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/ 27 November 2006
Anti-corruption activist Christian Mounzeo was arrested last week at the airport as he touched down in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, for allegedly defaming Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the Congo’s president. These events follow on the heels of Mounzeo’s criticisms at an international conference of the continued mismanagement of oil wealth in Congo-Brazzaville.
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/ 27 November 2006
The Roman Catholic Church has taken the first step towards what could be a historic shift away from its total ban on the use of condoms. Pope Benedict XVI’s ”health minister” is understood to be urging him to accept that in restricted circumstances — specifically the prevention of Aids — barrier contraception is the lesser of two evils.
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/ 27 November 2006
Amid all the destruction that Lebanon has witnessed over the years, the bulletholes in the window of Pierre Gemayel’s car recently seemed almost insignificant — but their consequences may be tremendous. ”This is the most panicked I have ever seen Lebanon,” said 27-year-old Habib Batah as anxious Beirut residents left work early, causing huge traffic jams.
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/ 27 November 2006
Amir Gissin runs what he calls ”Israel’s Explanation Department”. Which is why it is surprising to hear him admit that many Israelis think ”the whole problem is that we don’t explain ourselves correctly”. Last week, as al-Jazeera launched an Arab view of the world into English-speaking homes worldwide, Gissin was a man under pressure.
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/ 27 November 2006
Criminal gangs using hijacked computers are behind a surge in unwanted e-mails peddling sex, drugs and stock tips in Britain. The number of spam messages has tripled since June and now accounts for as many as nine out of 10 e-mails sent worldwide, according to United States e-mail security company Postini.
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/ 27 November 2006
Historical injustices that have resulted in landlessness among Kenyans have been the focus of recent public discussions on a land policy — the first to be drawn up in the East African country. Previously, Kenya has had no clearly defined laws on how to manage land, leading to a breakdown in land administration. Disparities in land ownership, tenure insecurity and squatting have occurred, often resulting in conflict.
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/ 27 November 2006
It was midnight at the Charlooe Drinks Bar and business was flagging. Dozens of prostitutes, some barely 12, were hovering outside the main avenue of Castelo dos Sonhos (the Castle of Dreams), an isolated town in the northern state of Para that, until recently, was at the centre of Brazil’s illegal logging trade.
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/ 27 November 2006
And there I stood: eyes downcast, in all my crimson shame. As my eyes welled with the pools of my disgrace, and the tips of my (well-covered) ears burned, I felt myself transported to the cobbled streets of … Salem, Massachussets — and I could almost get a whiff of the smoke as the tinders licked at my (hosed) feet. My crime was read out: guilty of immodest dress unbefitting a woman of The Faith.
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/ 27 November 2006
It was, in retrospect, an age of soft-hat innocence. At the start of their deployment to Helmand last year, British soldiers acted like preening contestants in a military popularity contest. Paratroopers spurned helmets in favour of berets, learned pidgin Pashto and armed themselves with friendly smiles.
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/ 27 November 2006
With humanitarian groups sounding the alarm about the violence in eastern Chad near Sudan, the Chadian government has sent troops south to neighbouring Central African Republic to battle rebels there who, it said, are being backed by Sudan. Chad is already contributing troops to a regional peacekeeping force in CAR but the prime minister said last week that he wants to send more.