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/ 9 September 2007
It began with bread. And that is how it ended. Shortly after 4pm, on a sun-filled autumn day, the voices of Luciano Pavarotti and his father, the baker Fernando, ”who had a voice perhaps more beautiful than mine” filled the 12th century cathedral of Modena as they sang together Cesar Franck’s hymn, Panis Angelicus (Bread of Angels).
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/ 8 September 2007
Voting began calmly in Sierra Leone on Saturday despite a turbulent campaign for a presidential runoff vote meant to consolidate peace after a civil war. Rival groups of former combatants have clashed with guns and machetes in the former British colony since the first round on August 11 in which opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People’s Congress led with 44%.
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/ 8 September 2007
Fresh clashes have erupted between a renegade general and government troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations said violence in the region was hampering efforts to deliver food to tens of thousands of displaced
civilians.
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/ 8 September 2007
Asia-Pacific nations, including China and the United States, will accept for the first time global goals to reduce emissions, according to a draft statement prepared for an Apec summit on Saturday. The declaration reaffirmed the United Nations climate convention as the primary vehicle for fighting global warming.
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/ 7 September 2007
Chad will back United Nations moves to end the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region by allowing international peacekeepers on its own soil and supporting peace talks, President Idriss Itno Déby said on Friday. Déby made the commitment to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was in Chad on a regional tour to canvass support for the UN’s peacekeeping initiative for Darfur.
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/ 7 September 2007
Renegade Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) General Laurent Nkunda said on Friday the Congolese army had attacked his position, breaking a fragile ceasefire negotiated by United Nations mediators in eastern DRC. ”I have told Monuc [the United Nations mission in DRC] that we were attacked this morning [Friday],” Nkunda said.
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/ 6 September 2007
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) army and a renegade general have agreed to a United Nations-brokered ceasefire to halt more than a week of clashes in the east, the UN mission in DRC (Monuc) said on Thursday. ”A ceasefire has been facilitated by Monuc between [General Laurent] Nkunda and the government troops,” said Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg.
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/ 6 September 2007
A dissident Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) general called for African mediation to broker a ceasefire in eastern DRC as fighting between his forces and government troops neared the provincial capital on Thursday. New clashes broke out before dawn around Karuba, a village about 30km west of Goma, the capital of troubled North Kivu province.
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/ 6 September 2007
Sudan and Darfur rebels will hold talks on October 27 in Libya to push for peace ahead of the expected deployment of a 26 000-strong peace force in Darfur, a United Nations-Sudanese government statement said on Thursday. The statement said the UN ”expresses the hope that parties will cooperate fully” with UN and African Union mediators.
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/ 6 September 2007
The United Nations fears that the refugee crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could worsen after the escalation of the conflict between government troops and soldiers loyal to a dissident general. Speaking to the BBC on Thursday, UN emergency relief coordinator John Holmes said that the crisis could aggravate the situation throughout the country.
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/ 6 September 2007
Sudan has developed unmanned surveillance planes, is developing missiles, and is now ”self-sufficient” in conventional weapons, a Sudanese state news agency reported. The rare public announcement on Sudan’s military capability gave no details on how far missile development had progressed or where the surveillance drones might be used.
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/ 5 September 2007
Sierra Leone media authorities are trying to tone down party political broadcasts alleging executions and machete attacks to try to defuse tensions ahead of a presidential run-off vote on Saturday. The poll, the culmination of the first elections since United Nations peacekeepers left, pits opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma against Vice-President Solomon Berewa.
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/ 5 September 2007
The boom in cellphones in developing countries has pushed the number of telephone subscribers in the world to four billion, four times the number a decade ago, the United Nations telecommunications agency said on Tuesday. The increase has been especially strong in developing countries such as Brazil, China and India.
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/ 5 September 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the Darfur region of western Sudan on Wednesday, promising to step up pressure for a political solution to the festering conflict. Ban told journalists he would push for progress in peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebel groups.
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/ 5 September 2007
Seven developing countries in Africa and Asia will be the first to take part in a new global health campaign aimed at directing aid more effectively at the basic needs of poor countries. Health ministers from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Cambodia and Nepal will take part in the launch of the initiative at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office later on Wednesday.
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/ 4 September 2007
The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday that tens of thousands of Congolese refugees crossed into Uganda on Monday following renewed fighting between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) army and renegade troops in the north-east of the vast country.
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/ 4 September 2007
Somali opposition leaders, including several senior Islamists, are to meet in Eritrea from Thursday to try to unite against the Ethiopian-backed government at talks intended to a rival a Mogadishu peace conference. Many Somali dissidents have already made their home in Eritrea, which has been accused by the United States and United Nations of sending arms to insurgents.
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/ 4 September 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flew in to south Sudan’s capital, Juba, on Tuesday to try to speed implementation of the 2005 peace deal that ended Africa’s longest civil war. Aides said Ban would try to resolve sticking points in the roll-out of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
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/ 4 September 2007
At least 60 renegade soldiers have been killed by the regular army in a fresh attack in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), government forces said on Tuesday. The army said it used a helicopter gunship to attack rebel soldiers loyal to cashiered general Laurent Nkunda.
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/ 4 September 2007
Peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur’s rebel groups could begin next month, according to senior United Nations officials. The UN Security Council agreed in July almost to triple the number of foreign troops and police in Darfur with the aim of protecting the millions of displaced people.
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/ 3 September 2007
United Nations agencies urged governments in Southern Africa on Monday to draw up legislation to combat frightening levels of human trafficking, saying action was vital ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Specific legislation to tackle the issue was needed to help law enforcement agencies get to grips with the situation.
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/ 3 September 2007
Fighting between the regular army and renegade troops resumed on Monday after a weekend lull in an escalating battle for control of territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), United Nations observers said. ”We’re extremely alarmed by renewed clashes reported from the Ngungu zone,” said a spokesperson for the UN.
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/ 3 September 2007
Rebels in Ethiopia’s volatile east declared a unilateral ceasefire so the United Nations can investigate their claims of human rights abuses in the region. The Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels, ethnic Somalis who have been fighting the government for more than a decade, said they will only defend themselves if attacked.
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/ 3 September 2007
There has been a ”marked reduction” in human rights violations, road ambushes and illegal firearms in Uganda’s north-east over the past six months, the United Nations said on Monday. In a report, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Ugandan national army had made important advances between April and August.
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/ 3 September 2007
It is, quite simply, Russia’s most breathtakingly beautiful city. However, St Petersburg, Russia’s second city and former imperial capital, is in danger of being chucked off Unesco’s list of world heritage sites because of plans to build a 300m high skyscraper in its historic centre.
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/ 3 September 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon headed for Sudan on Monday to lay the groundwork for a solution to the festering Darfur conflict through talks and deployment of thousands of peacekeepers. Ban will seek commitment to his plan from Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and visit a refugee camp in the western Sudanese Darfur region.
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/ 3 September 2007
Sydney’s brothels are preparing for a boom as thousands of delegates and journalists descend on the city for a major Asia-Pacific summit this week. A former tax office auditor turned legal brothel industry lobbyist, Chris Seage, wrote that Sydney’s brothels had been fielding phone calls from overseas for the past two weeks.
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/ 3 September 2007
United States President George Bush hopes to spur momentum for a world trade pact and a global target on climate change at this week’s Asia-Pacific summit but the Iraq debate at home looms as a distraction. Bush will meet in Sydney with the leaders of Australia, China, Japan, Russia and other members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum.
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/ 3 September 2007
Tank traps, landmines and checkpoint barriers flank the North Korean road to Panmunjom, the last frontier of the Cold War. For more than half a century, this small village in the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean peninsula has been frozen in suspended conflict.
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/ 3 September 2007
Peace accords that were to put an end to the conflicts that killed millions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR) are collapsing after a powerful renegade Tutsi general declared war on the government. The United Nations has started airlifting thousands of government troops into the eastern Kivu region, which has endured two foreign invasions and more than a decade of civil war.
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/ 2 September 2007
On Saturday, Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi celebrated the 38th anniversary of the military coup in which he ousted the British-backed King Idris. The 65-year-old is no longer a pariah. Libya is certainly changing, yet a week here makes clear that change is far more limited than many seem to think.
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/ 1 September 2007
South Korea paid Afghanistan’s Taliban more than -million to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said on Saturday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks. The freed hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday to Dubai en route for South Korea.