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/ 19 December 2004
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon secured a historic deal on Saturday with his bitter political foe, Labour party leader Shimon Peres, to guarantee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The deal, to be signed on Sunday, heralds the rehabilitation of Peres after years in the political wilderness.
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/ 19 December 2004
As a lawyer, I have had my fair share of international prison experiences. Penal conditions in Jamaica are no better or worse than many of the other poor countries I have visited, but for an English teenager stupid or naive enough to become a victim of today’s drug culture, they are terrifyingly alien.
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/ 19 December 2004
The secretariat of the Southern African Development Community and governments in the region have been urged to devise new measures to assist the disabled. A new report noted that disabled people in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi still do not enjoy the same access to education as their able-bodied counterparts. It added that disabled people, generally, do not have any vocational skills training or tertiary education.
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/ 19 December 2004
In Ethiopia’s plethora of street cafés, above the whistling of steam escaping from ancient cappuccino machines, the talk is of next year’s parliamentary elections. It is no surprise. In a country with a 2 000-year history, this will be only the fifth time that Ethiopians have gone to the polls. And, elections in 1992, 1995 and 2000 were marred by chaos and serious irregularities.
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/ 19 December 2004
As Nigeria expands its subsidised anti-retroviral (ARV) programme, concern is mounting about how funds are being spent. Two years ago, Nigeria launched what, at the time, was a ground-breaking initiative to provide ARV drugs to 15 000 people living with HIV at less than 10% of the market price. But a year later, the project ran into difficulties when depleted drug stocks were not replenished.
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/ 19 December 2004
Flag down a red and white taxi in Gabon’s capital between now and February and you might get more than you bargained for. Around 300 taxi drivers in Libreville have been drafted into the fight against HIV/Aids and are handing out free condoms to passengers as well as leaflets about the disease and practising safe sex.
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/ 19 December 2004
The introduction of genetically modified (GM) maize to Kenyan farmers is to be delayed, according to the <i>Science and Development Network</i>. The GM maize is now scheduled to make its debut in 2010, following revised safety regulations for the Insect-Resistant Maize for Africa project. The new regulations are focusing greater attention to potential threats that GM maize could pose to the environment.
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/ 19 December 2004
”When this music plays, we know that our comrades, out in the fog, are marching like automatons; their souls are dead and the music drives them, like the wind drives dead leaves, and takes the place of their wills.” Amid the snow-covered fields of Auschwitz, where more than a million people were killed, an extraordinary ”music memorial” has been arranged to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation.
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/ 19 December 2004
Come to Elephant Pass to witness a rarity: a place where the contradictions of the ”war on terror” have not produced the usual regression. In most of the world the fight against ”international terrorism” has had negative effects. But here in northern Sri Lanka, a group that Britain, the US and other western governments label terrorists administers a huge chunk of land with its own police and courts.
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/ 19 December 2004
”I was pregnant and running away. Three government soldiers caught me and raped me. They beat me and my unborn baby died.” More than a year after the curtain fell on Liberia’s 14-year conflict, no one has been prosecuted for the many wartime cases of rape and sexual abuse, said Amnesty International, calling on the government to swiftly bring criminals to justice and provide more help for the victims.