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/ 4 November 2005

Taming the toyi-toyi

At the 18th annual World Petroleum Conference held in Johannesburg recently, a group of 13 protesters from the Free Burma Campaign gathered to demonstrate peacefully against Total Oil’s alleged support for the Burmese military dictatorship. The protest was shut down by police officers, who pushed and dragged the protesters off the sidewalk.

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/ 3 November 2005

French govt ‘will not give in’ to rioting

France’s government faced mounting pressure on Thursday after suburban rioters fired at police and firefighters, hurled rocks at trains and torched buses and car dealerships. Nine people were injured in Seine-Saint-Denis and 315 cars were torched across the Paris area where acts of violence ranged from stone-throwing to torching vehicles.

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/ 3 November 2005

Carnivorous toilet surprise for toddler

Potty training is difficult enough for any toddler, but one Norwegian youngster has suffered a particularly dramatic reverse after a carnivorous lizard emerged from the family toilet as he used it. The boy’s mother discovered the 75cm teju lizard as she helped her three-year-old use the toilet.

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/ 3 November 2005

Piracy hampers aid delivery to Somalia

An epidemic of ship hijackings off the coast of lawless Somalia is choking the delivery of relief supplies to more than half-a-million people facing acute food shortages in the country’s southern regions, the World Food Programme warned on Thursday. The agency is seeking alternative avenues of transportation.

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/ 3 November 2005

Warning: Bird flu could devastate Africa

Veterinary experts from across Africa warned on Thursday that an avian-flu outbreak could prove devastating to the continent because of the poor facilities and inadequate monitoring capacity in many countries. The officials also outlined measures to deal with the deadly virus should it reach Africa.