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/ 1 February 2006
The United Nations mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has called on the World Bank to scale up its assistance to the impoverished and war-battered country and consider granting it debt relief. UNMIL second in command Jordan Ryan, made the plea late on Tuesday at a meeting with senior World Bank official Robin Cleveland.
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/ 1 February 2006
Cameroon’s tabloid newspapers have alleged dozens of prominent politicians, entertainers and even religious figures are gay, stirring a storm in a country where homosexuality is illegal. Many of those ”outed” by the gutter press have strongly denied the allegations and some are taking legal action, while blaming rivals for spreading the charges.
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/ 1 February 2006
Police refused to confirm whether a man was wrongfully arrested in Johannesburg on Wednesday for the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble. ”It’s an ongoing investigation and we are not prepared to comment on any aspect of the case,” said national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer.
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/ 1 February 2006
The United Nations Children’s Fund on Wednesday declared that Egypt is free from polio, a disease that has plagued this country since as far back as the ancient times. The announcement comes just more than a year after the last positive sample of polio was detected in Egypt and almost two years after the last case of polio was reported.
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/ 1 February 2006
The level crossing at the intersection of Main Reef and Roodepoort roads, west of Johannesburg, might seem an unlikely site for a 24-hour fresh-fruit market driven by market mammies from Mpumalanga. But the 20-odd women know their market — they’ve set up shop on the main taxi and bus route to Soweto from central Jo’burg.
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/ 1 February 2006
Thousands of troops in riot gear and on horseback clashed with hundreds of stone-throwing Jewish settlers holed up behind barbed wire and on rooftops in the illegal West Bank settlement outpost of Amona on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the demolition of nine homes at the site.
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/ 1 February 2006
The upmarket Grootbos private nature reserve in the Western Cape, which includes a lodge and conference facilities, has been evacuated in the face of fires burning out of control in the Overberg. Helicopters were water-bombing the buildings — some of which have thatched roofs — in a bid to save them from the flames.
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/ 1 February 2006
Campaigns to fight HIV/Aids often focus on the "ABC" strategy — or Abstinence, Be faithful and use Condoms. However, on the ultra-conservative, predominantly Muslim island of Zanzibar, condoms remains taboo and is rarely incorporated into public awareness messages.
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/ 1 February 2006
Saifullah was tired of his exhausting job as a blacksmith in a Pakistani village when a friend suggested he join the jihad, or holy war, against United States troops in Afghanistan. ”If you kill one American soldier, then you can keep his money, his gun, boots and clothes,” he recalled his friend saying.
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/ 1 February 2006
Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has resumed production of 120 000 barrels per day of crude at an offshore oilfield that was shut three weeks ago because of hostage-taking, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. "Production has restarted at the EA field. We resumed at the weekend," the spokesman said.