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/ 14 May 2004

Gandhi dynasty rises again

Sonia Gandhi’s rise from small-town, postwar Italy to the whitewashed British Raj bungalows of Delhi is a story of love and death in India’s political cauldron, culminating in the most sensational victory since India became independent in 1947.

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/ 14 May 2004

US forces taught torture techniques

They called it ”bitch in a box”. On a baking hot day last August, a black Mercedes sedan pulled up at the United States army base in Ramadi and two US interrogators dragged an Iraqi man out of the boot. He was gasping for air. ”They kind of had to prop him up to carry him in. He looked like he had been there for a while,” said a US soldier who witnessed the Iraqi’s arrival.

  • ‘US held man who was beheaded’
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    / 14 May 2004

    US prosecutes Greenpeace under 1872 law

    Greenpeace will appear in court in Miami on Monday in what is believed to be the first criminal prosecution in the United States of a campaign group for the activities of its members. The case has been attacked by the former vice-president Al Gore and many civil rights groups, who claim it is being used by the attorney general, John Ashcroft, to stifle dissent.

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    / 14 May 2004

    We’re nobody’s chum, do you hear?

    A media conspiracy unfolded this week. The facts — which we know to be true because they were printed in newspapers — include that
    South African men are the laziest in the world, outslothing Muscovite pimps and Zimbabwean election monitors, and that Danny Jordaan is "the hardest-working man in South African football".

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    / 14 May 2004

    HIV/Aids barometer – May 2004

    United States President George W Bush promised $15-billion for the fight against HIV/Aids in developing countries over five years. But former Eli Lilly CEO Randall Tobias, who runs the president’s Aids emergency plan, said the money would be spent only on high-quality patented drugs from the giant pharmaceutical companies.

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    / 14 May 2004

    Inglorious chapter

    African National Congress MP Vincent Smith’s coronation as leader of Parliament’s public accounts committee, Scopa, brings to a sad end one the most inglorious chapters in South Africa’s new democracy. Smith has been rewarded for shielding the executive during Parliament’s ill-starred efforts to hold it to account over the multibillion-rand arms deal.