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/ 29 November 2006
As solemn bells ring across the temple, Buddhist priest Kensho Oyamada asks Japanese retirees to give away, for the moment at least, what they have spent their lives earning. He tells them to take off their watches, throw away their business cards and forget about their job titles — abandoning the values and status symbols by which they judge themselves in modern Japan.
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/ 29 November 2006
Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday night sought to dispel a quickly earned reputation for Islamophobia, calling for a new process of "authentic dialogue" between Christians and Muslims based on "mutual esteem and respect". For the first time in his papacy, he also expressed support for Turkey in its flagging efforts to join the European Union.
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/ 29 November 2006
My name is Marco, I am from Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. I am a 39-year-old black lesbian born into a family of eight, of whom only five survived. Gender violence has been so much a part of my life that at times I wonder if there is such a thing as a life free of violence. As a lesbian, hate, violence and misogyny follow me wherever I go. I became pregnant as a result of being raped by a man I believed to be a friend.
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/ 29 November 2006
Bourama Soumaoro’s pharmacy looks much like any other, packets of pills in glass cabinets and jars of powder to fight everything from toothache to dysentery. But nowhere in the doctor’s small shop in Mali’s capital Bamako is there a chemically manufactured drug.
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/ 28 November 2006
The vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the chairperson of the council have stepped aside from their positions pending investigations into claims of sexual harassment and victimisation. Vice-chancellor Professor Malegapuru Makgoba has taken a leave of absence, while council chairperson Dr Vincent Maphai stood down.
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/ 28 November 2006
Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday issued a scathing report on Nigeria, calling the rape of women by its security forces ”endemic” while the government fails to bring the attackers to justice. ”Rape by police and security forces is endemic,” Amnesty officials said in presenting the 40-page report, entitled Nigeria: Rape — the silent weapon.
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/ 28 November 2006
Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement said on Tuesday it would summon Muslim fighters from around the world to join its fight if the United Nations authorises a proposed peacekeeping mission. The warning came as the United States repares to introduce a UN Security Council resolution that would approve the force and ease a 1992 arms embargo.
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/ 28 November 2006
Protesting at what they insist is France’s role in their nation’s genocide, Rwandans from all walks of life have united in fury at calls last week by a French judge for their President Paul Kagame to be arrested. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in anger at the allegation Kagame was behind the downing of a plane carrying his predecessor in 1994.
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/ 28 November 2006
More South Africans are voluntarily getting counselled and tested for HIV with figures rising annually, the Department of Health said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said 1Â 715Â 588 people utilised the free voluntary counselling and testing services between April 2005 and March 2006. ”The trend is that it seems to be doubling every year,” he said.