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Africa At AU Summit Kerry Should Speak Out for a Free Press
May 16 - Honorable John Kerry U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520 Dear Mr. Secretary: We are writing to bring to your attention the deteriorating state of press freedom in Ethiopia, where you will attend this year's African Union Summit. A vibrant press and civil society is fundamental to hold governments accountable and to ensure long-term development and ...
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Workers on illegal strike at chrome mine in S.Africa-union
By Agnieszka Flak JOHANNESBURG | Sat May 18, 2013 5:56am EDT JOHANNESBURG May 18 (Reuters) - Operations at a chrome mine in South Africa owned by chemicals group LANXESS have been suspended since Thursday after workers started an illegal strike over bonus payments, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Saturday. The dispute at the mine in Rustenburg, 120 km (70 miles) ...
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Microfinance in Madagascar helps small businesses buck the system
Madagascar 's southern Atsimo-Andrefana region. The work is hard, but in the past year, access to microcredit has boosted both her business and her hopes for the future."Before, I used to make 10,000 to 20,000 ariary ($4.50-9.00, about 3) a day. Now, with the credit, I can make double that amount," she told IRIN. "I can put my four [grand]children in school, buy some ...
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Africa AU Must Promote Justice for International Crimes
In an impressive show of strength, civil society groups from more than 30 African countries have called on African Union (AU) member countries to ensure that the AU promotes justice for grave international crimes In a letter to the foreign ministers of African Union member states which was sent in advance of the AU's 21st summit, the groups noted that recent strain in the African ...
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Africa Funding Nutrition - a Moral Imperative an Effective Investment
Paris - An international conference to fight child malnutrition called by UNICEF ended today in Paris with a call to hasten world progress on child nutrition and the funding for it. "The Paris conference produced a very strong consensus on responses to be made. It also marked an important step in expressing the political will to attack this scourge by governments, both in the South and the ...
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Africa Pastoralisms Economic Contributions Are Significant but Overlooked
Nairobi - Pastoralism is often regarded as an antiquated practice ill-suited to the modern economy, yet trade between pastoral communities in Africa - much of it informal and illegal - generated an estimated US$1 billion each year, according to a new book published by the Futures Agriculture Consortium,. "If we shift our gaze from the capital cities, where the development and policy elite ...
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Africa French Senators Take Back Message of Africas Road Map
A visiting delegation of French Senators is taking back a message to France and other European partners to align with Africa's road map for the next fifty years. The delegation was received in audience by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.They came with great interest to understand what the future holds for ...
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Africa UNDP Chief Hails Crucial Role of Local Government in Fight Against Poverty
Kampala - Maximising the power of local government will be crucial to realizing the ambitions of a post-2015 global development agenda which can lead to eradicating extreme poverty, tackling inequalities and putting the world on a sustainable path. That was the message from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark during a keynote address at the 2013 Commonwealth ...
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Afghan Police Chief Assassinated
Officials say Police Chief Abdul Ghani was near his home late Friday when gunmen shot him. No one has been detained in the case. The Associated Press quotes a local official as saying Ghani had led a crackdown on insurgents in his district of Khaki Safad that resulted in the killing and capture of several Taliban leaders. The spokesman said that made him a target for Taliban ...
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US Train Crash Injures 60 Suspends Service
Officials say the crash took place around 6 p.m. local time Friday near Bridgeport, Connecticut, about 100 kilometers northeast of New York. Connecticut state governor Dannel Malloy told reporters that five people were critically injured in the crash, including one person with very serious injuries. The cause of the crash is under investigation. Malloy said there is "no reason to believe ...
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North Korea launches short-range missiles
North Korea has launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast, according to South Korea's Ministry of Defence quoted by Yonhap news agency. The ministry said it detected two missiles fired on Saturday morning, followed by another in the afternoon. It said the country had reinforced monitoring on North Korea and was maintaining a ...
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Earthquake Hits Northern Japan No Reports of Damage
Seismologists say a strong earthquake has struck off the northeastern coast of Japan's main Honshu island, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of ...
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Kenya Swiss national decries high bail terms in porn case
court in Mombasa with luring 11 Kenyan women into prostitution has moved to the High Court to challenge the Sh1 million bond slapped on him on ...
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Kenya Kidero promises to work with Government
Speaking in his office at City Hall, Mr Kidero said he is prepared and anxious to co-operate with Jubilee's central administration despite being popularly elected on the opposition's Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) ...
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French President Signs Same-Sex Marriage Into Law
the BBC reports , after the Senate and National Assembly approved the bill, it "was quickly challenged on constitutional grounds by the main right-wing opposition UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy." Friday, a ruling by the Constitutional Council cleared the way for the president's signature. The council found the bill in accordance with constitution, ...
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UN condemns Papua New Guineas plans to resume death penalty
New York, May 18 : The United Nations human rights office Friday expressed serious concern over Papua New Guinea's announcement that it will resume the death penalty more than half a century since it last carried out an execution, stressing this would represent "a major setback" for the ...
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Clashes at Cairo protest calling for Morsi to resign
The demonstrators, most of them teenagers, threw molotov cocktails at the police who replied with volleys of tear gas cannisters, but there were no reports of casualties. The clashes took place near Cairo's Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the opposition movement that brought down President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Earlier Friday, marches had begun in various parts of the ...
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Census finds Christianity in Britain losing ground
Almost 10 percent of young people in the United Kingdom now identify themselves as Muslim and fewer than half as Christian, 2011 Census figures show. The new analysis of the 2011 data released Friday shows Christianity has been losing ground even faster than thought among those born in the country, The Daily Telegraph reported. A report last year said the Census found 4.1 million Christians, ...
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US Criticizes Russian Missiles Sale to Syria
The remarks by General Martin Dempsey were the first U.S. confirmation that Russia made the sale of so-called ship-killer cruise missiles to Syria. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday the missiles will embolden President Bashar al-Assad and prolong the suffering in Syria. The New York Times says the Russian anti-ship cruise missiles are more advanced than previous ...
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Murder probe after 23 youths die in South African initiation ceremonies
Wandoo Makurdi Johannesburg - 18 May 2013 Twenty-three youths have died in the past nine days at initiation ceremonies that include circumcisions and survival ...
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Scientists Race to Contain Malaria New Discoveries More Resistance
Two new medical discoveries are raising hopes of containing malaria - the mosquito-borne parasitic disease that each year infects more than 200 million people and claims an estimated 660 thousand lives. Meantime, the World Health Organization is warning about dire consequences if a drug-resistant form of malaria spreads beyond southeast Asia. Artemisinin has helped cut global malaria deaths ...
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Bob Marleys call to contemporary Africa
Gregory Mandizvidza is an illustrator in Zimbabwe. This is his tribute to the Jamaican reggae singer and guitarist Bob Marley on the occasion of his death anniversary. The musician died on 11 May ...
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Key al-Qaida militant killed in Algeria
A key militant responsible for " external relations" between al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the parent organization al-Qaida had been killed last Friday by Algeria's National People's Army (ANP), local APS news agency reported Sunday, citing security sources. Bekai Boualem, alias "El Khaled Mig" and aged 45, was shot in an ambush on Friday by ANP forces ...
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Obama Burmese President to Discuss Reform Progress Challenges
WHITE HOUSE -- Obama, Burmese President to Discuss Reform Progress, Challenges Burma's President Thein Sein holds talks on Monday with President Obama at the White House. The discussions will focus on progress in reforms, barriers toward greater democratization and next steps in the changing U.S. - Burma relationship. November 2012. Barack Obama becomes the first serving U.S. president ...
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Kerry to visit Middle East Africa in late May
US Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to visit the Middle East and Africa later this month, the State Department announced on Friday.On May 21, Kerry will visit Muscat, the capital of Oman, and meet with senior Omani officials on a range of bilateral and regional issues, the department said in a statement.On May 22, the top US diplomat will visit Amman, the capital of Jordan, to meet ...
South Africa Focus
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South Africa's small but growing cruise industry
The South African cruise industry has grown considerably in recent decades, recording an expansion of over 100% in recent years. The greatest growth came between the 1990s and 2010, led predominantly by Starlight Cruises, a household name in South Africa and the owner of the market share in the South African cruise industry.
The South African cruise industry is a growing one, in comparison to more developed countries it is tiny, with just one ship (sometimes two) that grace the coasts of South Africa once a year between November and April. Read more
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