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/ 20 January 2006

Freezing the future

The future of humanity may soon rest deep in a frozen mountain on a remote Norwegian island. The Norwegian government plans to build a ”doomsday vault” to house two million seeds that represent the entire agricultural diversity of the planet. The idea is to safeguard the world’s food supply against threats such as nuclear war, climate change and rising sea levels.

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/ 20 January 2006

Scottish pupils get fake tanning lessons

In a country where sunshine is about as common as wild haggis, it is probably not surprising that many Scots seek artificial help to rid themselves of pasty complexions. But such is the desire to have a tan among Scottish schoolchildren that schools are calling in beauty experts to offer advice on how to apply fake tan to stop pupils nipping out for a sunbed session in their lunch break.

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/ 20 January 2006

A match made in Beijing

Africa needs China. As in other parts of the developing world, China’s insatiable appetite for natural resources is creating unprecedented demand for commodities, pushing prices to new highs and fuelling economic growth across the continent. But China’s relations with Africa have stirred a polarised debate from Cape to Cairo.

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/ 20 January 2006

Disturbing the peace

Five people were killed and hundreds of United Nations peacekeepers forced to abandon their base as anti-UN protests swept government-held southern Côte d’Ivoire for a third straight day. After repeated attacks on UN compounds, vehicles and offices, a UN official said civilian personnel were being concentrated in central locations.

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/ 20 January 2006

The noisiness of the turkeys

Only a few weeks into the new year and already three contenders for the prestigious 2006 Gobbledegook of the Year Awards have published their submissions. Since Goya’s inception a few years ago, the level of incoherent, garbled, and generally incomprehensible public utterances and publications has risen to a bewildering degree.

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/ 20 January 2006

End of a world

In many ways, the formal split of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is the end of a world. Here was a party that for the first time in the history of Zimbabwe was able to unite under one roof capitalists and socialists, the workers, the unemployed, peasants, intellectuals and students. In a phrase: everyone.