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/ 26 November 2007
Rebels and government soldiers fought gun battles in eastern Chad on Monday near the border with Sudan’s Darfur region after two rebel groups ended a month-long ceasefire on the weekend, a rebel leader said. Government officials confirmed there had been clashes in the area, but gave no information on casualties.
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/ 25 November 2007
Two weeks from hosting the second-ever summit between Europe and Africa, Portugal is scrambling to ensure that Zimbabwe’s contentious presence does not eclipse the chance for a true partnership between the European Union and the world’s poorest continent.
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/ 24 November 2007
Lebanon edged closer to chaos on Friday when President Emile Lahoud ordered the army to take charge of security after political rivalries blocked the election of his successor hours before his term expired. The pro-Syrian head of state said the country risked descending into a state of emergency.
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/ 23 November 2007
World oil prices fell on Friday after a momentous week that saw record peaks close to $100 as traders worried about tight energy supplies and geopolitical jitters in key producer countries. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, sank 95 cents to $96,34 per barrel. The contract had hit an historic $99,29 on Wednesday.
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/ 22 November 2007
German Chancellor Angela Merkel hit back at her Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday in a row over China policy that has highlighted rising tensions in the left-right coalition. On the day Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, took over as Vice-Chancellor, Merkel defended her decision to meet the Dalai Lama two months ago.
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/ 20 November 2007
South Africa urged rich countries on Tuesday to provide the hardware required for the deployment of a hybrid United Nations-Africa peacekeeping force in the strife-torn Darfur region of western Sudan. The Darfur conflict between rebels and a pro-government militia has claimed an estimated 200 000 lives in the past four years.
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/ 20 November 2007
Aid workers are calling it Africa’s biggest humanitarian crisis, but no one has to tell Fatima Usman how rapidly things have gone bad in Somalia. The slender 23-year-old’s son Mohamed died of hunger. So did her daughter Isha. ”I am praying to God that he will not take this baby yet,” she says, gently cradling the wizened face of Muhiadeen, her four-month-old son.
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/ 20 November 2007
Urgently needed supplies of food, water and medicine were on Tuesday nearing people in remote areas of Bangladesh where a devastating cyclone has left millions homeless and thousands dead. With roads now cleared of hundreds of trees that had blocked aid convoys, officials said relief was finally starting to get through to the most inaccessible areas.
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/ 19 November 2007
European Union agriculture experts have recommended a ban on South African ostrich meat, but the Department of Agriculture says it has no official knowledge of this threat to the R1,2-billion export industry. ”As I speak now, I don’t have any official correspondence [from the EU],” the department’s chief communications director said on Monday.
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/ 19 November 2007
The momentum towards regional integration in East Africa received encouragement from the United States this week, with US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saying that it should boost economic growth in the five-member East Africa bloc. "This is a region that has showed great economic growth over the last couple of years," he said.
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/ 19 November 2007
Nearly four days after Bangladesh’s worst cyclone since 1991 killed at least 2Â 350 people, rescuers were struggling to reach some devastated areas and officials feared the toll could climb sharply. Media reports and Bangladesh Red Crescent Society chairperson Mohammad Abdur Rob said the death toll had already surpassed 3Â 000, and was likely to go up.
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/ 19 November 2007
Finance ministers and central banks chiefs from the G20 grouping of largest economies meeting near Cape Town expressed ”deep concern” over the effect of climate change on global food prices and forecast a modest slowdown in global economic growth.
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/ 18 November 2007
Robert Mugabe’s vice-president has endorsed the veteran Zimbabwean leader’s candidature for presidential elections next year and has suggested he should even rule until he dies, a report said on Sunday. Joseph Msika said no-one was so far challenging Mugabe’s bid to seek a sixth consecutive term and urged supporters to endorse him at a ruling party congress.
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/ 18 November 2007
Sudan’s president said on Saturday he would not budge ”an inch” on the contested borders of the oil-rich Abyei region. Khartoum and former southern rebels the Southern People’s Revolutionary Movement (SPLM) are divided over the demarcation of Abyei, the source of much of Sudan’s energy reserves.
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/ 17 November 2007
Military ships and helicopters were trying on Saturday to reach thousands of survivors of a super cyclone that killed nearly 1 100 people and pummelled impoverished Bangladesh with mighty winds and waves. Cyclone Sidr smashed into the country’s southern coastline late on Thursday night with 250km/h winds that whipped up a 5m tidal surge.
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/ 17 November 2007
Africa’s insistence that Robert Mugabe be invited to a summit in Europe is a matter of principle and not a sign of support for the Zimbabwean leader or his government, the chairperson of the African Union (AU) said on Friday. The prospect that Mugabe could attend a European Union-AU summit in Lisbon next month has threatened to derail the meeting.
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/ 17 November 2007
A United Nations climate conference agreed on Friday a blueprint for fighting global warming and said governments have only a few years to avert some of the worst impacts. Delegates at the 130-nation talks stood and applauded after chairperson Rajendra Pachauri brought down the gavel on the November 12 to 17 meeting in Valencia, Spain, that wraps up six years of work.
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/ 16 November 2007
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s largest economies gather in Kleinmond in the southern Cape this weekend for a meeting of the Group of 20 countries. The event is described by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel as probably the most significant gathering of economic policymakers seen to date in South Africa.
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/ 16 November 2007
The European Union said on Thursday it had raised the troops needed for a planned peacekeeping force in Chad but still lacked helicopters vital for transport in tough terrain. French General Henri Bentegeat, the head of the EU’s Military Committee, said he was confident the 3 700-strong force could start deploying in a couple of weeks.
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/ 16 November 2007
The breakaway province of Kosovo holds a parliamentary election on Saturday, ahead of a showdown with Serbia over the ethnic Albanian majority’s demand for independence. Prime Minister Agim Ceku is stepping down, so the election will bring in new leadership.
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/ 15 November 2007
President Robert Mugabe on Thursday commissioned the first biodiesel production plant in oil-starved Zimbabwe, vowing that the country will ”never collapse”. ”As a nation we have once again demonstrated that the ill-fated sanctions against the innocent people of Zimbabwe can never subdue our resilience,” Mugabe said at the plant’s official opening.
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/ 14 November 2007
Togo’s Prime Minister, Yawovi Agboyibo, on Tuesday said he had tendered his resignation to President Faure Gnassingbe ahead of the formation of a new, post-elections government. ”I was appointed for a specific mission, to conduct the organisation of the parliamentary polls with the Independent National Electoral Commission,” he said.
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/ 13 November 2007
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President, raised domestic tensions over the country’s nuclear policy to higher levels on Monday by labelling his opponents ”traitors” who are working for the West and threatened to expose them in a political witch-hunt.
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/ 12 November 2007
The leaders of Germany and France meet on Monday to compare notes on dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme, fresh from discussing tougher sanctions during separate visits to United States President George Bush last week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin for the talks a week before an expected meeting of world powers.
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/ 11 November 2007
There is no fundamental justification for oil at a barrel and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member Nigeria is assuming that prices will not last at this level, Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said on Saturday. He said that no one in Opec would be surprised if the price fell to in the next few weeks.
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/ 8 November 2007
Troops were deployed in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on Thursday and news programmes taken off air as international concern grew over President Mikheil Saakashvili’s imposition of emergency rule. The Nato military alliance, France and Human Rights Watch added their condemnation.
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/ 8 November 2007
Finland’s gun laws are likely to attract criticism after an 18-year-old gunman shot dead seven children and a school principal on Wednesday. The shooter turned the gun on himself and died in hospital. About 56 of every 100 Finns own a gun, according to a study by the Graduate Institute of International Studies.
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/ 7 November 2007
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto threatened on Wednesday to lead a mass protest march to the capital unless President Pervez Musharraf quits as army chief, holds elections and restores the Constitution. Bhutto, the politician most capable of mobilising street power, gave Musharraf until Friday to comply.
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/ 6 November 2007
Major retailer Clicks announced on Tuesday that it has crushed more than 56 000 of the conventional light bulbs it stocked and is now only selling energy-efficient bulbs. While this comes at some cost to Clicks, it will help conserve energy and protect the environment, the company said in Johannesburg.
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/ 6 November 2007
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is working with the European Union on plans to reduce the number of overseas players dominating teams in leagues across Europe. Speaking to reporters in the Malaysian capital, where he is attending a regional award ceremony, Blatter said it was time for a change in Europe.
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/ 6 November 2007
Europe’s trade chief accused Nigeria and South Africa on Monday of trying to block negotiations for new trade and investment deals between the European Union and scores of former colonies. The EU wants to sign new Economic Partnership Agreements with nearly 80 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries before December 31.
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/ 4 November 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew seven freed Europeans out of Chad on Sunday but 10 others remained in jail charged with child abduction and fraud. The three French journalists and four Spanish flight attendants were among 16 French and Spanish nationals arrested as they tried to fly 103 African children to Europe.