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/ 6 June 2005

How things went bad for Good

An Australian academic who was deported from Botswana this week — apparently for his criticism of the government — has said the incident ”seems to have vindicated our arguments” about the state of democracy in the country. Professor Kenneth Good was declared an illegal immigrant in February.

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/ 6 June 2005

Senator urges Guantánamo closure

A leading Democrat called for Guantánamo Bay to be shut down on Sunday after the United States army admitted at the weekend that it had uncovered instances of desecration of the Qur’an at the prison camp. The Pentagon report, released late on Friday, by Brigadier General Jay Hood detailed five cases of desecration at Guantánamo,

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/ 5 June 2005

How Japan grew bored with love

It hardly seems fair to describe Makoto Nishio and Mayuko Suzuki as social miscreants. They are well-educated and ambitious, work hard and spare as much time as they can for family and friends. But they have helped set in motion a demographic time-bomb because, in their thirties, they choose to remain single and childless.

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/ 5 June 2005

The forgotten child soldiers

There is about 30 000 child soldiers in the DRC, 12 500 of them girls. The Commission of Africa’s report warns that without decade-long aid for countries that have suffered conflict, the former child soldiers — now young adults — may return to conflict and in turn recruit a new generation of child warriors