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/ 19 July 2005

Fears of witchcraft fuel infanticide in Benin

Unless a baby is born head first and face upwards, many communities in northern Benin believe the child is a witch or sorcerer. And tradition demands that the infant must be killed, sometimes by dashing its brains out against a tree trunk. If the parents are compassionate, the baby is simply abandoned to die in the bush.

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/ 19 July 2005

‘Brazzaville beach’ trial gets under way

The trial opens in Brazzaville on Tuesday of 16 people accused of slaughtering dozens of President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s opponents in the explosive case of the ”beach missing”. The trial of those charged with the killing of people who disappeared after returning from exile in 1999 marks the last chapter in a political and legal saga that has touched both Congo and France.

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/ 19 July 2005

North Korea to resume nuclear talks

North Korea will resume international nuclear arms talks in Beijing next week after a gap of more than a year, the South Korean foreign ministry announced on Tuesday. The talks have been stalled since the communist North walked out of the previous round of negotiations last June, accusing the United States of ”hostility” and ”insincerity”.

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/ 19 July 2005

Indonesian divers find 74 bodies in sunken ferry

Indonesian navy divers have found 74 bodies inside a ferry that sank off eastern Papua province nearly two weeks ago and many more were still believed to be trapped inside, a rescue official said on Tuesday. Bad weather had hampered the search for more than 100 people believed to have been trapped inside the ferry when it sank in rough seas on July 7, the official said.