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/ 17 November 2006

Pretty normal

David Mitchell’s previous novels have been characterised by elegantly complex plots and wildly zany imaginative writing, but <i>Black Swan Green</i> is a straight story, writes Jane Rosenthal.

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/ 17 November 2006

What commodity boom?

The full benefit of the commodities boom now under way is being squandered partly by bureaucratic ineptitude and infrastructural bottlenecks, according to mine experts. The minerals and energy department promises to process mining and prospecting licences in a matter of weeks, but in practice it takes 18 to 24 months.

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/ 17 November 2006

Ugandan peace talks limp along

Emerging from the bush wearing a bright yellow blouse and with a hoe in her hand, Bisatina Ayet explained that she grows food during the day in a garden near her current home, a camp for internally displaced persons in northern Uganda. At night, Ayet returns to sleep at the camp for fear of her safety. Countless communities in the north remain in a state of limbo as the peace negotiations between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government continue.