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/ 27 January 2006

The end of God?

It is a mouth-watering prospect, undoubtedly the news story of this fledgling year: God, in a human court of law, almost in the shadow of the Vatican, under obligation to prove that he exists. And if he can’t, then no one in Italy will any longer be able to claim to be God’s agent or intermediary, to collect money for his greater glory.

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/ 27 January 2006

Language matters in German high school

At Berlin’s Herbert Hoover High School, roughly 90% of the pupils come from immigrant families, but in a step that has caused political ripples they have been told to speak German and nothing else. ”German is the language spoken in our school. Every pupil is therefore obliged to communicate only in German,” reads the rule that was adopted at the school.

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/ 27 January 2006

Govts knew of CIA terror

Europe’s human-rights watchdog recently accused Washington of ”gangster tactics” by flying terrorist suspects to countries where they would face torture, and criticised European countries who appear to have done nothing to intervene. ”If a country resorts to the tactics of gangsters, I say no,” Dick Marty, a Swiss senator, said.

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/ 27 January 2006

Brazil’s biofuel success story

Brazilians are choosing to pump ethanol into their cars, reducing the country’s dependency on petrol and setting a worldwide example on how to reduce greenhouse emissions from transport. More than 183 600 ””lexi-fuel” cars, which run on petrol or ethanol made from sugar cane, were sold in December in Brazil.

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/ 27 January 2006

Holy shit!

If Vusi Pikoli (current head of the National Prosecuting Authority, until the music stops playing and everyone rushes for a different chair) and the South African legal fraternity are reading this, please heed an urgent plea from the manne of the Marico. Please, for the love of God, stop your persecution of Jacob Zuma.

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/ 27 January 2006

Myths of Zionism

The Jewish people suffered greatly from racial prejudice termed anti-Semitism. The crudest and most infamous of the treatment they faced was the genocidal Holocaust carried out by the Nazis, in which six million perished in ghastly circumstances. The Holocaust greatly accelerated the Zionist project, which originated at the end of the 19th century.

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/ 27 January 2006

Hamas enters the political realm

While the extent of the surprise victory by Hamas is uncertain following Wednesday’s Palestinian elections, this much is plain: the Islamist movement designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and Europe and considered a mortal enemy by Israel will play a leading role in the legislature.

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/ 27 January 2006

‘Wake up Kenya’

Aftershocks from an earthquake in central Africa were still being felt in Kenya on December 5 last year when a leading academic warned of a looming ”tragedy”. Many buildings in the city were being erected without ”proper structural analysis”, said Professor Norbert Opiyo-Aketch of the University of Nairobi.