement agencies get to grips with the situation.
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/ 3 September 2007
Millions of commuters in London endured travel chaos on Tuesday as a 72-hour strike by Tube maintenance workers closed most of the network. As the strike entered its second day, Transport for London said the disruption was ”severe and unacceptable”, with trains suspended on all but three of the 12 lines.
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/ 3 September 2007
It is an unlikely setting for romance. And when Sheikh Sayyid bin Maktoum al-Maktoum arrived in Belarus last month for a clay pigeon shooting competition, his only thought was how to win a medal. But soon after checking into the presidential suite of the Hotel Minsk the Sheikh’s gaze fell on an attractive 19-year-old waitress.
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/ 3 September 2007
A nine-year-old girl was raped during a burglary in Monument Park on Monday, Pretoria police said. Captain Tessa Jansen said two men in their 20s broke into a 35-year-old woman’s house around 1am. They gained access by breaking a window and once inside they threatened the woman at knife-point.