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/ 3 November 2007
Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.
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/ 2 November 2007
Six world powers meet on Friday to discuss imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to stop enriching uranium, which they suspect could be used to build nuclear weapons. Talks among top officials from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany were due to start in the morning and last several hours.
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/ 2 November 2007
The United States on Thursday took a first step towards mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions, in direct defiance of the Bush administration’s policy on climate change. The vote in a Senate subcommittee marks the first US move towards European-style policies.
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/ 1 November 2007
A failed British bid to exclude Robert Mugabe from an upcoming European summit played straight into the hands of the Zimbabwean president, who gained instinctive support from his African peers, analysts said. Portugal said on Wednesday that invitations would be issued to all African states who would be free to decide themselves on the composition of their delegation.
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/ 1 November 2007
A decision by the European Union to allow Robert Mugabe to a summit is a rare diplomatic coup for Zimbabwe’s leader whose relations with the West have plummeted almost as fast as his country’s economy. In power since the former British colony won independence in 1980, Mugabe has shown no sign of mellowing in his old age.
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/ 31 October 2007
European Union and African ministers met in Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday to decide whether to risk a diplomatic storm by inviting Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to an EU-Africa summit. Britain has said it will boycott the proposed summit in Lisbon if Mugabe attends. Some African nations have said they will stay away if the Zimbabwean leader is not invited.
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/ 31 October 2007
The European Union is threatening to ban the import of South African animal products because the government has failed to meet certain requirements agreed on five years ago, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. The ban would cover South African beef, mutton, pork, chicken, ostrich and game products, among others.
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/ 31 October 2007
Chadians chanting ”No to the slave trade, no to child-trafficking” protested on Wednesday against a French group accused of trying to illegally fly children from the the country to Europe. Several hundred angry locals gathered outside the governor’s office in the town of Abeche, where nine French nationals and seven Spaniards were arrested last week.
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/ 31 October 2007
The scandal over a French group accused of trying to illegally fly African children from Chad to Europe will not affect the deployment of a European peace force in eastern Chad. France has troops stationed in Chad and will provide roughly half of a European Union peacekeeping force.
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/ 31 October 2007
Major powers plan to meet in London this week to discuss new sanctions on Iran amid a spat between Washington and the United Nations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, United States officials said on Tuesday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Tuesday that Iran would not retreat in the dispute.
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/ 30 October 2007
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will be invited to attend the second European Union-Africa summit in December in Lisbon, a Portuguese official said on Tuesday. Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with some backing in Europe, has indicated neither he nor any other senior minister will attend the summit if the Zimbabwean leader does.
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/ 30 October 2007
Israel’s attorney general (AG) told the government on Monday it could not cut electrical power to the Gaza Strip as part of its sanctions against the Hamas controlled territory, although he did approve other measures. Israel began implementing economic sanctions on Sunday in what it said was a response to Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns.
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/ 29 October 2007
Helicopter gunships went into action against rebel Kurds in eastern Turkey on Monday while the government flexed its military muscle with massive national day parades and flypasts in major cities. Turkey has massed up to 100 000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, war planes and combat helicopters, along the Iraqi border.
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/ 27 October 2007
Turkish military planes scoured the Iraqi border for Kurdish rebel camps on Saturday, army sources said, after diplomatic talks in Ankara to avert a major cross-border operation into northern Iraq failed. Turkish-Iraqi talks collapsed late on Friday after Ankara rejected proposals by the Iraqi defence minister for tackling Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq.
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/ 27 October 2007
Vladimir Putin stirred ghosts of the Cold War on Friday by comparing the Pentagon’s plan to site elements of its missile shield in Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 when the United States and the Soviet Union went to the brink of nuclear war. The Kremlin’s challenge to the US president in 1962 triggered the worst confrontation of the Cold War.
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/ 27 October 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said he is determined to attend a Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon next month despite pressure from Britain that he be kept off the invitation list. ”Portugal said they would invite me,” Mugabe said in an interview published by state media in Angola on Friday.
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/ 26 October 2007
The Central African Republic’s President defended his country’s efforts to improve human rights at international donor talks on Friday meant to bolster much-needed economic and political reforms in his impoverished nation. Francois Bozize presented a new development strategy to European Union and United Nations officials.
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/ 26 October 2007
Turkish helicopters ferried more troops to the border with Iraq on Friday as diplomatic efforts got under way in Ankara to avert a major offensive against Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq. Turkey has massed up to 100 000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3 000 guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
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/ 26 October 2007
A European Union scheme to attract health workers will hurt developing countries, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday. ”Many developing countries are already struggling with the migration of health workers. We cannot afford schemes that seek to cream the very limited health skills we still have in developing countries,” she said.
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/ 25 October 2007
President Abdullah Gul warned Kurdish rebels on Thursday that Turkey’s patience is running out after Turkish forces said they repelled a guerrilla attack near the Iraqi border. Ankara has massed up to 100 000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation.
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/ 25 October 2007
France is trying to shed its reputation as ”Africa’s policeman” but, despite efforts to involve European partners in peacekeeping missions, there are no signs it will hang up its baton just yet. France won backing last month for an European Union force to be deployed soon in east Chad and Central African Republic, where it already has troops stationed.
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/ 25 October 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe cannot be excluded from the European Union-Africa summit just because he is a dictator, or others must be barred too, EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel said on Wednesday. ”We don’t … have the right to say to our African friends ‘you can invite anyone you like except him’,” he said.
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/ 24 October 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice singled out Iran on Wednesday as ”perhaps the single greatest challenge” to US security, but stressed that diplomacy was the preferred way to end its nuclear drive. President George Bush last week warned that a nuclear-armed Iran evoked the threat of ”World War III”.
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/ 24 October 2007
Turkey has carried out air sorties and shelling against Kurdish positions inside northern Iraq. Reuters said Turkish war planes flew as deep as 20km into Iraqi territory and about 300 ground troops advanced about 10km, killing 34 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers party.
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/ 24 October 2007
Russia and the European Union (EU) have agreed to set up an early warning system which will alert them to any disruptions to gas and oil supplies flowing through Russian pipelines. Russia is one of the EU’s main energy suppliers, pumping oil and gas through its pipeline systems west across Belarus and Ukraine into Europe.
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/ 23 October 2007
Europe’s top court on Tuesday overturned a German law that protects Volkswagen against takeovers, allowing Porsche to tighten its grip on the wheel of the continent’s biggest carmaker. The European Court of Justice ruled against the "Volkswagen Law", thereby upholding Porsche’s claim to voting rights in line with its 31% stake in VW.
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/ 23 October 2007
Talks on a deal to free up world trade are making progress, developing country leaders said on Monday, but the chairperson of key industry negotiations said more needed to be done to reach an agreement. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the Doha round of trade could end in a deal by the end of the year.
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/ 22 October 2007
Microsoft ended three years of resistance on Monday and finally agreed to comply with a landmark 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission. The defeated software giant announced it would not appeal against a decisive European Union court ruling two months ago that backed the commission.
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/ 22 October 2007
The nationalist Swiss People’s Party received the highest vote recorded to date for an individual political party in Switzerland, after a bitter campaign blaming foreigners for much of the country’s crime, according to official results released on Monday. The Federal Statistics Office put the party on 29% after Sunday’s elections.
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/ 22 October 2007
Poland’s liberal opposition party on Sunday night scored a stunning election victory over the populist nationalist Prime Minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and his twin-brother President, Lech, putting an abrupt end to their self-styled ”moral revolution” after only two years.
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/ 21 October 2007
Kurdish rebels killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers and wounded 16 others in an ambush on Sunday, prompting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call crisis talks to consider a military strike against rebel bases in Iraq. The attack came four days after Turkey’s Parliament approved a motion to allow troops to enter northern Iraq.
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/ 21 October 2007
Poles began voting on Sunday in a snap parliamentary election that could cost the ruling Kaczynski twins their full grip on government in the European Union’s biggest former communist country. Opinion polls suggest a centre-right opposition party might do best in the vote.