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/ 22 September 2005
Eleven African countries organising the next summit on the troubled Great Lakes region set for December will meet in Angola next week to prepare a pact on border security, a United Nations official said on Thursday. The meeting will also discuss protecting displaced people and setting up a regional certification scheme for natural resources so that they are not used to finance wars.
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/ 22 September 2005
Sudan’s first post-war national unity government was sworn in on Thursday at a ceremony attended by President Omar al-Beshir, eight months after a peace deal that ended Africa’s longest-running conflict. But the new Cabinet was swiftly dismissed by the opposition as falling well short of a truly broad-based government.
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/ 22 September 2005
A Cabinet minister said on Thursday it was up to Britain to compensate thousands of white Zimbabweans whose farms were seized under President Robert Mugabe’s land reform programme. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said a constitutional amendment Mugabe signed on August 30 that strips landowners of their right to appeal expropriation ”finally settled the land question in Zimbabwe”.
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/ 22 September 2005
Europe will be without an European Union Constitution for up to three years, the president of the European commission declared on Wednesday. Amid criticism of Britain for running an ”invisible” EU presidency, José Manuel Barroso warned European leaders not to use the demise of the Constitution as an excuse for doing nothing.
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/ 22 September 2005
A ”people’s war” on narcotics in China has turned into a campaign against designer drugs after police found a surge in usage of ecstasy, ketamine and methamphetamine, or ice, among urban professionals. In November, the government will introduce new rules to crack down on the use of such narcotics, which are not clearly covered by existing laws.
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/ 22 September 2005
Maria Sharapova piled on the first seven games before Shahar Peer could find her feet but then had to struggle to finally scrape a 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 win Thursday in her opening match at the China Open. Sharapova lifted the first five games against her fellow 18-year-old ranked 48th, in just 18 minutes.
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/ 22 September 2005
A police report on a street scuffle involving Arthur de Villepin, son of France’s aristocratic Prime Minister Dominique, was mysteriously removed from the station’s files the day after the incident. Media reports said De Villepin Jr (17) and friends squared up with another group of youths on Saturday night on the Boulevard Emile-Augier, in the capital’s chic 16th arrondissement.
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/ 22 September 2005
Public transport needs to be safer, cheaper and more efficient to decrease congestion and encourage people to leave their cars at home, Gauteng transport minister Ignatius Jacobs said on Thursday. He was speaking at the launch of Public Transport Month and Car-Free Day at Johannesburg’s Park station.
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/ 22 September 2005
In a parallel world, Steve Jobs could have been a poker player with a reputation as a cool hand. After three decades at the top table of technology, all the required skills are there: patience, self-belief, bravado — and, most importantly, the ability to ride a streak of luck.
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/ 22 September 2005
British universities could help minimise the "brain drain" of skilled workers from poorer countries in Africa, says a new report commissioned by United Kingdom academics. The brain drain "marks a potentially serious barrier to economic growth, development and poverty reduction", says the report.