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/ 6 August 2007

Eco-tourists take to village life in India’s ‘Little Tibet’

Answering the call of nature over a pit of manure with no flush water in sight and learning how to churn butter may not be everyone’s idea of a great holiday. But in India’s "Little Tibet", the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh, a pioneering scheme to offer tourists the authentic tastes of mountain life is taking off — and could hold the key to preserving a fragile ecosystem.

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/ 7 October 2005

Sudan’s peacetime allure is deadly too

Hundreds of thousands of people lured back to southern Sudan have high hopes of peace after a 21-year civil war, but there are warnings of chronic food shortage, poor infrastructure and desolate homelands peppered with landmines. To date, at least 200 000 people have returned to south Sudan in the wake of a peace accord.

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/ 27 January 2005

The South starts picking up the pieces

In a promising development, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, the rebel movement that took up arms against Khartoum in 1983, appears to be giving priority to education. Schooling for girls will receive particular attention. The emphasis on educating girls reflects a larger strategy within the movement to address cultural factors that undermine the status of women.

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/ 21 January 2005

Peace deal sparks investment in southern Sudan

The narrow gravel airstrip in the dusty, desolate town of Rumbek has been a hive of activity since rebel and government leaders signed a historic peace accord officially ending Africa’s longest-running civil war. Businessmen, aid workers and diplomats have rushed to set up a presence in what is set to become the provisional capital of southern Sudan.

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/ 19 January 2005

Repairing the roads less travelled

The construction of a road network for southern Sudan will be crucial to rebuilding a region that, after two decades of civil war, has virtually none at all. Most of those that do exist are usable only in the dry season and all are unpaved and in desperate need of repair.