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/ 20 November 2006

We’re here, we’re queer

<i>Pride: Protest and Celebration</i> is a new book, edited by Shaun de Waal and Anthony Manion, documenting the history of Johannesburg’s lesbian and gay Pride march over its 16-year history. Drawing on the Gay and Lesbian Archives, it uses pictures and personal testimony to trace Pride’s evolution.

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/ 19 November 2006

Kebble murder under the spotlight

The pending arrest down under of another business associate of slain mining magnate Brett Kebble and the ruling party’s unanimous support for embattled police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi added twists to South Africa’s high-profile murder mystery at the weekend.

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/ 19 November 2006

Flood-ravaged Somalia appeals for help

Somalia’s government on Sunday appealed for urgent international help to avert a humanitarian catastrophe from deadly floods rampaging through the nation. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, whose administration is beset not only by the floods but is also girding for war with a powerful Islamist movement, made the appeal as torrential rains exacerbated already devastating damage.

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/ 19 November 2006

Palestinians form human shield to stop Israeli strike

Several hundred Palestinians formed a human shield around the Gaza Strip home of a militant targeted by the Israeli army on the weekend, prompting the military to call off a threatened air strike. Between 200 to 300 neighbours flocked to the family home of Wail Barud in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip after receiving an Israeli warning that the house would be destroyed, witnesses said.

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/ 18 November 2006

World Toilet Day seeks clean restrooms

Cut-price toilet paper, brushes and detergent are on sale to help promote clean restrooms as part of World Toilet Day on Sunday, the campaign organizer said on Saturday. It is the fifth annual World Toilet Day, organised by the Singapore-based non-profit World Toilet Organisation, which lobbies for better toilet standards in developed and developing countries.

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/ 18 November 2006

Kebble murder: Cops silent on arrest

Police would not comment on reports on Friday that a Johannesburg police commissioner had been arrested in connection the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble. National police spokesperson Sally de Beer would also not comment on a report, in the <i>Star</i> newspaper, that the former Hell’s Angels biker suspected of killing Kebble had vanished.

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/ 17 November 2006

The lure of the land

Someone once told me that Aimé Césaire’s <i>Return to My Native Land</i> (<i>Cahier d’un retour au pays natal in its original French</i>) only saw the light of day when a casual passer-by discovered the tattered leaves of an original manuscript under a pile of books in a second-hand shop, or, alternatively, among a bunch of news and other papers destined to wrap up someone’s takeaway dinner in a fish and chip shop in a southern French port city sometime in the 1950s.

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/ 17 November 2006

Agony Auntie

Dear Auntie Robert,
I am sure you don’t want to add yet more fuel to the veritable furnace of opinion about Mr Jacob Zuma’s campaign to be the next president of South Africa. In the absence of — in my opinion anyway — any other credible presidential candidates among the ANC elite, I have to wonder whether Mr Zuma wouldn’t ultimately be the best bet for us all.

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/ 16 November 2006

Defeated Bemba rejects DRC election result

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba on Thursday rejected presidential election results that saw him defeated by Joseph Kabila and said he would "use all legal channels" to contest them. "I cannot accept these results, which are far from reflecting the truth of the ballot box," Bemba said in a statement.

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/ 16 November 2006

Out-of-this-world response to online ghost hunt

Australian paranormal investigators on Thursday claimed an out-of-this-world response to a global ghost hunt to expand an eerie but under-explored body of knowledge. Tapping into an explosion of interest in phenomena that defy scientific explanation, researchers from Australia’s Monash University set up an online survey to assess their impact on individuals and society.

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/ 16 November 2006

Eastern Cape soothes super TB fears

The Eastern Cape health department says it is not correct that extreme-drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) patients at a Port Elizabeth hospital are being kept in the same wards as other TB patients. This follows a protest on Wednesday by about 40 patients at the Jose Pearson TB hospital with the less virulent multi-drug resistant strain of the disease.

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/ 16 November 2006

Where the corruption lies

The misattribution of the phrase "a generally corrupt relationship" is neither a storm in a teacup nor a constitutional crisis. But it should not, under any circumstances, be used as a reason to build popular momentum for resistance against the possible laying of corruption charges against the African National Congress deputy president, Jacob Zuma.

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/ 15 November 2006

‘Little Fatty’s’ photo spawns China internet icon

A chubby faced Shanghai gas station intern known as "Little Fatty" has vaulted to the top of internet fame in China thanks to cheeky PhotoShop artists who are turning the plump youth into a pop icon. It all started three years ago when Qian Zhijun, then a 16-year-old high school student, was attending a traffic safety class and someone snapped a picture of his rotund, rosy cheeked face.

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/ 15 November 2006

‘An autobahn would be nice’

He has received an R8 000 speeding fine travelling from Durban to Johannesburg in a Porsche 911 Turbo at a speed of 180kph, and a cop once gave him a warning "and was very nice about it". Former Mr South Africa Paul Phume talks to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> about his Aston Martin.

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/ 15 November 2006

HIV/Aids barometer – September 2006

Another reason to quit: Smoking might increase the risk of contracting HIV, according to a study published in the August 21 online edition of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. Andrew Furber, a public health consultant at the South East Sheffield Primary Care Trust in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a systematic review of studies examining tobacco smoking as a risk factor for either HIV infection or progression of the virus to Aids.

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/ 15 November 2006

HIV/Aids barometer – October 2006

Uganda has become the first country in Africa to try an HIV vaccine on a baby in an effort to find a solution to mother-to-child transmission. The lead investigator of the Makerere University John Hopkins University Research Collaboration (Mujhu), Francis Mmiiro, said the baby was born at Mulago Hospital last week.

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/ 14 November 2006

How to find a rich husband in China

Shanghai, China’s wealthiest and most dazzling city, plans to add to its reputation this weekend with a millionaire party aimed at hooking up rich men with beautiful women, state press said on Tuesday. Men wishing to participate must have assets worth at least two million yuan ($250&nbsp;000).

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/ 14 November 2006

Shoplifter caught trying to leg it

A shoplifter who snatched a haul of cosmetics in an Estonian department store left security scratching their heads, until they found the ill-gotten gains stashed in his wooden leg, officials said on Tuesday. A limping customer entered the shop in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, the Falck security company said.