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/ 28 February 2005

Pope offers a sign of recovery

Pope John Paul II made an unexpected appearance on Sunday at his hospital window, making the sign of the cross to show that he was still with the Catholic world although his recent operation means he cannot speak. The 84-year-old pontiff was in a wheelchair and wearing his white papal robes and skullcap when he appeared for less than two minutes.

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/ 28 February 2005

Syria hands over Saddam’s adviser

The Syrian government, under intense pressure from the United States and others in the international community, made its first significant concession on Sunday by handing over to the interim Iraqi government Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and former head of the Iraqi secret police, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti.

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/ 28 February 2005

At the bar of world opinion

"The 20th century was the bloodiest in history. It will be remembered for the millions of innocent children, women and men who needlessly perished in war." Richard Goldstone urges African members of the ICC not to allow the United States to delay justice to the victims in Darfur.

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/ 28 February 2005

Bones emerging from dust of the past

In the play <i>Julius Caesar</i>, the character Mark Antony says in his funeral oration: "The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar." It is impossible to travel through Africa without wondering about what evils have been interred with the bones of its many defunct despots — and what good they might possibly have left behind.

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/ 28 February 2005

‘War song’ for French schools

As a call to arms, few national hymns are as bloody as La Marseillaise. Originally entitled the War Song of the Army of the Rhine, it exhorts citizens of France to take up arms: ”Form in batallions, March, march! Let impure blood water our furrows!” Now, after a 10-year battle, French schoolchildren are to be made to learn the words after a vote by French MPs.

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/ 28 February 2005

Mauritania gets to grips with Aids education

In the wooden shanty town of Elmina on the outskirts of Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott, Aids educators do not let religious or cultural conservatism get in their way. A wooden dummy of a penis fitted with a condom is used to instruct people about the dangers of unprotected sex — a somewhat unexpected sight in a country that is almost entirely Muslim, and where discussions about sex have tended to be taboo.

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/ 28 February 2005

Corruption-busting president to form new party

Will they or won’t they? This question is on the lips of political observers in Malawi at present, as they wait to see whether substantial numbers of ruling coalition or opposition members will support the country’s newest political grouping: the Democratic Progressive Party. At stake is the future of party founder President Bingu wa Mutharika, who resigned from the United Democratic Front earlier this month.

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/ 28 February 2005

Mugabe blasts ‘sell-outs’

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has blasted ruling party officials for selling secrets to foreign governments in his first reaction on an alleged espionage ring involving senior Zanu-PF members and a South African spy. The octogenarian leader said that anybody involved in spying would not be let off the hook.