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/ 11 December 2006
Mario Almeida, the owner of the elegant restaurant Espaço Bahi’a in Angola’s capital city, says he can spot people who are new to his establishment by their wide-eyed expressions. Crooning Portuguese music gives way to American jazz as slow-moving beams of light create a galaxy on the dark wooden panels between the second and third floors.
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/ 11 December 2006
Following a small game path, our guide, Mark McGill, suddenly spots a lion and calls us over. As it stalks its prey, we sit enthralled, not envying the unfortunate prey. We are on foot and as close to the kill as humanly possible. Time freezes as the prey falls into the clutches of the lion.
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/ 11 December 2006
General Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean former dictator whose brutal regime cast a shadow over his country and the rest of the continent for more than three decades, died on Sunday at the age of 91. Police were quickly deployed across the city and residents in working-class districts erected barricades on Sunday night.
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/ 11 December 2006
Japanese whalers are expected to clash with environmentalists in Antarctica over the next two months as separate fleets head south prepared to confront each other in some of the world’s most hostile seas. The pro- and anti-whalers on Sunday night appealed for the support of countries they hoped would back their views on whaling.
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/ 11 December 2006
Cocooned inside a Cape Town warehouse is South Africa’s bid for power on the seas: a ,5-million Stealth catamaran, the latest offering from a burgeoning boat-building industry. Dubbed the Flying Gurnard, the Stealth 540, sold before tasting salt water, is a hydrofoil-assisted catamaran which its makers say offers greater speed and fuel efficiency than other power boats.
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/ 11 December 2006
Many of Britain’s big businesses — including supermarkets, banks, universities, hotel chains, hospitals and government departments — would be forced to sign up to a carbon trading scheme under proposals being drafted by ministers. The scheme has received an initial enthusiastic response from some of the companies.
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/ 11 December 2006
Afew weeks ago, Washington-based radio host Jerry Klein announced his own very radical plan to assuage public fears of terrorism. All Muslims, he suggested, should be branded with a crescent-shaped tattoo or be forced to wear a red armband. The phones rang off the hook.
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/ 11 December 2006
The richest 1% of adults in the world own 40% of the planet’s wealth, according to the largest study yet of wealth distribution. The report also finds that those in financial services and the internet sectors predominate among the super-rich. Europe, the United States and some Asia Pacific nations account for most of the extremely wealthy.
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/ 11 December 2006
In <i>White Writing</i>, JM Coetzee describes white South Africans as "no longer European, not yet African". Almost 20 years later, we may ask if white South Africans are any closer to Africanness. Can white South ÂAfricans be African? Frederik van Zyl ÂSlabbert is suspicious of answers that define "African" along ethnic or racial lines, and rightly so, writes Jason van Niekerk.
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/ 11 December 2006
The battle for George W Bush’s ear began in earnest on Wednesday following publication of the Iraq Study Group’s report. The United States president’s instinct is to hang tough, gambling that "a last big push" will bring victory of sorts. "We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done," he said last week. Amid great uncertainty, one thing is sure: Bush does not do graceful exits.