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/ 21 August 2006

Sun, sand and ‘decompression’

For Sergeant Lucie Alain, it was the unrelenting fear of an unseen enemy’s rocket salvos raining down on the Afghanistan camp that kept her from catching even a few hours’ shut-eye. ”Attacks came at night, even as you walk through camp you listen and think, ‘Where can I find some shelter in case rockets start coming down?”’ the 37-year-old mother-of-two from Quebec recounts in the lobby of a Cyprus hotel.

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/ 21 August 2006

Bolivian fuel plan gets a ‘reality bath’

Bolivia has suspended its project to reclaim control over its oil and natural gas, throwing the nationalisation programme into chaos. In a statement released last Friday, Bolivia’s Hydrocarbons Ministry announced that the ”full participation” of the state energy company, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, was ”temporarily suspended due to a lack of resources”.

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/ 21 August 2006

Football bounce for Germany

The mainland European economy, buoyed by a resurgent Germany, is expanding at its fastest rate for six years, outstripping the United Kingdom and the United States, fresh figures showed last week. Domestic euphoria over the football World Cup held in Germany boosted the country’s economy, which grew by 0,9% in the second quarter, the fastest growth for more than five years.c

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/ 21 August 2006

Thousands of illegal eggs fried

Authorities on Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar incinerated 61 000 chicken eggs on Tuesday in their continuing bid to check the threat of bird flu to the community. ”We seized the egg consignment imported from the Tanzanian mainland commercial capital of Dar es Salaam last weekend,” said Khatib Suleiman Bakari.

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/ 21 August 2006

The idiom’s guide to EIAs

Does ”between a rock and hard place” summarise the current debate on environmental impact assessments and their relationship to development? Perhaps in sentiment, but not specifically. The Latin version of the idiom is more telling: ”In front the precipice, behind the wolves.”

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/ 21 August 2006

Between credibility and chaos in the Congo

By last month, 41 years had gone by since what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo had held democratically contested elections, and it is no wonder that citizens had grown disillusioned with the political process. But the current electoral process has provided a brief window of opportunity to change that mindset, writes Stephanie Wolters.

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/ 21 August 2006

Good morning, Farchana!

It is Sunday and the market at the Farchana refugee camp in eastern Chad is half empty. Mahamet Arum, a Sudanese refugee from the town of Diiba in western Darfur, is setting out his wares. Home-made perfumes, hair clips and skin creams crowd his little stall. Arum has spent the past year living in the Farchana camp. Like most of the other refugees living in the camp, he is waiting for the situation to improve before he returns.