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/ 27 November 2006
A prolonged drought in East Africa in the 1890s not only killed tens of thousands of the native Maasai people, it also reshaped the ecological and political landscape, according to new research published in the African Journal of Ecology. Droughts and disease outbreaks took place from 1883 to 1902.
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/ 27 November 2006
South Africa may have gone a long way to addressing racial injustices but there is a growing acceptance that its huge wealth gap threatens to derail the achievements of the post-apartheid era. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which shone the light on abuses committed by all sides during apartheid, is credited with playing a major role in reconciling the races of South Africa.
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/ 27 November 2006
More people have fled their homes in Sudan’s Darfur region than at any time since the conflict started nearly four years ago, said the United Nations on Monday in a report on the worsening crisis. ”The number of IDPs [internally displaced people] has reached nearly two million, the highest level since the conflict started in 2003,” said a summary of the report.
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/ 27 November 2006
The Waterkloof Four will have to wait until next year to find out what their punishment will be. On Monday their case in the Pretoria Regional Court was postponed yet again and argument for mitigation of their sentence will now only be heard from January 15 2007.
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/ 27 November 2006
Ruthless sea pirates who plunder hundreds of ships each year off the coast of Africa are moving south, threatening South African waters, the Pretoria News reported on Monday. The United Nations Security Council has urged the Southern African Development Community to take drastic action against the gangs of heavily armed pirates.
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/ 27 November 2006
Standard Bank on Monday floated 20% of shares in its Ugandan affiliate in the country’s largest initial public offering to private investors. Spokesperson Daniel Nsibambi said 1,02-billion shares in Stanbic Ugandan were being offered on the Uganda Securities Exchange in a move expected to raise 71-billion Ugandan shillings (R278-million).
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/ 27 November 2006
The privatisation of key state-owned assets is no longer the flavour of the year owing to the South African Communist Party having placed this matter in the arena of public debate. The party said the shift had taken place soon enough "to prevent terrible damage done to key public assets".
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/ 27 November 2006
A man armed with grenades and guns and accompanied by his daughter took over a junior high school for several hours in central Tehran Monday, a media correspondent on the scene said. Police initially said the man and a woman aged about 35 took over the school, but a boy released before the siege ended said a girl of about his own age — 13 — was with the man.
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/ 27 November 2006
An Iranian military aircraft crashed at a Tehran airport on Monday, killing at least 37 people, state-run television reported. It was the latest in a string of aviation disasters to hit the Islamic Republic. The television report said one person was in hospital after surviving the crash in the Russian-designed Antonov-74.
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/ 27 November 2006
Ange Mukarusagara never thought she would get the chance to use a computer at school. That used to be the exclusive privilege of a handful of students at the National University of Rwanda. But times are changing. The tiny Central African country wants to become one of the most plugged-in countries on the continent.